A national environmental conservation group has included the McCloud River in their top ten most endangered rivers in the country. The McCloud is number seven on the list by the group “American Rivers”, specifically because of the possibility that Shasta Dam may be raised 18-and a half feet. The McCloud’s wild and scenic status was the basis for a suit that the state attorney general’s office filed against the Federal Bureau of Reclamation with the intent to halt or slow down the process. The dam project was on a fast track under Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, David Barnhardt, who spent many years as a lobbyist for the powerful Westlands Water District in the San Joaquin Valley. The plan has been under review by the Biden Administration. The Winnemum Wintu Tribe has been one of the primary voices of opposition. The tribe lost most of their ancestral lands when the dam was built would lose the rest of their lands if the raising goes through.