Tour visitors at A Canal fish screen

Who are the Klamath farmers?  What have they done to the Klamath Basin?  Just where is this 'Klamath Project' and how does it work? And what have they done to the fish?

These are some of the subjects addressed by basin irrigators, local governmental agency reps, and University of Oregon and University scientists.

 Bob Davis, Klamath BOR, explained  fish and water monitoring and research, and he identified how many $millions are being spent in those efforts.  He said that a study group of irrigators, gov't agencies, tribes and other groups reached a consensus  determining that the Chiloquin Dam should be removed.  According to USFWS studies, the dam blocks 95% of upstream habitat. (it should be noted that actually COUNTING the fish has not been funded by the DOI--if the fish get counted and there are too many, they would have to delist, thereby losing control of irrigator's water--KBC).

Cecil Leslie, BOR, explained, "The basin was full of water, and the water was not going downstream at that time.   This area, through evapotransporation, used between 3 and 4 AF /acre per year.  When asked, "if you had it to do all over again, what would you do?" regarding the Klamath Project, Leslie responded, "I'd do exactly the same thing......I think we've done a good job in this basin.  Agriculture used less water than the basin used before.  The water that's being delivered downstream is more than was in the downstream system previous to the project....we have photos of a couple of years that show that Link River went dry between Upper Klamath Lake, and Lake Ewana would go dry during the summer months."

Bob Gearheart, HUS Professor in environmental resources engineering, and director of the Klamath Wateshed Institute,  offered to get a grant to handle all of the data and form a website, and Oregon Institute of Technology President Martha Ann Dow, said they are already in the process of archiving this data in a data base in collaboration with OSU.  Dan Keppen,  Klamath Water Users Executive Director, expressed appreciation for Humbolt's offer but said that he felt Klamath Basin data should not be controlled outside of our basin...there are many qualified experts here.

Christine Karas, BOR Deputy Area Manager, described how they plan to bring together all of the entities who are trying to control water and restoration in the Klamath Basin.  She also said "the DOI office of policy is working with the tribes to try to develop a water rights settlement..." .Karas said that there are many groups hoping to return the Klamath Basin to its prehistoric condition, and that is not going to happen...."we are here". 

Mike Green, BOR manager of the lease lands, showed a map of the 21,000 irrigated acres of refuge lease land.  This is the largest irrigated refuge farm program in America.  He described how they are flooding areas which reduces soil-borne pests, decreasing the need of pesticides.  He and Bob David stated that very few pesticides allowed on the lease lands, and there have been no negative impacts to fish, waterfowl or wildlife.

In response to a question by Rollin Richmond, Humboldt State University President, Bob Davis stated that there are $8 million derived from agriculture in the local community annually, $2 million going to the U.S. government.

Mike Green continued by explaining the Kuchal Act of Congress, tying agriculture and wildlife together forever.  He explained that presently only 13% is in row crops.  A 4-year study of wildlife and crops determined that there is more dark goose use in potatoes than in the grains. 

Dr Harry Carlson, Superintendent, Intermountain Research and Extension Center from Tulelake, said that the Kuchel Act was a compromise regarding homesteading and wildlife.  It was intended to be homesteaded, but rather ended in legislation that allowed farming forever, with exceptional benefits for wildlife.  It is a huge feed source for birds. He said that "some groups don't want to see a combine in the refuge---it isn't aesthetic." (farms supply 70 million lbs of food for waterfowl per year...for more (audio) info go HERE.

According to a USFWS representative, 15-20 million birds annually come to the refuges: 80% of the waterfowl pass through our refuges, and 50% stop in the Klamath Refuge.  This is the largest bald eagle gathering in the lower 48 states. He said that refuges get reused farm water, so when the water is cut off to the farms, it depletes the refuges and drys up some marshes, destroying certain wildlife feeds and habitat. "it's hard to maintain marshes with this sporadic delivery to the farms."  With the current change of priorities (single-species management), it's a challenge to manage the refuges.

 It is the most efficient project in the United States, water is reused 7 times, and the return flows keep the refuges supplied with water that, contrary to environmental groups' and the media's best efforts to advertise otherwise, the agricultural water is not contaminated. No adverse impacts have been found..

Karas expressed the need for water certainty for farms and refuges.

Dan Keppen explained the tour route, conservation measures taken by irrigators, and also the need for certainty for farms and refuges.

We first toured the A Canal, $15 million fish screen, seeing the complete process of screening sucker fish so they won't swim down the Canals.  This structure was built in 8 months. 

Dr. Ken Rykbost, Superintendent, OSU- Klamath County Experiment Station

In route on tour bus to Lost River, Dr Ken Rykbost presented his hydrology report. He explained how the Klamath Project consists of only 3.4% of the water at the mouth of the Klamath River.  His research of the Hardy Flow study discovered that Dr Hardy used a time period of the highest precipitation and river flows in recorded history to develop demands on  Klamath Project.stored water. For full Power Point, go HERE.

The tour proceeded through Shasta View, Horsefly, and Malin Irrigation districts, with Harold Hartman, Malin Irrigation District, explaining the irrigation systems, one being entirely pressurized.  He pointed out the TID wells on Stateline, telling how over 200 domestic and irrigation wells went dry in 2001 with our irrigation water being withheld from the ditches, and the TID wells were pumping massive amounts of groundwater.  This year TID was forced to pump their wells (or else the BOR would shut down the Klamath Project), but there was less 3rd party impacts because the ditches were full.

The DOI demanded that we downsize the Klamath Project this year by forming a 'water bank', where the farmers were paid to not farm, or paid to irrigate with private wells.  We saw many parched fields.  When land is idled, there are diminished return flows, meaning that less water goes to the refuge and down the Klamath River.  This is greatly harming our local economy and the delicate balance of water in our entire ecosystem. 

Hartman and John Crawford, TID, told how the water used to be quite deep throughout the Tulelake Basin.  It was not primarily wetlands like many agencies and groups have portrayed, and the water line was pointed out on the Petroglyphs, approximately 20' deep. Crawford told how the valley was comprised of WWI and WWII veterans, who won homesteads after their service in the wars.  This was a drained lake bed, with few roads and no infrastructure..they built the entire community. In Coppock Bay, at the SE edge of the basin, Crawford showed the ditch lining project, located where water had been lost to ground absorption.  In many places this would be counterproductive because the lack of water in ditches would dry up shallow wells.  Many conservation practices were shown.  Last week KWUA won a conservation award from Oregon State for it's exceptional efforts in water conservation.

Midge Thierolf, Senator Wyden's S. Oregon Rep, and Deb Crisp, Tulelake Growers Assoc executive director, at Petroglyphs

Dr Harry Carlson speaks regarding the refuges

Crawford, Crisp and Carlson  spoke throughout the tour of the refuges, explaining benefits to waterfowl and wildlife from agriculture on the refuge lease lands. Flood/fallow program was shown, where farmland is flooded, and flooded land is farmed, also with great benefits for both farms and wildlife.  Hundreds of birds were viewed from the bus.

We saw where the D Plant is the pumping plant built and 6.600 foot concrete-lined tunnel which conveys drainage water from Tule Lake sumps to the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.  Historically this was a closed basin...this water did not go into the Klamath Lake, so a tunnel was built through Sheepy Ridge to allow the lake to be drained and land to be farmed.  So now Klamath Lake and River flows are higher than historic levels.

We drove through Lower Klamath Refuge, and back to Klamath BOR office to end the tour. These tours provide invaluable education and interaction between all those concerned with Klamath Basin issues.