People & Blogs

Why We Blew Up Four Dams — and Saved a River | Amy Bowers Cordalis | TED

For thousands of years, the Klamath River in Northern California was home to one of the continent’s great salmon runs, creating abundance for the native Yurok Tribe … until a series of dams and a century of extraction nearly destroyed it. Indigenous advocate Amy Bowers Cordalis helped lead the fight to take down those dams…

Published

on

For thousands of years, the Klamath River in Northern California was home to one of the continent’s great salmon runs, creating abundance for the native Yurok Tribe … until a series of dams and a century of extraction nearly destroyed it. Indigenous advocate Amy Bowers Cordalis helped lead the fight to take down those dams — the largest removal of its kind in US history. She offers a roadmap for communities everywhere working to protect and restore the places they call home. (Recorded at TED2026 on April 14, 2026)

Join us in person at a TED conference:
Become a TED Member to support our mission:
Subscribe to a TED newsletter:

Follow TED!
Instagram:
LinkedIn:
TikTok:
Facebook:
X:

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less) — plus originals, podcasts and exclusive content. Look for videos on Technology, Entertainment and Design as well as science, business, global issues, the arts and more. Visit for our entire library, transcripts, translations and personalized recommendations.

Watch more:

TED videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with the TED Talks Usage Policy: . For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a request at

#TED #TEDTalks #Conservation #Nature

15 Comments

  1. @aliqureshi8720

    October 12, 2026 at 11:16 am

    BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO

  2. @homewall724

    October 12, 2026 at 11:18 am

    They always pretend its white genocide that consumes all the resources, as if modern “natives” and all cultures around the world today aren’t all doing the same because most people prefer comfort, food, housing, heat, cooling, clothing and modern conveniences, and that small tribal populations of old are to be compared to modern large populations today. And somehow those same genocidal people do respond to fix problems that prior generations did.

  3. @StoriesWithEvelynHart

    October 12, 2026 at 11:21 am

    I’ve seen plenty of talks about saving the planet, but hearing Amy speak about the Klamath — a river her own people watched suffer for a century — felt personal in a way statistics never could. The thought of the salmon finally coming home again moved me more than I expected. Stories like this remind me why we keep telling them.

  4. @Mary-kn6bh

    October 12, 2026 at 11:29 am

    ❤ Magnifico intervento, abbiamo bisogno di tanti di questi ritorni all Natura in tutto il mondo. Grazie per la speranza che ci dona! ❤

  5. @tcadrin

    October 12, 2026 at 11:30 am

    Now how do we do something like this for the blackstone river in the northeast?

  6. @noblepatriot9292

    October 12, 2026 at 11:33 am

    How many people lost their access to water because you wanted to save a fish that’s so abundant it’s on US tables across the county and
    exported …stupid is as stupid does ../

    • @LynLynette1

      October 12, 2026 at 12:51 pm

      Don’t be so hard on yourself.

    • @noblepatriot9292

      October 12, 2026 at 1:06 pm

      @LynLynette1…nonsense from the nonsensical…

    • @Hellojro

      October 12, 2026 at 1:14 pm

      @noblepatriot9292 if you did a simple Google you would see that no one lost water access for drinking or agriculture. For the 11 homes whose wells failed with this change they added large water tank for them. Maybe look up the question you have before jumping to conclusions.

    • @noblepatriot9292

      October 12, 2026 at 1:31 pm

      I’d rather ask the people who’s land border the river … now they have a big dry ditch … I notice you skip over the abundance of fish that you didn’t save. They come back to the place of their birth to spawn. No Salmon spawn above the damn in decades…

    • @noblepatriot9292

      October 12, 2026 at 1:33 pm

      @Hellojronot to mention you went from zero to 11 in one sentence and then call me stupid… looking in the mirror

  7. @MWhaleK

    October 12, 2026 at 11:48 am

    Very nice! Wonderful talk!

  8. @tammystansell406

    October 12, 2026 at 12:02 pm

    On this Indigenous Americans Day 2026, thank you for this inspirational conversation! My family comes from the lower Appalachians and so many dams have forever changed the land, the rivers and streams. So many losses of historical and cultural areas that are now beneath lakes 250 feet deep…

  9. @Madshadowgolem

    October 12, 2026 at 5:28 pm

    To be honest, it takes a lot longer than 3 days for silt to clear out and the water to be clear enough for upstream migration. Dynamite is a very damaging way to remove a dam because of the disruption to the lower river the massive rush creates. This was learned when they removed the dams on the Elwha on the Olympic Peninsula. We need to remove the dams but let’s be smart about it and learn from our mistakes so we do it the very best we can and minimize the disruptive impacts on the fisheries and critical riparian zone.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending

Exit mobile version