Interview with Felice Pace from the Klamath Forest Alliance
The Fish Sniffer Online
August 17, 2001

Steelhead: When was KFA founded?

Felice: We were founded in 1989 by 15-20 people (activists) concerned about the big forest fires in 1987. Most of us had seen the results of previous salvage operations, and were concerned about the damage that was going to be done.

Steelhead: What are the long-term goals of the KFA?

Felice: Our Mission Statement calls for working for sustainable communities and sustainable eco-systems and we think they go hand in hand.

Steelhead: What are some of the projects KFA has worked on?

Felice: The first five years or so we just worked on National Forest logging issues. Since then we have been working salmon and steelhead restoration issues, trying to decommission really bad, poorly maintained roads and things of that sort as well as trying to reform forest practices on private lands to make them more compatible with maintaining the water quality fish - and especially salmon and steelhead need.

Steelhead: What do you consider the KFA's greatest accomplishment?

Felice: We've won lawsuits and sat with the President at the Forest Conference, but the fact we are able to help volunteer activists to really raise issues that are of concern to them and help them get something done about these issues is what I consider our most important accomplishment.

The Klamath River Basin

Steelhead: This year is the driest year since the Klamath River Project was started. Have drought years in the past created anywhere near the controversy over resource allocation as this one has?

Felice: In the past when we had a drought, like the extended drought in the late 80's, there wasn't a controversy because the farmers got all the water they wanted. Even though the Klamath Tribes have been fighting for their water rights for over 25 years, and had those rights affirmed by the Supreme Court, they weren't able to enforce those rights until they had the leverage of the Endangered Species Act to exercise their claims. The Tribes and conservation groups were not in a position, even when the bald eagle was listed, to do anything about it.

In the early 1980's the Klamath Tribes were able to hire a biologist. Their studies found there was no reproduction of mullet (suckerfish). There was so much water being taken out of the spawning beds so early in the year, the fish weren't getting a chance to reproduce. The places where they were able to get to the spawning beds, the quality of the water was so bad because of nutrient runoff (ag return), they had large fish kills. The Klamath tribes stopped fishing for mullet in 1988 because they could see the decline and petitioned for listing under the ESA.

Steelhead: How did we arrive at a situation where all water was allocated to the coho and suckerfish fisheries, even at the expense of the wildlife refuges?

Felice: The Department of Fish and Wildlife guys, who had been trying to work with the farmers for years to improve fishery habitat, got fed up with the slow pace of improvement and very concerned because for 9 of the last ten years, reproduction of these fish has been a total bust. None of the young survived because of poor water conditions mostly connected to over allocation of water for irrigation as well as poor agricultural practices which have seriously degraded water quality resulting in massive fish kills in most years. There was only one successful year of reproduction in the last nine. For example, there was supposed to be a fish screen placed on canal A, the one where all the demonstrations are going on, by the late nineties, but it's still not built.

The Bureau of Reclamation's failure to consult on their operation plans for the year 2000 with the National Marine Fisheries Service brought about a lawsuit by Conservation Coalition. The effects of that decision, which was handed down last year, are now playing out. Add to that the worst single year of drought in the history of the project and you can see why we are experiencing these problems.

There has been an allocation of water secured for the marshes in the Lower Klamath region for August. This should help.

I would like to add one more thing. The shut-off of water around Klamath Falls only affected a fraction of the entire system's irrigators. Only one fifth of the farmers didn't receive full allotments of water this year on the Klamath System.

Maybe if there were cutbacks farther upriver, water could have been made available at Klamath Falls. We could make better use of the resources we have.

We and the farmers in the Klamath Falls and Tule Lake area agree that farmers outside the Klamath Irrigation Project, those above Klamath Lake and on the Shasta and Scott Rivers should share some of the irrigation cutbacks that are necessary to provide the water fish need to survive and in the case of coho and mullet - recover to the point where tribal, commercial and sport fishermen can harvest them once again. that is the goal here - balancing the Klmamth waters so that we can recover and sustain our fisheries and our agricultural economy. This is all about balance.

Steelhead: Do you have information about the effects of no water on different bird species? I saw white pelicans at 7,000 feet in the Warner Mountains for example. Is that normal?

Felice: Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge and Clear Lake National Wildlife Refuge are the only places in California with breeding white pelican colonies. The drying out of the marshes has definitely impacted them. Pelicans need a rookery surrounded by water. When suitable areas dry up, the rookeries get crowded. If it gets too crowded, you're going to have a situation where they just won't reproduce. I couldn't tell you why they are in the Warners.

Steelhead: Do the fisheries require full water flows at all times?

Felice: If you mean full capacity of the channel below Iron Gate, no. There is a regime for water release in place to protect the coho and steelhead fry. By the end of September, flows will be reduced when the fish are out of the system.

We need to mimic the natural flow regimens (hydrographs) of the rivers. The amount of fish produced by the Shasta River, went up 10 times when there was a timely high flow to get fish out of the system. This is how to get the best return on the fisheries.

In General a healthy fishery requires about 60% of natural flows. If you go below that, you're going to have problems. The flows coming out of Endangered Species Act are not sufficient for restoration, there is just enough to keep the species from going extinct.

Steelhead: Are there ways to increase the amount of useable water in the system?

Felice: There are a number of ways to increase useable water in the system. We Need to increase storage of water and decrease demand to bring supply and demand into balance. All possible Upper River dam sites have been studied and rejected. Below Klamath Falls the only possibility might be to raise Gerber Dam.

The primary way to increase water storage available to us is to increase deep-water marshes. Seventy-five percent of natural marshes in the Upper Klamath are now farmland. For every acre you reclaim, you have 6 additional acre-feet of water, three acre-feet you aren't using for irrigation, and three acre-feet you can control.

If 30,000 acres of the old Lower Klamath Lake were restored, less than one sixth of the acreage served by the Klamath Irrigation Project, you would create 180,000 acre-feet of additional water while cutting the current demand from 350,000 acre-feet to 290,000. It would have a significant impact on wildlife restoration efforts throughout the system, and it would provide farmers insurance for drought years.

Restoring the marshes means less water quality cleanup you have to do on the farms because the marshes are a natural filtration system. This would dramatically improve water purity downstream while reducing production costs.

Klamath River Dam licensing

Steelhead: This year Pacific Power will begin the relicensing process for the seven dams they operate on the Klamath River between I-5 and Klamath Falls, Does KFA support removal of the dams?

Felice: We think the Federal Power Act says they have to mitigate for the loss of fisheries. The Klamath Forest Alliance supports full mitigation of losses associated with those dams. We think the law says they have to mitigate for the loss of fisheries which once existed above the dams. If they can make the necessary improvements to support fishery restoration we would support their relicensing. If they can't, the dams should be decommissioned.

Steelhead: What does full mitigation mean?

Felice: Historically, the largest run of salmon was the spring run. Springer populations should be restored in the Upper Basin. Springers are the best adapted fish for the water flows and conditions we have in the Klamath system.

Iron Gate is the only dam built on the river under the Federal Power Act that required mitigation when it was built. Although the production of electricity from the dams is small, production can be controlled so electricity is generated at times of peak demand. If it is financially feasible to modify the dams so the springer runs can be restored, relicense. If, however, the best or only way to restore the spring runs is to remove the dams, then they should be removed.

The Snyder Report, circa 1929, documented a spring run on the Shasta River of 500,000 springers, and another 300,000 on the Scott. Canneries were built at the mouth of the Klamath and the Yuroks were hired to provide the fish. By 1940, the fishery was decimated and the canneries closed.

Steelhead: There are currently no springer stocks on the main stem of the Klamath, where would the fish come from?

Felice: The Salmon River has the best remaining run, on the Klamath side, although the refugia needs to be brought into better shape. There are larger runs, including hatchery springers, -in the Trinity River. The Tribes are advocating reintroduction of salmon and steelhead into the Sprague and Williamson River systems, and are talking about a catch and release fishery for the spring runs. Is that something Fish Sniffer Readers would support?

Steelhead: What needs to be done to "get the Salmon River refuge into better shape"?

Felice: When you want to improve fish habitat in the rivers, you have to look at the uplands. We've destroyed the ability of the mountains to hold water. You can go up into the mountains and see logging skid trails over 20 years old, that still have nothing growing on them.

There are clear cuts which have not been restored, burn areas, slash areas, unused abandoned roads. These areas have high run-off and low water retention. A roaded clear cut is 100 times more prone to mudslide than a forested area. By restoring these areas you increase the holding capacity of the watershed and reduce sediment in the run-off.

The Salmon River is unique in its remoteness. Under current economic conditions, you can buy plantation logs from Asia and New Zealand for less in Sacramento than it costs to get logs from the Salmon River Watershed to Interstate 5 in Yreka. Here water is a much more valuable resource than timber.

Over the next 20 years, forest restoration projects will have a far greater economic impact to the Salmon River Watershed than timber.

Steelhead: You are advocating a reduction in farming acreage, and a change in timber sales practices of the Federal Government. What opportunities for economic development to you see for the area?

Felice: You are economic development. You moved your business here a few years ago and are making your living here. There are film makers, marketers, writers, deciding it is possible to enjoy a wonderful lifestyle here. The financial and medical sectors are both growing. Twenty years ago you couldn't talk to a mortgage company in Yreka. Now there are stockbrokers.

If you look at the economic data, self employment is the #1 growth sector in Siskiyou County's economy. The resource industries were stagnant or declining before the northern spotted owl and the coho salmon were listed as threatened. Natural resources are still an important sector but they are no longer the most important part of our economy. This is also the situation across the rural west.

Farming and logging are not going away, although the methods may change. To remain competitive in a world market, the timber industry will have to develop specialty markets which pay a higher unit cost for product. Examples would be Southern Oregon hardwoods for furniture, custom milling of incense cedar and juniper for decorative architecture.

The Ag community has been spoiled for years by big, long term contracts. The North American Free Trade Agreement allowed Canadian potatoes into the Midwest, the market collapsed and the local growers plowed their crop under. They have never had to go out and develop new markets. New crops proving successful in the area are specialty hops and malting barleys, mint, strawberry propagation, and organics.

The Klamath River Watershed has a magnificent economic future if we can retain and restore our most important economic assets, a clean environment and a beautiful landscape!

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