Mia Groff, Carlie Sharpes & Brad Parrish

Chemist, Ambodat Fish Hatchery; Aquaculturist, Ambodat Fish Hatchery; Water Rights Specialist, Ambodat

Chiloquin, OR

September 24, 2024

As the SITW crew drove up the driveway of the Klamath Tribes’ Ambodat facility, we observed two greenish fish ponds backdropped by an under-construction office building. Ambodat (meaning in, at, or near the water) was established in the 1980s. Their website describes their mission to “implement programs to restore and enhance the aquatic resources upon which the Tribal Members depend for their livelihood.” One of Ambodat’s main goals is restoring wild C’waam and Koptu suckerfish populations, which are endemic to Upper Klamath Lake, and are central to the Klamath tribes’ way of life.

Westies were greeted by Mia Groff, a chemist at the Sprague River Water Quality Lab at Ambadot. Mia graduated from Whitman in 2022 with a B.A. in Geology and a minor in Chemistry. “This is my van for sale, if anyone is interested,” she mentions as we walk by a built-out Ford Transit Connect.

At the edge of the Sprague River, Mia explained how the C’waam and Koptu are endangered by dam-diminished water levels and rising concentrations of toxic phosphates, thanks to volcanic rock, logging, and ranching upstream.

Aquaculturist Carlie Sharpes met us in the rearing pool room. She informed us that the bottleneck of the C’waam and Koptu project is mortality between release at ages 3-4 and sexual maturity at ages 7-9. The high temperatures, low water levels, and phosphate concentrations in Upper Klamath Lake are killing these fish before they can reproduce.

Finally, we met with Brad Parrish, a water rights specialist who manages the 1200-acre Hog Creek Ranch upstream of Upper Klamath Lake. Since the Klamath Tribes purchased the property in 2023, Brad and his team have celebrated several successes. They’ve raised the water table about a foot, transformed the landscape from barren dirt to lush grasses, and found a tui chub, a native fish previously thought to be gone from the property. Westies worked with Brad and his team of aquatic resource technicians to build two beaver dam analogs to moderate the flow of water into Upper Klamath Lake, so it doesn’t get as low in the summer. We drove home, hopeful that the dams we built would allow more C’waam and Koptu to survive the summers.

by Jackson Schroeder