Removing four ageing hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River was always going to be a delicate undertaking, but one complication came from a source that had nothing to do with fish or river ecology at all: wildfire. The dams' reservoirs had served for decades as a reliable water source for helicopters and fire crews battling blazes across the rugged, drought-prone Klamath Basin straddling the Oregon-California border. Removing that water meant the organisation overseeing the project had to build an entirely separate plan just to make sure regional firefighting capability would not be weakened at the exact moment the river itself was being restored to its natural course, all while the surrounding landscape continues facing its own worsening wildfire risk.
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