SISTERS — The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has approved restoration of Chinook salmon to the area now blocked by dams on the Klamath River.

The vote Friday in Sisters amended Oregon’s fisheries management plan for the Upper Klamath Basin.

Expectations are that steelhead will be able to repopulate the area on their own once the dams are no longer an obstacle, but to give Chinook salmon a kick-start by introducing young fish.

A series of small hydroelectric dams have blocked salmon from Upper Klamath Lake and its tributaries for a century, but talks are under way now between the dam owner, PacifiCorp, and state and federal agencies over a proposal to remove them.