Klamath Fish Protections Stay
By Joe Rojas-Burke, The Oregonian
Thursday, July 22, 2004

Two fish species at the heart of water battles in the Klamath Basin will remain on the endangered list while federal biologists conduct a comprehensive review of the need for protected status, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday.

The agency is responding to a lawsuit brought after the service denied a petition from a property owners group to remove federal protections for the Lost River sucker and the shortnose sucker. For the sake of these fish, the federal government cut off irrigation water to hundreds of farmers in 2001, pushing the Klamath Basin into the national spotlight as an example of the intractable water battles facing the arid West.

Last September, a U.S. District Court ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to provide a fuller explanation for its decision to keep the fish on the endangered list, or to perform a complete review of the status of the fish.

After reconsidering the property owners' petition, Fish and Wildlife officials in Sacramento said it lacked "substantial" information to support the case for removing the fish from the endangered species list. But the agency concluded that a broader review of the status is warranted, in light of changing conditions in the Klamath Basin.

"There have been several actions taken to improve habitat, and several more proposed, such as the removal of Chiloquin dam. These are a number of things that would be relevant to the review," said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Al Donner.

Richard Gierak, a chiropractor in Yreka, Calif., who started the effort to delist the suckers, called the service's response "unfortunate." Gierak owns land along the Klamath River and said he was fighting to avoid restrictions on his property rights. On Wednesday, he said he has given up trying to undo the endangered species listings.

Farmers and ranchers who rely on the Klamath irrigation project are looking at the status review as an opportunity to end what they consider unnecessary restrictions on water use.

"When the suckers were first listed, the Klamath project wasn't even listed as a factor in their decline," said Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association.

As a protective measure for suckers, project managers now must keep lake levels from falling below set levels, a requirement that led the government to shut off water to farmers during drought conditions in 2001.

At least one conservation group questioned the need for a status review.

"The reality is, we've got this waiting list of imperiled wildlife out there that the service does not have the money to make endangered species determinations," said Jay Ward, conservation director for the Oregon Natural Resources Council. "By industry and agribusiness focusing on these five-year status reviews, what they are doing is causing the Fish and Wildlife Service to allow other species to slide toward extinction."

Responding to that concern, Donner said, "It's a perfectly legitimate process to review the changed conditions." The study, he said, will help the service and other agencies and land managers assess the impact of human actions and decide what steps are vital to ensure recovery for the endangered suckers.

The review will take at least a year to complete, Donner said. If biologists find that the fish are no longer in danger of extinction, the government would have to propose a change in status and solicit public comment in a process that could take another year.

The two sucker species gained protection as endangered species in 1988. The fish, which live for decades but reproduce fitfully, exist only in the Upper Klamath Basin. They dwell in lakes and reservoirs and make spring spawning runs upstream. After years of depletion, populations seemed to be recovering in the early 1990s. But numbers crashed after a series of die-offs starting in 1995. Heavy fishing, loss of habitat and degraded water quality are among the factors that put them in danger. Habitat and water quality remain significant problems.

The Bush administration's budget proposal for fiscal 2005 includes $2.1 million to remove Chiloquin Dam and reopen 70 miles of sucker habitat on the Sprague River, $4.6 million to purchase and restore wetlands in the basin, and a $5.9 million increase in cooperative grants for restoring Klamath fish habitat.

Joe Rojas-Burke: 503-412-7073; joerojas@news.oregonian.com

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