Klamath Plan Hits the Forge
By John Driscoll, Eureka Times-Standard
October 1, 2004

ARCATA -- A plan aimed at restoring the Klamath River basin was greeted with a hefty dose of skepticism but not a complete lack of hope.

Touted as a means of rounding up existing restoration efforts and scientific information, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Conservation Implementation Plan is meant to support the varied programs and projects being considered around the basin.

A second draft of the plan was presented at the Arcata Community Center on Wednesday night. Reclamation's Deputy Area Manager Christine Karas admitted that the public hated the first draft, and the agency was holding meetings to gather comments and refine the language and goals of the plan.

Its central premises are to restore endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and threatened coho salmon in the river; to meet tribal trust obligations to the four American Indian tribes in the basin; and to continue making water available for human use.

The Klamath has received enormous attention since 2001, when Reclamation shut off water to many farms in its irrigation project on the central California-Oregon border. Federal fisheries and wildlife agencies ordered the move to protect suckers and coho.

Farmers protested loudly. But the next year, Reclamation restored the irrigation water and 34,000 to 68,000 chinook salmon died in the river. Fishermen and tribes on the lower river protested, and lodged a suit against the federal government for breach of tribal trust obligations.

The fish are a staple and source of income for tribes, and represent a remnant of the once-booming commercial salmon fishery.

Many see the farmers in the upper basin as being significantly more politically connected than downriver interests. Millions in aid flowed into the upper basin after the 2001 shut off, but no assistance was offered during the 2002 fish kill.

Whether Reclamation should be running the program was a repeated question from the audience.

"Everything in the Klamath is political," said Will Harling of Somes Bar.

Fisheries scientist Pat Higgins said if the plan does not include science -- even if it supports one interest over another -- it is useless. He said the need for policy decisions to be based on science is imminent, as the beneficial ocean cycle that exists now is expected to swing sometime in the next decade or so. Without strides toward restoration in the river, salmon stocks could be threatened with extinction during a downturn, Higgins said.

Others argued that a prime purpose of the plan, to continue existing water management for human use, is a recipe for continued conflict.

Oregon resident and canoeist Dave Powers said embarking on restoration projects without addressing fundamental problems like low flows and hydroelectric dams which threaten fish would be fruitless.

"You're going to be doing a bunch of Band-Aid efforts," Powers said.

Karas agreed, and pointed to successful changes in operations of dams on the Colorado River. Conflict on that river generated a plan from which the Klamath Conservation Implementation Plan was born.

She said that the success of the plan would be based on the participation of the myriad groups in the basin.

"We don't want this to be a program of the government for the people," Karas said.

A copy of the draft plan is available at www.usbr.gov/mp/kbao

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.