cattle were not turned loose but managed on Tulelake refuge dave danforth regarding Quinn Read 101013

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http://m.heraldandnews.com/members/forum/letters/article_e89d894a-3135-11e3-8018-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=jqm

Cattle were not turned loose, but managed on wildlife refuge

by Dave Danforth, Fort Klamath 10/10/13, letter to editor of Herald and News

followed by Quinn Red's commentary: Dought year led to bending rules for grazing

Sunday’s commentary by Quinn Read demonstrates a lack of understanding of the facts; some of her statements are outright wrong.

Her commentary: “... on Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge — the only refuge that had actually had water — Fish and Wildlife Service staff caved in to political pressure and allowed a rancher to turn his cattle loose on public lands that are supposed to be protected for wildlife. They did so without any public notice or even a real plan for managing the cattle once they were loose on the refuge.”

My point is that a very specific and real plan was in place. Cattle were not loose, but carefully managed and rotated within fenced and controlled areas. These fenced areas are not part of the open marshlands. No irrigation was performed on the pastured areas and cattle were not placed in areas that “actually had water.” Also, fewer cattle were placed than the same area has carried previously.

The water present in adjacent refuge areas is controlled both by the natural lake level and by head-gates and massive pumps.

That water is pumped and managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Reclamation as they contribute to the overall Basin water needs. By managing the water as well as the ground, the FWS benefits both wildlife and agriculture.

In her commentary she states that “... cows were turned loose on public lands (the refuge) that are supposed to be protected for wildlife.”

What she failed to note is that the decision to place those cows was based first and foremost on the need to restore that area of the refuge to habitat beneficial to birds and other wildlife.

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http://m.heraldandnews.com/members/forum/guest_commentary/article_9ca6e670-2e16-11e3-a59e-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=jqm
Drought year led to bending rules for grazing

By Quinn Read, guest commentary in Herald and News 10/6/13. Read is Klamath Wildlife Advocate at Oregon Wild. She is an environmental attorney, licensed to practice in California.

KBC NOTE: Read's spin is mostly untrue. The Tule Lake wildlife refuge was quite full this summer. Lower Klamath, as acknowledged by Refuge Manager Ron Cole, was without water because of the high power costs that are borne by leaseland farmers, with over 2000% higher power rate. Tule Lake refuge was in a closed basin, but presently irrigators must pump uphill the water through a mountain and into Lower Klamath Refuge, then to Klamath River, at their own expense. Historically this water remained in Tule Lake.
ALSO, "There are (489) species of wildlife here in the Klamath Basin. The biological opinion deals with three." Ph. D. Robert McLandress, UC Davis ecology.
HERE FOR AUDIO.
Here in the Pacific Flyway, "...Klamath Basin is the most important waterfowl area in North America. Waterfowl eat 70 million pounds of food here, and more than half comes from the farms. "

After a summer of punishing drought in the Klamath Basin, the irrigation season is drawing to a close. The worst appears to be behind us — at least until next year.

Before the memory of this painfully dry summer fades, it’s worth taking stock of where we are — the irrigators, tribes, wildlife advocates, fishermen and others with a stake in the debate over water.

There’s still not enough of this precious resource to go around. The Klamath Basin Task Force process is mired in internal conflict and struggling to reach consensus. The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) is in limbo. And the National Wildlife Refuges of the Klamath Basin continue to suffer.

This year’s drought took a heavy toll on Klamath Basin’s refuges, the birds, fish and amphibians that call them home. By the end of summer, Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge had less than 200 acres of marshes left in an area that should sustain over 31,000 acres of wetlands.

On nearby Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, the shortage of wetlands forced birds into crowded conditions and spawned a lethal outbreak of avian botulism. U.S. Fish & Wildlife picked up more than 6,000 dead birds, but officials estimate total deaths were more than twice that number.

And in the upper Basin, on Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge — the only refuge that actually had water for wildlife — Fish and Wildlife Service staff caved to political pressure and allowed a rancher to turn his cows loose on public lands that are supposed to be permanently protected for wildlife. They did so without any public notice, or even a real plan for managing the cattle once they were loose on the refuge.

All of this while the U.S. Department of the Interiors insists on continuing the controversial program of leasing public land on National Wildlife Refuges to private agribusiness interests, even in drought years.

On Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, the summer of 2013 saw commercial row crops on the leaselands receiving full or near-full water deliveries, while adjacent wetlands went dry.

America’s National Wildlife Refuges deserve better. This is our natural heritage. Why aren’t we as a community angrier about this?

Over a decade has passed since the drought and water crisis of 2001, and the tragic Klamath River fish kill of 2002.

It is clear there is no silver bullet that can solve the water woes of the Klamath Basin. It is time to move on from a water policy that simply shifts the burden of the next drought to someone else, or depends on Congress approving a massive bailout worth hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

What the Klamath Basin needs are affordable, workable solutions that begin to bring the demand for water back into balance with what nature can actually supply.

Though the Klamath Basin Task Force is well-intentioned, internal conflicts make it unlikely to produce any realistic proposals. The Task Force, like others before it, is too focused on reviving old agreements that Congress will never fund. Recent comments by Rep. Greg Walden, who has hinted that the KBRA is dead and it is time to focus on smaller, less expensive proposals, underscore this fact.

And smaller, more realistic solutions are easy to find.

The National Wildlife Refuges were severely abused in this year’s drought, but they could offer a way to prevent a repeat of this tragedy. Simply phasing out the lease land program on Tule Lake and Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuges would free up nearly 16 billion gallons — water that could be used to restore wetlands for wildlife and take pressure off other irrigators. Managing these refuges at wetlands also would provide a cost-effective way of capturing and storing winter and spring run-off.

There is simply not enough water to go around in the Klamath Basin. It’s a system under tremendous strain, with too much water promised to too many interests. Ignoring this reality only ensures that we will repeat the events of this summer in perpetuity.

Ending the lease-land program won’t solve all the Basin’s problems, but it is a start. After a decade of inaction, and the punishing drought of 2013, the Klamath Basin needs action, not more delay and wishful thinking.

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