Tribe Supports Klamath Pact
By Matthew Preusch, Oregonian
February 05, 2008

Members of the Klamath Tribes have voted to support a settlement agreement between farmers, fishermen, water users, tribes and governments in the Klamath Basin.

About 100 tribal members endured a snowstorm Sunday to meet in Chiloquin to debate the agreement, which is intended to restore salmon runs to the upper basin while giving irrigators a more predictable supply of water.

At the end of the day, nearly 90 percent of those present chose to endorse the agreement that tribal leaders had spent the past two years helping negotiate, said Jeff Mitchell, a tribal council member and settlement negotiator.

"What to do with the restoration agreement is perhaps the most important issue for the Klamath Tribes in decades," Klamath tribal Chairman Joseph Kirk said in a statement.

The proposed settlement, signed by 26 groups from southern Oregon and northern California and made public last month, would cost nearly $1 billion over the next 10 years. It includes a provision to spend $21 million in federal funds to help the tribes purchase 90,000 acres of private pine lands north of Klamath Falls, part of the tribes' long-term plan to rebuild their former reservation.

That and other elements of the deal have riled some in the basin, particularly a group of irrigators north of Upper Klamath Lake who opted not to sign the agreement and are now lobbying against it.

But even if Klamath County and other groups all agree the settlement is in their best interests, it will fall apart unless Portland-based PacifiCorp agrees to remove its four hydroelectric dams on Klamath River, which prevent salmon from migrating to the upper basin.

"That certainly will make or break this thing," said Mitchell.

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