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 Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
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Archive 62 - August 2007
also  see main archive page

Around 1900, Link River, between Upper Klamath Lake and Lake Ewauna, occasionally went dry before the Klamath Project was built. There was no hydropower, no hatcheries, occasionally no fish (fish need water), no artificially-raised river flows or lake levels.  HERE for more

Rerun, lest we forget: Nature, Not Man, is Responsible for West Coast Salmon Decline, John Carlisle study, posted to KBC 2/2/06, A Publication of the National Center for Public Policy Research. "The immense influence of the oceanic cycle on salmon should give politicians and bureaucrats considerable pause before implementing costly policies that penalize people. Even if this natural cycle was not the culprit, the failure of past attempts to maintain or increase salmon populations suggest that a regulatory approach is not advisable."

Karuk Tribal member James A. Waddell to Karuk Chairman Arch Super, 8/31/07. "Do the Karuk members know that over the years the Karuk Council members have helped political obstructionists to shut down loggers, sawmill workers, and related local businesses?  Water users?  Farmers?  Those working citizens used to be part of the economy of Siskiyou County!  Gone to find other jobs!"

(Paisley, OR) Timber harvest project is intended to reduce fires and diseases, H&N 8/31/07

Herald and News weekly water report from Reclamation 8/31/07

Eat That! Mandatory NAIS forced on 12-yr-old children at county fair, Good Neighbor 8/29/07

California Farm Bureau Federation Friday Review, 8/31/07. "Today's Friday Review contains the following bills, SB 180, SB 974, SB 1001, SB 719, SB 691, AB 1100, AB 1180, AB 297, and AB 762."

Karuk - No Reservation, My Opinion, by Barry R. Clausen, August 31, 2007. "Based on documents and interviews it appears obvious to me that the Tribal Council wants to stop all farmers, ranchers and recreational use of the Klamath and Salmon Rivers. There are over 50 areas of the Salmon and the Klamath that will be either closed or restricted to gold prospecting each year if Assembly Bill 1032 passes this year."

Family Farm Alliance August review, 2007. "The tri-county board is also sponsoring a study of Boultner Lake, located in a roadless area...(WY). The existing reservoir was built in the 1920s and has only limited motorized access, which restricts maintenance of the outlet works unless extensive U.S. Forest Service permits are secured. Now, the outlet works are unusable and the stored water behind it cannot be used by the Sublette County irrigators downstream."

Letter sent by Barry Clausen regarding letters concerning Karuk Tribal Council corruption, 8/31/07

Grant to restore Basin watershed, H&N, posted 8/31/07. "Ducks Unlimited received a $789,563 federal grant to help restore t he Upper Klamath Basin watershed."Groups involved in the project include The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Klamath Watershed Council, KBEF/Klamath Basin Ecosystem Foundation, and Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust." For KBEF board of directors go HERE. KBEF and Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center are both members of Orion Network.  

Conservation credited with thwarting California energy crunch, Sacramento Bee, posted 8/31/07. "Earlier in the day, the state's largest energy consumers were notified that they might have to go dark to help prevent blackouts." (KBC Note: do we really want to take out 4 Klamath hydro dams which provide power for 70,000 homes annually? Do you want to be the one with no power?)

Karuk Tribal leadership seeks hostile takeover, by John Goodwin, Pioneer Press opinion, posted to KBC 8/31/07

ESA does not trump Clean Water Act, Stoel Rives, posted 8/31/07

Slam! Karuk, Riverkeeper file lawsuit in state court, Pioneer Press posted 8/31/07. "Karuk Indian tribe was charged with collecting water samples, and health workers took blood samples from area swimmers, fisherman and boaters from August 17 through 19. The CDC granted the Karuk nearly $85,000 to conduct the sampling, and the tribe paid $40 to every lake user who volunteered to help with the two-day sampling effort."

Tulelake Irrigation District water levels 8/29/07

And You Think The Indians Lost to the White Man, Ron Ewert, posted 8/29/07

Several counties located within/adjacent to an Indian reservation received a 2-page letter from the Census Bureau explaining how they will be within tribal jurisdiction. The Mayor of the Town of Hannah responded. 8/25/07

Dear KBC, I am a supporter of maintaining the dams. Please see the article on salmon and steelhead fishing published in California Game and Fish September 2007 issue. The article starting on page 28 shows that the fishing guides are seeing a lot of good fishing and expect a very good fall of fishing for salmon ad steelhead. Proof the water is goods and fishing is good. Keep the dams!. Rich Bodnar

Parties say magistrate acted as 'science arbiter' in coho case, August 24, 2007  Columbia Basin Bulletin

Coalition appeals discounting of hatchery fish, 8/24/07

Groups sue North Coast water board over Klamath River dams, Register Guard, 8/23/07

Karuk Leader Arrested, North Coast Journal 8/23/07

8/24/07 - Today's special chat is with George Sexton, Conservation Director of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center. HERE for full interaction. He brought to our attention that it was not Earth First, EF (the eco-terrorist group demonstrating for removal of Klamath Dams, but rather Earth Liberation Front, ELF, whose members are all in prison for burning Vale, Colorado resort. What we learned today is that ELF sprung from EF and is still an arm of EF. "(EF!) is a "warrior society" that takes a "by any means necessary" approach to "defending mother earth." The group declines to participate in the democratic process, preferring instead to damage, disable, and destroy the property of its ever-growing list of enemies. EF! targets include, but are by no means limited to, loggers, ranchers, and farmers -- especially those who grow genetically modified crops. Earth First!ers' crimes include assault, arson, and untold acts of sabotage."

 

Spotted Owl comments by 8/24

Board discusses Klamath Watershed, Siskiyou Daily News, posted to KBC 8/23/07. "... he did an excellent job, especially in providing the clarification that the blue-green algae is a natural occurrence – that the source of phosphorous is not purely an act of man but of nature.” (KBC NOTE: Miller, paragraph 10, wrote in his publication that if all nutrients into Klamath Lake were halted (1965) there would be enough nutrients already in the system to keep the same high level of algal productivity for 200 years.)

Federal judge denies PacifiCorp request to throw out Klamath dams toxins case, posted 8/23/07. (Plaintiff Klamath Riverkeepers, including Karuk Spokesman Craig Tucker and Klamath Forest Alliance founder Petey Brucker, is a project of Klamath Forest Alliance, according to KFA co-founder Felice Pace. Go here to see dam removal efforts by Earth First.   HERE for Klamath Dam page.)

Bureau of Reclamation Hydrology database of the Klamath Project.

Nature group backs Measure 49, The Nature Conservancy, which usually avoids politics, has given $360,000 to limit Measure 37, Oregonian, posted 8/23/07. (KBC NOTE: Oregon voters voted for Measure 37, however Oregon democrats and enviro groups are paying to limit property rights. HERE for more on Measure 37)

Ron Williams: Dams provide cheap, clean energy we can't afford to lose, Idaho Statesman, posted 8/23/07

Awesome wildlife butterfly and moth website, just type in your county. Presently in the Modoc private farmland and on Tulelake Fish and Wildlife refuge farmland you will see the annual Monarch butterfly migration. Referred by USGS, posted to KBC 8/23/07

Weekly Klamath Project water report, Herald and News from BOR, posted 8/23/07