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Sibyl Diver
Stanford University
Dr. Sibyl Diver is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist, a lecturer in the Earth Systems Program, and co-director for the Environmental Justice Working Group at Stanford University. She does community-engaged research on Indigenous water governance in Pacific Northwest salmon watersheds. This includes research on co-management (or collaborative management) arrangements between Indigenous communities and state agencies, and decolonizing methodologies. For the past 25 years, she has worked on issues of Indigenous peoples, salmon, and environmental justice around the North Pacific – in the Russian Far East, Alaska, Canada, and the U.S., including a long-term research collaboration with the Karuk Tribe. Dr. Diver received her PhD in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from UC Berkeley.
Talk Information:
Social impact assessment of Klamath dam removal: Learning from the Karuk Tribe’s leadership for eco-cultural revitalization
April 25, 2025 | 9:00 AM
This collaborative research initiative with the Karuk Tribe seeks to understand the social, cultural and economic impacts of dam removal and river restoration in the Klamath Basin from a Tribal perspective (California, Oregon, US). Dam removal is part of a broader Tribal strategy for basin-wide ecological and cultural revitalization of the Klamath watershed, where Indigenous knowledge systems elucidate deeply interconnected ecological and cultural processes that co-shape this place and its peoples. This talk reflects on twenty years of Indigenous-led advocacy, policy, and science leading to the removal of four dams on the mid-Klamath this year, and shares initial results of our social impact assessment of Klamath dam removal with Tribal partners: https://damremovalsocialimpact.com. The assessment illustrates how Karuk community leaders are recasting dam removal as Indigenous eco-cultural revitalization--shifting the meaning of infrastructure removal to conceptualize a more holistic reference system for Klamath Basin restoration that accounts for Tribal community well-being.