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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2812024,00.html"
title="http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2812024,00.html">http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2812024,00.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Trinity water shift condemned</span></font></b><font size=4><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By <st1:PersonName
w:st="on">John Driscoll</st1:PersonName> The Times-Standard <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Tuesday,
April 12, 2005 - <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
federal government wants to use water meant for restoring the Trinity River <br>
to prevent a fish kill on the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>
this fall. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By its
own admission, such a decision would delay the goals of the Trinity River <br>
Restoration Program -- which just received full clearance to proceed by a
federal <br>
appeals court this year. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In a
letter Monday, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region Director Kirk <br>
Rodgers told restoration program chief <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Douglas
Schleusner</st1:PersonName> to craft a schedule for <br>
using the water meant to flow down the Trinity River in the spring to raise and
<br>
cool the Klamath during the typically hot fall, when salmon migrate. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The letter
outraged some <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place> advocates, like <st1:PersonName
w:st="on">Byron Leydecker</st1:PersonName>, who saw <br>
it as ordering the theft of Trinity water from its intended purpose to cover <br>
Reclamation for failed policies on the Klamath. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>California
Trout's Leydecker said Reclamation has overcommitted water on the <br>
Klamath, and now wants to prostitute a 16-year effort on the Trinity to make up
<br>
for it. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"I've
seen some gross political action in my time," Leydecker said, "but
this one is <br>
very near the top of the list." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He said
if Reclamation should buy water from <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>
contractors like it <br>
did two years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">River basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> has received a tiny portion
of its typical snow pack -- <br>
around 30 percent -- this year. Reclamation's operations plan calls for flows
only <br>
slightly higher than those believed in part responsible for a massive salmon
die-off <br>
in the lower Klamath in 2002. While Reclamation has bought 100,000 acre feet <br>
of water from farmers in its Klamath Irrigation Project, fall flows are still <br>
anticipated to be paltry. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"When
combined with one of the lowest projected adult spawning escapements in <br>
recent years, impacts to fisheries in both the Trinity and Klamath basins could
be <br>
severe," Rodgers wrote. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Schleusner
was directed to work with the Trinity Management Council and the <br>
Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group to develop a flow schedule, <br>
including options and tradeoffs. Those groups meet this week. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Reclamation
spokesman Jeff McCracken said the goal of the restoration program is <br>
to restore the river and the fishery, and this approach fits that bill. Asked
if the <br>
agency could buy water from the <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>
for the same purpose, McCracken <br>
said competition for tight water supplies has grown tighter, making water more <br>
difficult to buy. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In a
letter that predates Rodgers', the Hoopa Valley Tribe asserted that the <br>
management council has no authority to use the water for anything other than <br>
<st1:place w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place> restoration. It also addressed a
lack of funding for the effort. The <br>
council is at risk of dealing a "triple blow to restoration," by
postponing the effort, <br>
underfunding it, then withholding the water needed to reshape the river, the <br>
tribe wrote. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Each
of these actions is unlawful and potentially jeopardizes the fishery that the <br>
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
holds in trust for our tribe," the March 4 letter reads.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><em><i><font size=3 color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker</span></font></i></em></st1:PersonName><em><i><font color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'>, </span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends of <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Consultant, California Trout, Inc.</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>PO Box</span></font></i></em></st1:Street><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'> 2327</span></font></i></em></st1:address><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>Mill Valley</span></font></i></em></st1:City><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'>, <st1:State w:st="on">CA</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></em></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810 ph</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 9562 fx</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><u><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a></span></font></u></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org">bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</a><u>
</u></span></font><font color=black><span style='color:black'>(secondary)</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="http://www.fotr.org">http://www.fotr.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'><a href="http://caltrout.org">http://caltrout.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span><o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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