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href="http://www.redding.com/redd/nw_local/article/0,2232,REDD_17533_5133713,00.html"
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size=4><B>Klamath water opponents look for common ground <BR><BR></FONT>By Dylan
Darling, Record Searchlight<BR>November 10, 2006 <BR><BR></B>While a national
attention-grabbing crisis no longer defines the Klamath Basin, debates over
water and how to prevent another calamity persist. <BR><BR>As part of the
continuing effort to bring accord to the oft-splintered basin that straddles the
California-Oregon border, those involved with the debates -- farmers, fishermen,
environmentalists and members of American Indian tribes from along the Klamath
River -- spent the past three days in Redding learning more about the issues and
more about one another. <BR><BR>"We have to understand and appreciate that we
are connected," said Troy Fletcher, former executive director of the Yurok
Tribe. <BR><BR>The Yurok Reservation extends for one mile on each side of the
Klamath River from its mouth about an hour's drive north of Eureka to 44 miles
upstream. It's at the bottom of the Klamath Basin. <BR><BR>Atop the basin is
Klamath Falls, Ore., where the federal government closed the head gates to an
irrigation project that normally waters more than 200,000 acres of agricultural
land at the start of the 2001 growing season. <BR><BR>Instead, the water was
used to protect fish in Upper Klamath Lake and the river it feeds. The decision
sparked protests that drew journalists from major newspapers and television
networks to the town of about 40,000 people for the summer. <BR><BR>More than
270 people were at the Klamath Watershed Conference on Tuesday through Thursday
at the Holiday Inn on Hilltop Drive, said conference organizer Lindsey Lyons.
<BR><BR>She said it was an opportunity for people at opposite ends of the issues
to spend time in the same room. <BR><BR>"Just getting people together is a step
in the right direction," she said. <BR><BR>Next up on the seemingly endless
calendar of conferences and symposiums involving the Klamath Basin is a summit
called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Oregon counterpart, Gov. Ted
Kulongoski. An adviser to Kulongoski announced Thursday that the summit will be
held the week of Dec. 11 in Klamath Falls. <BR><BR>The conference in Redding
followed up on six other conferences, some focusing on the science of the
watershed, others on the strong emotions people have expressed on the issues.
The conference was a mix of biological and social science. <BR><BR>"You can't do
much for fish and wildlife if you can't work with people," said Phillip Detrich,
field supervisor at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Yreka office.
<BR><BR>But you can't do much work when you don't have money, said Glen Spain,
Northwest regional director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's
Associations. <BR><BR>Spain said while the conference had talk of people working
together and finding a solution on which they all agree, there was little talk
of how funding has been stripped from a federally run task force and management
council that had been focused on Klamath River salmon for 20 years. <BR><BR>The
Klamath Fisheries Task Force and the Klamath Fishery Management Council, which
had received $1 million a year from the federal government between them, did not
get any more money after U.S. Reps. Wally Herger and John Doolittle, whose
districts are in Northern California, raised questions about what the groups had
accomplished in nearly two decades of work. Spain said the task force and
council had guided restoration projects throughout the Klamath Basin.
<BR><BR>"My fear is we'll come back a year from now and 80 percent of those
projects will be gone," he said. <BR><BR><I>Reporter Dylan Darling can be
reached at 225-8266 or at <A
href="mailto:ddarling@redding.com">ddarling@redding.com</A>.</I> <BR><BR><A
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