Hearing Won’t Solve the Crisis
Medford Mail Tribune Editorial
July 14, 2004

A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee will meet Saturday in Klamath Falls for a hearing that may make some people feel better, but will contribute precisely nothing to solving the Klamath Basin’s water problems.

At the request of Rep. Greg Walden, he and three colleagues from the Subcommittee on Water and Power of the House Resources Committee will spend two hours hearing testimony on "The Endangered Species Act 30 Years Later: The Klamath Project."

Their time would be better spent examining "Overallocation of Water 87 Years Later."

Protecting fish under the Endangered Species Act did not cause the Klamath Basin water crisis. And gutting the act won’t solve it.

Diverting too much water to too many acres of farmland for too many years brought the basin to the crisis point in a dry year when there simply wasn’t enough water to go around.

Despite the overheated rhetoric from one side of the debate, this is not a fish vs. farms issue. It’s not just about fish.

Equally important — perhaps more important — are the millions of waterfowl that stop in the basin’s marshes and wetlands on their migratory journey along the Pacific Flyway. The fact is that this year, by sometime in August, all the wetlands around Upper Klamath Lake will be dry as the water level drops.

Without wetlands, there is not enough food for the migrating birds. And the birds have nowhere else to go.

The answer, we are convinced, is a federal program to buy out those farmers willing to sell, and return acres of farmland to the marshes and wetlands that were once considered useless but now are acknowledged to be vital.

Only by returning balance to the Klamath Basin can the farm economy be preserved and the basin’s fragile ecosystem protected. Reducing the number of acres being irrigated would go a long way toward restoring that balance.

But the members of Congress traveling to Klamath Falls this weekend won’t be looking for a long-term solution. They’ll be taking aim at a scapegoat: the Endangered Species Act.

Walden is backing legislation to require peer review of the science used in Endangered Species Act decisions. While there may be some merit to that idea, it isn’t the answer to the Klamath Basin’s problems.

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