Face to Face: Pace, Farmers Square Off
By Lee Juillerat, Herald & News
February 15, 2002

Members of the Klamath County Rotary Club sang “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” to open their noon meeting on Valentine’s Day, but they had no messages of love for the program’s main speaker, Felice Pace.

Pace, conservation director for the Klamath Forest Alliance, a Siskiyou County based environmental group that has called for more water allocations for fish, faced a largely hostile audience that included several Klamath Basin farmers.

During a question-answer session that was often emotionally charged and testy, Pace repeatedly said he believes water users are creating a “war” that cannot be won, generating a “persecution” complex and refusing to acknowledge the needs of downstream Klamath River water users.

“A small number of people are forcing the Klamath River Basin in a war,” claimed Pace, who said the Upper Klamath Basin needs to share water with tribes, fish and downstream water users. “Somehow, some way, we’re going to have to learn to live together ... The sooner you get to sharing, the better we’ll all be.”

“What part of zero is sharing?” quizzed Bob Gasser, a leader of the Klamath Basin Bucket Brigade Committee, referring to last year’s decisions that led to water cutoffs for Klamath Project water users.

When Pace noted that last year’s water allocations did include some Klamath Basin users and that project users received a special allocation by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, an emotional Gary Voight, a Klamath Falls optician who also has a ranch, commented, “Explain that to my cows.”

“Last year would have been my 40th year raising potatoes in the Klamath Basin,” Jim Boyd, a Tulelake area farmer, told Pace.

Responding to Pace’s comments, when he asked the audience how people want the community to be viewed, Clint Thompson, an auto dealer, insisted, “I want to be viewed as a community that kicked ass on people like you.”

“It’s more important to survive than it is to pay attention to what other people think,” answered another audience member.

Often feisty, Pace said water problems stem from limited supplies for a scarce resource.

“You’re living in a dry country,” said Pace. “I think you’re in denial ... I know you feel like victims and I know you’ve been encouraged to think that way. You don’t like what (federal agencies and scientists) have done. You can rail against that to the rest of the country, but what is that going to get you?”

Pace also lashed out at people who flew the American flag upside down during last year’s protests, insisting, “That’s a disgrace.”

The National Academy of Sciences review of last year’s biological opinions also drew comment.

Tulelake farmer John Crawford, who like Pace made a 10-minute presentation but was largely ignored during the question-answer session, said the review upheld water user claims that high Upper Klamath Lake levels and high flows on the Klamath River do not help endangered and threatened suckers and coho salmon.

“Using science that is manipulated by an agenda is morally wrong,” said Crawford, who also challenged Pace’s previous comments that water users are taking an “I told you so” attitude.

“Our work is far from finished,” Crawford said. “We must continue to respect the ecological needs, tribal needs and support restoration projects for water quality.”

Marshall Staunton, another Tulelake farmer, later challenged Pace’s comments that water users have stalled water restoration efforts, insisting, “This agricultural community has bent over backwards.”

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