“This is historic and life-changing,” Cordalis said. “And it means that the Yurok people have a future. It means the river has a future; the salmon have a future.”

Mike Belchik, a senior policy adviser for the Yurok Tribe, was also there to witness the controlled breach.

“It’s kind of surreal,” said Belchik, who has worked on Klamath River water issues for the tribe for nearly 30 years. “I don’t know why we had such confidence that it was going to happen. But we did. We always knew it would happen.”