Much of what you said is an exaggeration, for where a habitat disappears with a dam, different habitats appear.

But regardless, the point is that salmon were still breeding there. The "return" is an unwarranted claim, for they never stopped coming and spawning.

Salmon were not still breeding there, this is the first return in over 100 years.

October of this year:

> a fall-run Chinook salmon was identified by ODFW’s fish biologists in a tributary to the Klamath River above the former J.C. Boyle Dam, becoming the first anadromous fish to return to the Klamath Basin in Oregon since 1912 when the first of four hydroelectric dams was constructed, blocking migration.

https://www.dfw.state.or.us/news/2024/10_Oct/101724.asp

>salmon were still breeding there. The "return" is an unwarranted claim, for they never stopped coming and spawning.

let's read

"Less than a month after four towering dams on the Klamath River were demolished, hundreds of salmon made it into waters they have been cut off from for decades"

what does that mean

"salmon are once more returning to spawn in cool creeks that have been cut off to them for generations."

"salmon, which were cut off from their historic habitat"

"salmon that have quickly made it into previously inaccessible tributaries"

Different habitats of algae and mud, so I'll agree of course better than nothing while also very far from the previous quality.