Celebrating a Free-Flowing River

September 9, 2025 | Read Time: 1 minute

For more than 100 years, hydroelectric dams blocked the Klamath River in Oregon and Northern California, impeding once-abundant salmon runs. But that changed last year when the last of the dams was demolished.

To celebrate, several dozen Indigenous youths kayaked the 310-mile length of the river this summer in a monthlong descent organized by the nonprofit Ríos to Rivers.

“We got to complete this journey because of the people that came before us and ensured a free-flowing river,” Ke-Get Omar Dean V, 18, a member of the Yurok Tribe, said in a statement after the journey.

Here, supporters cheer the young people on as they approach the mouth of the Klamath.

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About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.