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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>KLAMATH RIVER BASIN</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>State needs fishery adviser for Klamath
council </STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>Eureka Times-Standard -
8/25/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>By John Driscoll, staff
writer</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=4>California is seeking nominations for a key post on the Klamath
Fishery Management Council, which recommends harvest limits for commercial and
sport fishing to the federal government. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The management council is an 11-member advisory committee that
brings together fishermen, tribes and agencies to manage salmon and steelhead
produced in the Klamath basin. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The council narrowly avoided being de-funded last year. Inland
California Congressman Wally Herger slipped language into an interior
appropriations bill to yank the council's $110,000 in funding after it
recommended changes to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's irrigation project on
the Klamath following the massive 2002 fish kill. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The council wrote two letters to U.S. Interior Secretary Gale
Norton, asking her to consider fish other than protected coho salmon when
allocating water to the lower river. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Herger, R-Chico, claimed the council had overstepped its bounds,
but council members and others on the lower river saw it as a measure meant to
stifle legitimate concern. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>But Rep. Mike Thompson struck a deal with the chairman of the
House Interior Appropriations Committee to have the language taken out in
conference, said the St. Helena Democrat's spokesman Jonathan Birdsong.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"We caught it," Birdsong said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The management council meets three to four times each year to
review the past year's harvest of chinook salmon, and the outlook for the coming
year. The nominees for the vacant position should be willing to represent the
sport fishery in the Klamath Management Zone. Nominations are due by Sept.
30.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>More information can be found at </FONT><A
href="outbind://58/www.r1.fws.gov/yreka/kfmc.htm"><U><FONT color=#0000ff
size=4>www.r1.fws.gov/yreka/kfmc.htm</U></FONT></A><FONT size=4> #</P>
<P> </P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>RELATED</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Editorial: Trinity water to mean fewer dead
fish?</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News -
8/24/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P>If nothing else, the increased flow of Trinity River water into the Klamath
River that began last weekend should tell people something. We hope it
demonstrates more clearly the relationship between the temperature of water
hitting the lower end of the Klamath, and fish mortality.</P>
<P>Two years ago, 34,000 or more fish died in the lower Klamath from a disease
that's always present in the water, but runs wild under certain conditions.
Included in those conditions may well be high water temperatures, low river flow
and the number of fish returning.</P>
<P>The contention in 2002 was that more water should be taken from the Klamath
Reclamation Project in the Upper Klamath Basin and sent down river. But it
couldn't be shown that high-temperature water from this area would have helped
the fish. What was far more certain was that farms in the Upper Klamath Basin
would have been deprived of irrigation water.</P>
<P>The Trinity River flows into the Klamath River 43.5 miles from the Pacific
Ocean. Unlike the Klamath River's warm water, the Trinity's is cold, which
should be more valuable to salmon - even critically so. In 2002, most of the
fish deaths were below the confluence of the Trinity and the Klamath.</P>
<P>Last year, more water was sent down the Trinity River and there was no fish
die-off. We hope the same result comes this year, but even if so, it's too early
to declare colder water is the cure-all. Other conditions may differ from 2002.
One of the factors that led to the 2002 die-off, for example, was a heavy return
of salmon. There was also speculation that changes in the river's channel from
storms some years ago made it harder for the salmon to migrate upriver, which
forced fish to congregate and become more susceptible to disease.</P>
<P>In short, there are likely to be a number of factors involved when fish die
in large numbers. The reason the amount of water in the river gets the attention
is because it's one that agencies can control.</P>
<P>We don't expect a definitive answer this year on the role that water
temperature plays in fish die-offs. We hope, however, that if there continue to
be fewer fish dying in years that colder water makes it downstream, people begin
to realize that not all water is created the same.#</P>
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