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<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><st1:place w:st="on"><b><font
size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;
font-weight:bold'>Klamath River</span></font></b></st1:place><b><font size=4
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>
Salmon Water Plan to Start<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on"><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>Washington</span></font></b></st1:State></st1:place><b><font
size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:
bold'> Post – 3/28/06<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>By Paul Elias,
Associated Press</span></font></b><b><font size=4><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=4
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>SAN FRANCISCO</span></font></st1:City><font
size=4><span style='font-size:14.0pt'> -- A federal judge has ordered the
government to institute a <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>
management plan immediately instead of waiting five more years, which means
farmers could be deprived of irrigation if water levels drop low enough to
threaten the survival of coho salmon.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>U.S. District Court Judge Saundra B. Armstrong said
Monday that if river levels fail to meet 100 percent of the water flow needed
for the coho as determined by the National Marine Fisheries Service, then
farmers who rely on the Klamath will have to do without.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>That should not be a problem this year because a wet
winter has left Northwest rivers swollen.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>"Everyone should get what they need," said
Kristen Boyles, an Earthjustice attorney who represents the Pacific Coast
Federation of Fishermen's Associations and other groups who opposed the
government's plan for balancing water needs between the coho salmon and farms.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>But how to meet the salmon water requirements of
farmers during dry seasons still remains an open question.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>"The wet winter does give us time to sit down
with them and see how we can meet those requirements," said <st1:PersonName
w:st="on">Zeke Grader</st1:PersonName>, executive director of the Pacific Coast
Federation of Fishermen's Associations in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San
Francisco</st1:City></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Commercial fishing organizations and environmental
groups sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 2002, alleging that the
government's plan to wait eight years to provide the full amount of water
needed for coho survival in the water-scarce basin was insufficient to ensure
the salmon's survival.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed last
year, ruling the plan to be arbitrary and capricious and not supported by
science. Armstrong on Monday rejected government arguments that it had new
explanations supporting its plan to wait until 2010, and ordered the salmon to
immediately have first dibs on the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Stephen Macfarlane, a U.S. Department of Justice
attorney who represents the fisheries agency, said he hadn't read the ruling
and declined comment.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>The Klamath Reclamation Project irrigates 180,000
acres straddling the Oregon-California line in the high desert east of the <st1:place
w:st="on">Cascade Range</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Irrigation was cut off to most of the project in 2001
to protect threatened coho, then restored the next year.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>In the fall of 2002, tens of thousands of adult
Chinook salmon died in the lower Klamath from diseases associated with low and
warm water, as well as some coho. Untold numbers of juvenile salmon died in the
spring.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>Federal fisheries managers last year sharply reduced
sport and commercial ocean harvests up and down the West Coast to reduce the
likelihood Klamath fish would be killed. Similar restrictions could happen this
year.</span></font><o:p></o:p></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><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><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'>Advisor, 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><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a></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="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org">bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</a></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><u><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'>http:www.caltrout.org</span></font></u><font
color=lime><span style='color:lime'> </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>
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12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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