Foreigners in Armed Boats Kill Klamath Fish
By Barry R. Clausen, Pioneer Press
February 2004

The liberal press has, and will continue to not succeed in dealing with real property rights issues. They constantly close their eyes and fail to tell the truth and persistently spin the issues to the point of absurdity. As a result, they are helping radical extremists towards their goal of destroying rural American beliefs and American farming and ranching families.

As one of many examples of inaccuracy, bias and left wing media extremism, there is the case of an article in Outside magazine written by New York Journalist, Patrick Symmes, a Contributing Editor for the magazine and the author of the story.

The August 2003 edition of the magazine does a huge injustice not only to the Klamath Basin farmers and ranchers, but to all those that feed America.

The article is a result of a huge fish kill when an estimated 33,000 salmon out of about 100,000 died and were discovered within the first twenty miles of the Lower Klamath River in Northern California on September 19, 2002. Many radical environmentalists, along with their Native American supporters blamed the Klamath Basin farmers and ranchers.

With numerous left-wing publications blaming the farmers and ranchers, Outside has dramatically disgraced itself over this story and has now admitted it - publicly. During the beating process of the Klamath farmers and ranchers, Outside and Symmes proceed to beat on me. Symmes quotes an article I wrote for the Siskiyou Daily News in February of 2003, about drug traffickers. In that story I wrote, "A law enforcement official from the Del Norte Sheriff Department stated, "There have been armed boats traveling up and down the river [Klamath], but we have not been able to determine why."

The following quote from Outside is another example of omitting the topic, forgetting to tell the truth and spinning the issues to the point of absurdity. The article states, "The fish kill brought out some of Jefferson States wiggier citizens, including Barry Clausen, a self-styled crusader against ecoterrorism who lives in nearby Redding. Clausen told the Siskiyou Daily News that the salmon were killed not by low water but by "foreigners" in "armed boats" traveling up and down the Klamath…."

Another omission by Symmes was the fact that the U.S. Government, Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) is and has been diverting as much as 90% of the nearby Trinity River water to the Sacramento River. This water would usually flow into the Klamath at Weitchpec, California but instead, is being diverted and utilized in the Central Basin of California. The fish kill was between Weitchpec and the river mouth. Had it not been for the BOR there would have been an ample supply of water for the salmon.

According to Tom Patton a hydraulic engineer for the BOR, the percentage of water being released from the Trinity Reservoir and diverted to the Sacramento was 73% during the fish kill. It was also promised by Government officials to the Hoppa Tribe that the amount of water released would not exceed 50%. Many members of the Hoppa and numerous others believe that amount would ensure the spawning Chinook and Coho salmon would receive enough cooler water to survive.

One person concerned about the Trinity River water usage is U.S. Forest Service Wildlife Biologist Tony Hocking from Orleans, California. While expressing his views, he was critical of the large amount of water the government drains from Trinity Lake into the Sacramento. Hocking stated, "The water pumped from the Trinity never gets talked about."

The Apology

There were many, who, without factual information praised the article, including Lauren Ward of American Land Conservancy, David L. Morris II, Natural Resources Manager, City of Newport News, Virginia and Michael Gritzuk, Water Services Director, City of Phoenix, Arizona.

There are also many others angry about the article and the untruthful spin put on the story. In a letter to the editor of Outside Dan Keppen, of Klamath Falls stated, "‘Although I am hesitant to resurrect still more of the ‘agonizing minutiae’ that Patrick Symmes seams to loathe, his article unfortunately mischaracterizes comments I made earlier this year as executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association. Symmes incorrectly writes that I ‘stretched facts a bit’…" Upon calling Keppen he also stated, "It made us look so bad, it is unfortunate that when most read this story they will believe what is said. It [the story] is so inaccurate."

Northern California’s, Siskiyou County Supervisor, Marsha Armstrong said that after reading the Outside story, "It’s a total misrepresentation of conditions here, and to what these conditions are really attributable to."

Rob Crawford a Tulelake Farmer and member of the Klamath Water Users Association stated, "‘River Impossible’ is not true. It is a river system with more solutions than problems. If extreme environmentalists would quit playing the blame game and look at the system with a broad watershed wide approach, they would come to the conclusion that a safe domestic food supply should be part of the algebraic equation. Wildlife, farms, fish, refuges, and national parks are what make the Klamath Basin a beautiful part of the Klamath system. Balances were getting close and the data backs it up."

In a letter to the editor of Outside about Symmes story, Bob Thompson of Burbank, California wrote, "Symmes suggests that if only the evil Klamath farmers could be bought out, all of the regions water problems would vanish. Buying farmland is not the only options, but it is the only options environmentalists accept. If this solution were imposed on the Klamath Basin, it could be impose along the Colorado River and in every farming community in America. Then who would grow our food? Those with an economic interest are the best stewards of the land."

After contacting Outside Editor Hal Espen, an agreement was reached between Espen and myself. The magazine apologized to me in the November 2003 edition. "’River Impossible,’ an August 2003 feature story by Patrick Symmes, incorrectly reported on a newspaper article by author and investigator Barry R. Clausen. The article, which ran in the Yreka, California-based Siskiyou Daily News in February, was written by Mr. Clausen; it wrongly implied in ‘River Impossible’ that Mr. Clausen was an interview subject in the newspaper article rather than it’s author. In fact, Mr. Clausen was quoting former and current law enforcement officers who asserted that ‘foreigners’ and ‘armed boats’ had been observed along the Klamath River. Although Mr. Clausen’s article argued that toxic pollution from clandestine methamphetamine labs and marijuana fields may have contributed to a September 2002 salmon kill, Mr. Clausen did not claim that this was the cause of the die-off. Outside regrets the errors and apologizes to Mr. Clausen for inaccurately characterizing his views."

The Rest of the Story

There is, interestingly enough, much more to this story. As most who read this would realize – the damage is done. Outside subscribers worldwide have now read the Symmes story, but how many read the apology and how many believe what the magazine said?

And one should not forget to response to the advertisers in Outside. They include, Nissan, Nike, Cannon, American Express, Chrysler, BFGoodrich, Buck Knives, Pacific Trail, Toyota, Timex, Snickers, Bose, Tangueray, Saab, Olympus Cameras, Jeep, Honda, Buick, Hertz, Moosehead, Canon, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) in conjunction with Outdoor Life Network (OLN) and Ford, who has lost millions in sales to rural Americas as a result of contributions to environmental extremist groups.

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