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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Fixing
the Klamath; Part I: Why the Klamath matters here </span></font></b>(The first
in a multi-part series)<br>
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<v:imagedata src="cid:image001.jpg@01C6D73A.DAC6E260" o:href="http://www.newportnewstimes.com/content/articles/2006/09/13/news/news16.jpg" />
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src="cid:image002.jpg@01C6D73A.DAC6E260" align=left hspace=12 border=0 v:shapes="_x0000_s1026"><![endif]>By
Joel Gallob Of the News-Times<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2006/09/13/news/news16.txt">http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2006/09/13/news/news16.txt</a>
</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Early in the 20th
century, the federal Bureau of Reclamation developed a plan to use the <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType>,
straddling the Oregon-California border, and the adjacent <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Lost</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
for farming.<br>
<br>
Through the "Klamath Project," the bureau dammed rivers, drained
wetlands, cut forests, dug canals, diverted waters, and enabled the irrigation
of tens of thousands of acres in the basin. Farmers began to raise potatoes,
onions, alfalfa, barley and other crops in areas east of the Cascade Range that
are naturally been semi-arid, even though they are laced with wetlands and
lakes fed by runoff from that range.<br>
<br>
Starting at about the same time, a series of dams were built on the <st1:place
w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>; only one was designed as part of the
irrigation effort and the others were intended for power production and flood
control.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Copco 1 was built in 1918; Link River Dam (key to the Klamath
irrigation effort) in 1921; Copco 2 in 1925; J.C. Boyle Dam in 1958; Iron Gate
in 1962; and Keno Dam in 1967.<br>
<br>
For decades, it appeared to most everyone - except the Native American tribes
who relied on Klamath salmon for their food and culture -the dams and the Klamath
Project had succeeded.<br>
<br>
But both the irrigation system and the power production have become embroiled
in controversy; it appears there was a price to be paid for their successes.<br>
<br>
There are different views on just how to allocate the blame for the reduced
Klamath salmon runs between the irrigation diversions, the effects of the dams,
and other causes, as well. Still, the bill appears to have come due in 2001 and
2002, when a regional drought lowered water levels in the Klamath to the point
where farmers, who need it for irrigation, found themselves fighting
conservationists, Native tribes and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who all
wanted the water for fish.<br>
<br>
In 2001, Klamath farmers confronted federal marshals for several weeks at the
head-gates that kept water available for endangered sucker fish (also known as
mullet) in Upper Klamath Lake and for threatened coho salmon in the <st1:place
w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>. Some 1,400 family farms received no
irrigation water and suffered serious economic losses. Some went into bankruptcy,
some went out of business.<br>
<br>
In the summer of 2002, the Bush Administration overrode the US Fish &
Wildlife Service and restored full irrigation flows to the farmers. That
spring, there had been smaller die-offs of juvenile fish in the Klamath; come
September, tens of thousands of returning Chinook salmon died in the river. The
original estimate was 35,000; later estimates doubled the number. The cause,
according to the National Research Council of the National Academies was
"two types of pathogens that are widely distributed and generally become
harmful to fish under stress, particularly if crowding occurs."<br>
<br>
The findings of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife report, "Klamath River Fish
Die-Off September 2002: Causative Factors of Mortality," reached the same
conclusion conservationists and Native American tribes had reached - that low
flows below the Klamath's Iron Gate Dam, (the dam closest to the ocean and the
die-off area), caused by upstream irrigation diversions, had created the
conditions causing the epidemic which led to the die-off in the river's lowest
40 miles.<br>
<br>
In 2005, <st1:State w:st="on">Oregon</st1:State> and <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> coast commercial salmon fishers
joined the fish in helping pay the Klamath Project bill. Fish from the reduced
2001 outgoing run were coming back and had to be protected. The 2005 salmon
season was limited to prevent fishers from catching many of the returning
Klamath Chinook.<br>
<br>
This summer, the worry about returning Klamath Chinook led to a virtual closure
of the commercial ocean salmon season, a first-ever shutdown (with a few
exceptions) along 700 miles of coast from below the Columbia River to
California's Point Sur.<br>
<br>
The closure led to calls for changes in how the <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType>, Klamath lakes, and <st1:place
w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> are managed. It led, also, to the Klamath
farmers, in an effort by the "Klamath Bucket Brigade," providing aid
to coastal salmon fishers struggling to survive the season. And it has led to
various proposed solutions to the problems of the Klamath.<br>
<br>
But nothing is certain, including the exact cause of the 2002 fish die-off. It
may seem common sense to figure that fish need water, and salmon need cold,
clear water - and a shortage of both would damage the Klamath salmon. But the
Klamath Water Users Association says upstream water diversions did not cause the
crisis, and that Upper Klamath water is too warm to have helped the fish had it
been released. Further, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">South</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Coast</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> salmon fisherman
Scott Boley, who grew up in the Klamath and returned there recently with other
coastal fishers to talk with Klamath farmers, says the strong returning Chinook
brood in 2002 and consequent overcrowding in the lower Klamath, with or without
the water diversions for farmers, was enough to cause the 2002 die-off.<br>
<br>
Even if the environmentalists, fishermen, California Department of Fish and
Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are correct in believing competition
between fish and farmers for Klamath flows caused the die-off, there in no
guarantee the required water will go to the fish. The flows, especially in
drought years, may not be enough to meet all the claims on them.<br>
<br>
Salmon runs<br>
<br>
One thing certain is that, before the Klamath was dammed and diverted, it was
the West Coast's third greatest salmon stream, behind the <st1:City w:st="on">Columbia</st1:City>
and <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:place></st1:City>
rivers. It drains a basin of 9,691 square miles that gets less than 12 inches
of rain per year, but is also watered by runoff from the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Cascades</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Range</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.<br>
<br>
According to an April 2005 article by John Hamilton, Gary Curtis, Scott
Snedaker and David White in "Fisheries," published by the American
Fisheries Society, the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> in 1908
was filled with salmon. It quoted a Klamath Falls Evening Herald article of
Sept. 24, 1908 that, "There are millions of the fish below the falls near
Keno, and it is said that a man with a gaff could easily land a hundred of the
salmon in an hour, in fact they could be caught as fast as a man could pull
them in."<br>
<br>
One estimate, the article noted, put the Klamath salmon runs at 650,000 to 1
million fish.<br>
<br>
Chinook historically used the whole length of the 350-mile long system
including the distant tributaries of <st1:place w:st="on">Upper Klamath Lake</st1:place>.
But much of their best spawning sites were in the middle reach at, above, and
now underneath the river's dams and reservoirs.<br>
<br>
Steelhead, too, made it into the tributaries of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Upper</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, as did coho
salmon. They prefer smaller streams than Chinook, and historically spawned
mainly in the upper basin (as did sockeye and pink salmon, and cutthroat
trout). The coho are down to 1 percent of pre-project numbers, according to an
article by Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's
Association, in the Fishermen's News of August 2001. The chum and pink salmon
are gone. The coho runs are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species
Act. The Chinook are protected under the Magnuson Stevens Act.<br>
<br>
But when people spoke of immense Klamath salmon runs in years gone by, it was
the Chinook they were referring to. The Chinook have spring and fall runs, and
if the basin were somehow returned to a state of nature, it is the spring runs
(aided by Cascades and other melt water) that would re-colonize the Klamath to
its highest springs. The fall Chinook (protected by the truncated 2006 salmon
season) might make it that far up in good water years, but not in lesser years.<br>
<br>
Geography<br>
<br>
The Klamath region is one of the most complex in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Oregon</st1:place></st1:State>. Besides receiving water from the
Cascade's eastern slopes, it also gets runoff from the ridges, small mountains
and streams to its east. Historically, its lakes grew and shrunk naturally with
the seasons, and were surrounded by great wetlands. With two wildlife refuges
and an abundance of fish, birds and other critters, the region has been called
the <st1:place w:st="on">Everglades</st1:place> of the West.<br>
<br>
Three large lakes are at the heart of the region: Upper Klamath Lake, <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Lower Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType>,
and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Tule</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.<br>
<br>
Various streams flow into the north side of Upper Klamath Lake; at its south
end, the <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Link</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River</st1:PlaceType>
flows out beside the city of <st1:City w:st="on">Klamath Falls</st1:City>, into
a brief, mini-lake (<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Ewauna</st1:PlaceName>) and then becomes the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath
River</st1:place>. It flows south and then bends east, heading through canyons
and past dams to the ocean. There is also <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Lower Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>,
which is connected to the river. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Tule</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, further east, had
naturally been separate, a terminal evaporative pond, but has been connected to
the broader Klamath system by man.<br>
<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Clear</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, and Malone and Gerber Reservoirs,
east of Tule and the Klamath lakes, add their water to the upper Klamath
system.<br>
<br>
Several smaller rivers further downstream feed into the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath
River</st1:place>, including the Shasta, Salmon and the Scott rivers. Finally,
just 43 miles before the Klamath reaches the ocean, the <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place> - the biggest single tributary - enters into it.<br>
<br>
The fish die-off in 2002 took place within the first 36 miles from the mouth of
the river, downstream from virtually all of this. What happens in the basin,
affects the salmon - and the <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oregon</st1:place></st1:State>
coast.<br>
<br>
Joel Gallob is a reporter for the News-Times. He can be reached at 265-8571
ext. 223, or <a href="mailto:joel.gallob@lee.net">joel.gallob@lee.net</a>.</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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