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<H1>Fields of conflict in the Klamath</H1>
<DIV class=storysubhead><A
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-klamath7may07,1,400173.story?coll=la-headlines-california">http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-klamath7may07,1,400173.story?coll=la-headlines-california</A></DIV>
<DIV class=storysubhead> </DIV>
<DIV class=storysubhead>Activists say farmers are poised to solidify their
presence in the basin's federal wildlife refuges.</DIV>
<DIV class=storybyline>By Eric Bailey, Times Staff Writer<BR>May 7, 2007
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LAKE, CALIF. — Under the rolling cloud-scape of the Klamath Basin, a curious
rite of spring is underway.<BR><BR>Migratory birds are flocking to the basin's
necklace of federal wildlife refuges straddling Oregon and California — one of
the most important stops on the Pacific Flyway. As usual, the geese, mallards
and terns are sharing the sanctuaries with tractors.<BR><BR>Agriculture fields
have elbowed onto what once were marshes and shallow inland seas, shrinking the
basin's wetlands by nearly 80%. Environmentalists have long fought to stop that
farming, saying the refuges belong to the birds.<BR><BR>But now, activists say,
farmers in the Klamath Basin appear poised to cement their presence on the
refuges, the basin's most productive farmland.<BR><BR>Farmers are gaining an
edge in closed-door settlement talks over the fate of four dams on the Klamath
River, which meanders across two states before pouring into the Pacific Ocean
north of Eureka, Calif.<BR><BR>Environmentalists universally support dam
removal, which would let endangered salmon reach upriver spawning grounds
blocked for nearly a century. <BR><BR>Activists with a pair of Oregon-based
groups, however, fear that a looming compromise backed by the Bush
administration will come at an unacceptable cost: an agreement to forever allow
farming in the refuges.<BR><BR>The 23-page settlement proposes up to $250
million to ease soaring electricity costs for irrigation pumps and possibly
finance a renewable energy plant.<BR><BR>Farmers and other big landowners could
also be shielded from endangered-species restrictions invoked to revive
imperiled fish species: the salmon, two types of suckerfish in Upper Klamath
Lake and the bull trout, which is found in upstream tributaries.<BR><BR>"The
Bush administration has hijacked these talks about dam removal to advance
unrelated policy goals bad for the environment and bad in the long term for the
Klamath Basin," said Steve Pedery of Oregon Wild, a Portland
nonprofit.<BR><BR>At this point, that resolute stand is a lonely
one.<BR><BR>Other participants in the talks, including several national
environmental groups, say it's too early to go to the mat over a deal that's
anything but done. <BR><BR>"If folks are talking about one thing or another
being sold out, we think that's very premature," said Amy Kober of American
Rivers. "There's still plenty to be worked out."<BR><BR>The administration's top
negotiator declined to discuss details but rejected any notion of pressure from
Washington.<BR><BR>"I've had a free rein to do whatever I felt was right," said
Steve Thompson, California-Nevada manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. "I haven't felt any pressures, other than that Klamath is controversial
from all sides."<BR><BR>Forging a consensus on the Klamath has proved
extraordinarily complicated. Compromises, experts say, will be inevitable for
the proposal to get federal and state support.<BR><BR>"It's a huge stretch to
imagine that commercial agriculture is benefiting wildlife populations in the
long run," said Nancy Langston, a University of Wisconsin environmental studies
professor who has studied the Klamath crisis. "But getting buy-in from as many
people in the basin as possible is critical in the long run."<BR><BR>After more
than two years of discussions, 26 of the 28 groups — U.S. water and wildlife
agencies, the states of California and Oregon, fishermen, four tribes and an
array of environmental groups — have agreed to push forward to settle details in
the agreement.<BR><BR>Meanwhile, Oregon Wild and WaterWatch of Oregon, the two
groups vocally objecting to what they describe as concessions to farmers, have
"essentially been voted off the island," said John DeVoe, WaterWatch's executive
director. <BR><BR>In addition to pushing for reduced water demand in the basin
and higher river flows, the two groups ran aground in their quest to protect the
refuges — and lighten the footprint of
agriculture.<BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>