Barley Farmers Win The Bid
By Anita Burke, K-Falls Herald and News
March 14, 2002

Environmentalists trumped in effort to control refuge land

A bid by environmentalists to lease a plot of farmland on a national wildlife refuge was trumped Wednesday by a pair of barley farmers.

Henzel Brothers, with a bid of $9,100, outbid the Klamath Forest Alliance, Oregon Natural Resources Council and Northcoast Environmental Center by $4,100 on a parcel in Area K on the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.

The environmental groups collaborated in an effort to win the chance to manage a parcel of lease land for the benefit of wildlife. Environmentalists disapprove of farming on Klamath Basin refuges and want to see the practice end and refuges operated solely for wildlife.

After the environmental activists announced their plan to bid on lease lands, Sam Henzel, who own Henzel Brothers with his brother Thurston Henzel, said they were welcome to compete on the market. “That’s part of being an American,” he said.

Wendell Wood, a Southern Oregon field representative for Oregon Natural Resources Council, said that though unsuccessful this time, the groups remain committed to ensuring that refuges are managed for wildlife.

“We feel that industrial agriculture has no place on a refuge,” he said. “We will raise money this year to bid more aggressively in the future.”

Mike Green, the Bureau of Reclamation’s lease lands program manager, said the bid process this year was more competitive than it has been in the last five years. Only six parcels out of 75 available weren’t bid on, he said.

Some of those lacked bids because they present farming challenges, such as pest problems, irrigation difficulties or lack of access. Others apparently were overlooked by bidders, he said.

A second bid opening for the remaining parcels will be March 27. Green said farmers already have expressed interest in bidding on the remaining parcels.

The lease lands are fertile reclaimed lake beds that many Basin farmers consider key to the region’s agricultural success.

Jim Bryant, chief of land and water operations at the Bureau’s Klamath Falls office, said the annual bid opening was the social event of the year for Tulelake farmers in the 1960s and 1970s. Held at a grange hall with farmers, wives and kids in attendance, “it was an event,” he said.

Leasing of refuge lands was instituted by the Kuchel Act in 1964 when homesteading reclaimed land stopped, but the government wanted farming to continue.

“It was a win-win Congressional act to continue farming and preserve open space for migrating birds,” said Marshall Staunton, who farms with his brothers on leased land on Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

He said farmers; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuges; and the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the Klamath Reclamation Project, are working together to create additional seasonal wetlands in the refuges both to provide wildlife habitat and to boost productivity of farmland while using less chemical treatment. A demonstration project showed that adding a wetland to crop rotations controlled pests and diseases and increased soil fertility.

“Lease lands can be a pioneer in safe farming practices,” Staunton said. “It’s going to take Fish and Wildlife, growers and environmentalists getting out of their offices and working together, not calling lawyers and issuing press releases. It’s just a matter of getting out there.”

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