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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>KLAMATH RIVER BASIN</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Bureau wringing out Klamath-Trinity plan for fall
</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Eureka Times-Standard -
8/12/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>By John Driscoll, staff
writer</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P>The federal government is churning out a plan to boost flows for salmon on
the Klamath River, but relief will come only from the river's main tributary
rather than the Klamath itself.</P>
<P>Last week, the Trinity Management Council recommended sending a burst of
water down the Trinity River beginning in less than two weeks. It is designed to
spur fish to migrate, then ramp back down.</P>
<P>The impetus behind the plan is the 2002 fish kill, which killed 34,000 to
68,000 chinook salmon in the lower Klamath. A huge portion of the Trinity River
run died before it ever reached the confluence of the two rivers. </P>
<P>"What the recommendation was is very similar to last year," said Doug
Schleusner, executive director of the Trinity River Restoration Program.</P>
<P><STRONG><U><FONT color=#ff0000>In one day, beginning on Aug. 22, flows from
Lewiston Dam would jump from 450 cubic feet per second to 1,650 cfs. After that,
the flows would drop slowly to 450 cfs on Sept. 15.</FONT></U></STRONG></P>
<P>The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is working on a final plan, which is expected
this week. </P>
<P>While Reclamation will slowly increase Klamath flows as well, there is no
plan to exceed its regular schedule. In the event another fish kill begins,
there is no dedicated amount of water that could be released from Iron Gate Dam
on the Klamath, said bureau Deputy Area Manager Christine Karas.</P>
<P>Karas said in an emergency, Reclamation could ask dam owner PacifiCorp to
release water from Iron Gate Reservoir, but it would have to be filled again
from Upper Klamath Lake. </P>
<P>How that would happen while meeting the bureau's obligation to keep lake
levels high enough for endangered suckers -- and after providing irrigation
water to farms all summer -- is difficult to know. </P>
<P>"We're going to be really tight in September," Karas said. </P>
<P>Troy Fletcher, executive director of the Yurok Tribe, sees a dichotomy in the
plan.</P>
<P>He said Reclamation denies its operations harm fish on the Klamath River, but
is using Trinity River water purchased at taxpayer's expense to bump up flows
for salmon. All the while more water is flowing to irrigate farms than is being
allowed down the river, he said. </P>
<P>"It seems disingenuous," Fletcher said. </P>
<P>Irrigators have argued that a combination of warm water -- like that in
Klamath reservoirs -- and crowded conditions probably caused the 2002 fish kill.
They've argued that releasing more warm water won't help. </P>
<P>A U.S. Fish and Wildlife report last year pointed to a variety of factors
leading to the fish kill, among them too little water. This year, California's
Fish and Game Department attributed the salmon deaths largely to low flows --
the only tool available to prevent future die-offs. </P>
<P>Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and Reclamation voted against a request from tribes at the
Trinity Management Council meeting to put more water down the Klamath. </P>
<P>Fish and Wildlife is working on criteria for releasing Trinity water, and
hopes to send that to the bureau this week. Fisheries supervisor Mary Ellen
Mueller said how the release will affect the different runs of salmon isn't
known. There was no monitoring last year -- it is being proposed this year --
but Mueller said there's no evidence Klamath fish strayed up the Trinity, a
concern voiced by some biologists. # </P></DIV>
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