Short Biography:

Dave Coffman is RES’ Director of Northern California and Southern Oregon Operations, a Senior Fluvial Geomorphologist, and the Klamath River Renewal Project Restoration Program Manager. Dave has spent his career studying, developing, permitting, and implementing large scale ecological restoration projects across the country. David has worked on the evaluation and design of over 1 million linear feet of stream restoration, erosion protection, and streambank stabilization projects on fluvial systems ranging in size from small streams to the largest rivers in North America. David feels extraordinarily honored and blessed to lead a team of first-class restoration designers, engineers, fisheries biologists, ecologists, botanists, permitting specialists, and construction implementation crews on the largest dam removal and river restoration project in the world. His goal is to set an example, and the bar, for future dam removal projects and other mega-restoration projects.

Session Title: Lessons Learned from the World’s Largest Salmon Restoration Effort

Dave Coffman (RES) is leading a team undertaking a massive landscape restoration effort integral to the largest dam removal and river renewal project in history – a task vital to the future of several imperiled salmon populations on the West Coast.

The Klamath River and its tributaries were once home to the third-largest salmon population in the West. But then the dams went in.  Some salmon runs were extirpated while other plunged toward extinction in the century after the first dam cut off access to more than 400 stream miles of historical fish habitat.

With the dams now removed and an extensive restoration effort in full swing, salmon and steelhead once again have access to not only the Klamath, but also tributaries including the Sprague, Williamson, and Wood Rivers of southern Oregon. It’s a massive effort, building on decades of scientific study and stakeholder engagement.

The ecological benefits of the project are enormous, but everyone working on this epic task has learned that the positive impacts to people are equally huge.  Tribal communities have depended on the Klamath River since time immemorial, but their customs and cultures were severely impacted as toxic blue green algae covered reservoirs, degraded the river and contributed to fish disease.  Farms and ranches suffered the loss of irrigation water as regulatory agencies tried to use increased flows to combat water quality degradation.  Community vitality suffered as the river deteriorated.

A river is being restored –  people are being restored.