<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18828">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'">Klamath
agreement helps dam owners, not fish<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'">Sacramento
Bee-10/18/09<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'">By
Leonard Masten <o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'">Opinion<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>As chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, I was sadly struck by
the reality of Rex Rabin's Oct. 6 political cartoon depicting one dying salmon
telling another, "Dams on the Klamath are coming down! Pass it
on."<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>This scene of mass salmon death in the water-starved Klamath
River and its largest tributary, the Trinity River, could be a recollection of
the 2002 fish kill of 68,000 spawning salmon that did not get enough water. The
cartoon also could predict the future if the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement
Agreement announced by Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Sept. 30
is implemented as written.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>The Bee's Oct. 4 editorial, "Klamath pact could be a start
toward peace," said the agreement will, "simultaneously help fish and farmers."
I disagree. This agreement has so many loopholes and delays that naturally
spawning salmon in the Klamath and Trinity rivers may be dead before one brick
is removed from the dams. <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>The agreement proclaims good goals, but gives the owners of
the dams, PacifiCorp, more time to devise legal and legislative plans to stall
the removal of the dams until they are exonerated from liability and paid
generously by taxpayers. The years of Klamath settlement talks came only after
PacifiCorp realized they were on the verge of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission's order to put expensive fish ladders at the four
turn-of-last-century dams.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Our reservation has the Klamath and Trinity rivers flowing
through it. We hope the agreement will help the salmon, but although we have
been part of the negotiations we must dissent until more salmon protections are
incorporated in the agreement.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>No other tribe has spent more time and money defending the
Trinity River. The other "environmental" negotiators in the settlement who have
embraced this agreement should focus less on the desirability of agreement, and
more on objective, good science for the rivers. Agreement should come only after
the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement can protect fish in these rivers.
We must fight, if even alone, because this is our home and our
culture.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>The Bee's editorial noted that "critics are missing the big
picture." When it comes to the big picture our tribe has given decades and
millions of dollars to river restoration. We have fished salmon from the Trinity
River for thousands of years. The river and the fish are part of us. We don't
have another ancestral homeland to move to. The salmon do not have another river
to spawn in.# <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><I>Leonard Masten is chairman of the Hoopa Valley
Tribe.<o:p></o:p></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><A href=""><FONT
color=#0000ff>http://www.sacbee.com/325/story/2259505.html</FONT></A><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Tom Stokely<BR>Water Policy
Coordinator<BR>California Water Impact Network<BR>201 Terry Lynn Ave (USPS and
UPS)<BR>Mt Shasta, CA 96067<BR>V/FAX 530-926-9727<BR>Cell 530-524-0315<BR><A
href="mailto:tstokely@att.net">tstokely@att.net</A><BR><A
href="http://www.c-win.org/">http://www.c-win.org/</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>