Suit Challenges Tulelake Refuge Farming Practices
Modoc Record
December 11, 1997

That suit was filed against Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, claiming he has allowed 22,000 acres of former wet lands to be farmed, harming wildlife and waterfowl.

Felice Pace, the Klamath Forest Alliance Executive Director said the suit aims to modify or curtail certain types of farming practices which the environmental groups say are not compatible with good wildlife management. Chief among those farming practices are row crops, such as potatoes, sugar beets and pesticide use.

According to Pace, the lawsuit has two basic goals. "It seeks to end farming practices that are incompatible with wildlife conservation including row crops and pesticide use," he said. "Secondly, under Refuge Management Laws, the Secretary has a duty to maintain adequate water quantity and quality in the wildlife refuge system. Fulfilling both of these goals will substantially enhance wildlife habitat, particularly for waterfowl.

"We are asking Babbitt to modify adverse agricultural and water diversion practices, and in that way to optimize wildlife habitat on these public refuge lands."

Tulelake area farmers lease the refuge lands, amount ing to about $1.8 million annually and make most of their income off potatoes, although grains are also planted on these lands.

While Pace believes there are area farmers who do a good job and are sensitive to wildlife concerns, his group felt the suit was necessary to bring conformity. In addition to the Klamath Forest Alliance, groups involved in the suit are: The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Mazamas, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Klamath Basin Audubon Society, Northcoast Environmental Center, Portland Audubon Society, Rogue Valley Audubon Society and the Umqua Valley Audubon Society.

It's estimated that as much as 80 percent of the Pacific Flyway migratory birds pass through the Klamath Basin. In a 1956 report, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service terms the bird population in the Klamath basin, "the greatest concentration of waterfowl in North America and probably the world."

The conservation groups charge that several federal refuge laws have been violated, including:

Bureau of Reclamation farming program on refuge lands that is incompatible for primary wildlife conservation purposes;

BOR and Fish and Wildlife Service permit spraying of pesticides on refuge lands in violation of Interior Department regulations;

BOR's failure to deliver sufficient water to the Lower Klamath refuge for marshes utilized by waterfowl, especially during peak migration seasons;

BOR, FWS service emphasis on commercial irrigated agriculture on the refuge, resulting in the loss of productive marsh habitat and precipitous declines in waterfowl breeding birds;

Reduced habitat for bald eagles and waterfowl;

Insufficient amounts and distribution of marshland habitat for clean water, resulting in loss of refuge biodiversity and overall ecosystem health;

Extremely poor water quality with high levels of toxic ammonia contributing to dissolved oxygen concentrations as low as zero; water temperatures as high as 86 degrees, plus pHs as 10.3;

Physical and environmental constraints that in crease the probability of lethal bacteria diseases, such as botulism and avian cholera, that in most years results in the death of thousands of refuge birds;

Siltation of remaining Tule Lake marsh and general lack of deep water marsh habitat necessary for diving ducks and other fish and wildlife species;

Local extirpation of native fish and amphibian populations for most refuge waters.

"Wildlife protection has increasingly become subordinate to commercial agriculture on the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges," said Wendell Wood, of the Oregon Natural Resources Council. "At these National Wildlife Refuges, thousands of acres of potatoes and barley have been given priority over eagles. Onions and sugar beets in many years get more water than ducks geese and swans."

In addition to the BOR's 22,000 acres of farming, 6,000 acres are farmed by Fish and Wildlife permittees on a "share-cropped" basis. According to Pace, those farmers ap ply numerous pesticides which are known to have killed refuge wildlife.

Tulelake area farmers are contending with an Integrated Pest Management Plan that threatens to eat into their pocketbooks and this week's suit by the conservation groups will add to their concerns.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and as defined under the provisions of "fair use", any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and for educational use by our membership.