Klamath Field Work 2/25

Sunday started off just like every other Sunday morning working at the Klamath. We were on our way down to California with a car full of sample jars and sensing equipment by 6am. As a first-year student, and new undergraduate research assistant, this was only my second trip down to the river. 

We reached our first site below Iron Gate dam around 10am and were greeted with completely clear skies and some nice warm weather. Another welcome guest was Juliet Grable from OPB, who was there to learn more about Kristine’s research for a news article. The river was flowing slower than in previous weeks but had maintained high turbidity and chocolate milk consistency. Much of the deposited sediment and dead fish that we had seen last week along the shore were gone, indicating that there had been higher flows from one of the dams sometime in the last week.

As we were unpacking the equipment at the Hornbrook site, we somehow managed to lock our keys inside our vehicle. Despite being a remote site, we were lucky to have cell service and were able to get rescued by a generous OSU Motor Pool employee (thank you, Justin!) who came into the office on a Sunday to try to find a passcode for the keypad on the car door. Unfortunately he was unable to find the code, but he was able to put us in touch with a towing company that could come help us unlock the car.

While waiting for the tow truck, we were able to get started on our sample collection. I had the exciting task of getting in the river to fill our sample jars and record data. This site requires caution when working in the water since the sediment deposits are extremely deep. The area around the shore is about two feet of quicksand-like mud, and once you reach the open water there is still about a foot of mud on a bed of large rocks, so moving around requires careful foot placement and a square stance against the current (PFDs are a must as well!). 

A sunny bank along the river wasn’t a terrible place to wait. It even gave us a chance to explore the area around our site once we had finished our work, something we usually don’t have time for! Eventually, the tow truck arrived with a lock out kit and was able to open the car for us. We were now about an hour behind schedule, so we rushed off to our next site near the confluence with the Shasta River. 

Our work here went was mostly uneventful except for an issue with the water quality sonde connecting to the laptop, which is an instrument with multiple sensors used to measure things like dissolved oxygen and turbidity. 

With that, our work for the week was done, and we returned to Oregon with our trunk full of river water. Overall, the day was successful, especially considering our unforeseen delay, and it was a great way to learn more about the impacts of this historic dam removal. I’m so glad I have the opportunity to work on and witness this project firsthand, and I can’t wait to be back next month!