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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=1>from the July
21, 2006 edition - </FONT><A href="" eudora="autourl"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"
size=1>http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0721/p02s01-usec.html</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3> <BR></FONT>
<H2><FONT face=Georgia color=#556688 size=5><B>In Northwest water clash, a push
to talk</FONT> </B></H2><FONT size=2><B>A 'summit' may be held to address
fishing, farming, and environmental concerns in the Klamath River Basin.</B>
<BR><BR><B>By <A href="">Brad Knickerbocker</A></B> | Staff writer of The
Christian Science Monitor</FONT> <BR><B>ASHLAND, ORE.</B> <BR><BR>"Oh, the
farmer and the cowman should be friends." So sang (with irony) the young ladies
in the musical "Oklahoma!" as the young men brawled at a country dance.<BR><BR>A
variation on that tune might be the anthem of the Klamath River Basin in Oregon
and California, as farmers and fishermen work out their relationship in an era
of troubled community economics and limited natural resources in parts of the
American West. Except in this case, they really do have growing concern for each
other's livelihood as the region sorts through its longstanding problem of
allocating contested water supplies.<BR><BR>Farmers who rely on irrigation at
the headwaters of the Klamath, and downstream commercial fishermen who gather
their catch in the area where the river empties into the Pacific, are being
urged to change their work and way of life to benefit endangered
fisheries.<BR><BR>Some of this involves the work of the Nature Conservancy and
other means of purchasing development rights - irrigation allotments in the case
of farmers, fishing permits and even boats in the case of fishermen. But it's a
complicated business also involving sovereign Indian tribes with treaty rights
including water: those who traditionally harvest what have become greatly
diminished suckerfish populations in Klamath Lake in Oregon, and Pacific Coast
tribes in California that fish for dwindling salmon stocks.<BR><BR>Now, the US
departments of Interior, Commerce, and Agriculture, plus the White House Council
on Environmental Quality, are being asked to hold a regional "summit" out here
to address longstanding water issues in the Klamath Basin. Rep. Greg Walden (R)
of Oregon - through whose sprawling, mostly rural district the Klamath flows -
is organizing the effort.<BR><B>Watershed event in 2001</B> <BR><BR>The need has
been building at least since 2001, when the US Bureau of Reclamation announced
that no water would be available for irrigation that summer due to drought and
the needs of endangered and other species in and around national wildlife
refuges along the Oregon- California border. This year, federal authorities have
severely limited commercial salmon fishing along 700 miles of the US Pacific
Coast.<BR><BR>Referring to both episodes as "crises," Representative Walden
wrote to Bush administration officials last week, "The cost to the environment
and affected farmers, ranchers, fishermen and their communities is enormous,
threatening the economy of the areas and causing great despair among
residents."<BR><BR>Getting all parties together at a high-level meeting is the
kind of thing Bill Clinton did shortly after his first election - when he
brought then-Vice President Al Gore and what seemed like half the cabinet to
Portland, Ore., to deal with the forest crisis over the northern spotted
owl.<BR><BR>Getting everybody together in collaborative fashion is what former
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt tried to do on other Western resource issues
during the Clinton years. But it seems atypical of this administration, which
clearly sided with agriculture over environmental and downriver interests during
the long, hot summer of 2001 when farmers and ranchers symbolically defied
federal marshals by opening irrigation head gates. A year later, irrigators got
the water, and tens of thousands of salmon died from disease due to low, warm
river flows.<BR><BR>It remains to be seen whether or not the "Summit on the
Klamath River Basin," as Walden calls it, happens. "We're still waiting to hear
from the administration," says Matt Daigle, an aide to Walden. "But all early
indicators have been favorable."<BR><BR>If nothing else, the current effort
could revitalize the cabinet-level working group announced by the Bush
administration four years ago to address the problems - an effort that seems to
have faded away.<BR><B>Skeptical environmentalists</B> <BR><BR>For their part,
environmentalists are wary. "I'm highly skeptical," says Jim McCarthy, an
environmental consultant working with river conservation groups and coast
fishermen. "Getting more water to fish is the keystone to getting fisheries
restoration in the Klamath." What that will take, Mr. McCarthy and many
ecologists say, is allowing more water to flow downstream unimpeded by
irrigation diversions, as well as taking out or reengineering four hydropower
dams on the river - another highly controversial issue.<BR><BR>Meanwhile,
Pacific Coast fishermen and Klamath Basin farmers have been visiting each other,
looking for ways to jointly tackle the problems they face that are connected by
a river that flows from the Cascade Mountain Range to the sea. Farmers have set
up a relief fund for commercial fishermen faced with high costs and low income
this summer. At one recent meeting, someone passed a hat around, and $900 was
collected - not a lot of money, but the effort was earnest.<BR><BR>In the West,
Mark Twain once quipped, "whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over."
That may be less true these days in the Klamath Basin.<BR><BR><A href="">Full
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