On the Klamath River, Pain Flows Downstream
The Oregonian Editorial
March 10, 2006

Remember when the government shut off water to farmers in the upper Klamath Basin, and everybody from the White House to The Wall Street Journal came running to the rescue?

Well, where are they now that the feds are poised to shut off the economic lifeblood of coastal towns from central Oregon on down the full length of California, because the Klamath River is too shallow and sick to sustain salmon?

When it comes to economic power, political support and public sympathy, it sure makes a difference what end of the river you call home. It seemed like every elected official in Oregon trooped down to Klamath Falls during that long, hot summer of 2001 to stick up for the family farmer. Today, with federal fisheries officials talking seriously about shutting down fishing along 700 miles of coastline, there is no similar rush to the aid of the family fisherman.

Dave Bitts, vice president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman Associations, a California fish lobby, predicted that one closed season would knock out much of the already weakened Pacific salmon fishing fleet. This is no small economic hit to the region: Salmon trolling and its associated jobs represent $150 million in economic activity in Oregon and California.

A full closure would be a tragedy for fishing ports and families up and down the coast. But at this point, it's hard to see how a fishing shutdown can be avoided this summer. Klamath River chinook populations have plunged below the numbers needed to sustain the species. Yes, there are many other salmon from other rivers in the ocean, but there is no selective way to harvest them without killing more Klamath salmon.

The real issue here is that the Klamath River is sick, rife with disease, dewatered by irrigation and blocked by dams. No one should lay all this at the feet of upper Klamath Basin farmers, who are among a cast of thousands, including huge agribusinesses in California's central valley, that rely on water from the Klamath River and its tributaries.

Yet if you want to understand who's won and who's lost the fight for water in the Klamath, look upriver, and look back to 2002. The farmers, thanks to the intervention of the Bush administration and Congress, got their water back. Then a few months later, an estimated 70,000 salmon, some of them chinook, died in the warm, diseased waters of the Klamath.

There's been a fierce debate about the cause of the die-off. However, an investigation by the California Department of Fish and Game blamed federal policies for the low, warm water and disease outbreak. However you want to assign blame, the region sure could use the offspring from those 70,000 Klamath fish about now.

Of course, that is warm water under the bridge. But what is still alive is the question of whether the federal government is willing to balance the economic interests of upstream and downstream communities, not just on the Klamath, but everywhere fish and fishermen continue to come in last.

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.

Klamath Basin Salmon Echoes
Seattle Times Editorial
March 8, 2006

A sharply reduced salmon-fishing season may be the unhappy outcome of a meeting of policymakers in Seattle this week. They are dealing with poor decisions made by others five years ago in Oregon's Klamath Basin.

Dramatically reducing the season from Northern Oregon into California, a 700-mile stretch, is necessary to save chinook at sea as they commingle with other salmon. Protecting one means cutting back on the catch of all. The options for the Pacific Fishery Management Council range from bad to devastating, but the choices between levels of curtailment and outright ban are about saving a fishery. It's that fundamental.

Chinook runs on the Klamath River never rebounded from a historic fish kill in the basin in fall 2002, and from devastating and successive bouts of a parasite that claimed juvenile salmon.

In a region with complex water issues, a brutal political shorthand reduced the competition for water to one of fish vs. farmers. Agriculture had suffered through a terrible drought in 2001. Over the protests of federal agencies, the headgates were opened with a flourish in spring 2002 by two Bush administration Cabinet members to increase water for irrigation.

By fall, salmon died in numbers subsequently estimated at 70,000 because of low flows of warm water. An investigation by the California Department of Fish and Game laid the blame on the federal government for conditions that allowed disease to flourish and spread.

This fishery is dwarfed by the salmon harvest from Alaska and competition grows from farm-raised salmon, but the economic impact is still significant. The alternative, really not a choice at all, is to risk harm that jeopardizes incomes beyond recovery.

The council's final recommendation will come next month at a meeting in Sacramento. The hard choices driven by the Klamath experience come after a success story on the Sacramento River, which enjoyed a healthy rebound of salmon, Poor choices five years ago in one basin haunt an entire industry.

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.