Our Refuges
includes private and federal land and water where our wildlife takes refuge

Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges

Klamath Basin Wildlife Galleries

Articles, editorials, letters and facts

Interior Secretary Announces more than $20 Million for Wetlands Grants for Migratory Birds, 9/14/11. More than $9 Million for Wildlife Refuge Acquisitions

National Wildlife Refuge System Understaffed, Poorly Maintained Due to Unsustainable Backlogs, Continual Federal Land Acquisition, 5/26/11

April 22 public comment due on refuge draft plan

Refuge employee (Dave Mauser) honored, biologist earns national award for wetlands program, H&N 3/18/11.“I think this award was not for perseverance but for the work I and a lot of others have done with the Walking Wetlands program,” he said, referring to the crop rotation program.  In some years, the Walking Wetlands program has added upward of 10,000 acres of wetlands and spurred expansion of organic farming." HERE for more on refuges, and FWS intentions of land and water rights acquisitions.

PUBLIC NOTICE - Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge Cooperative Farming, February 2011.  KBC Note: 979 acres of private land will become seasonal wetlands, and growers will be provided land to farm in the wildlife refuge. Our federal government pays farmers to use efficient sprinklers, yet they want 979 acres of private land to have standing water much of the year.

Pacific Region Selects New Assistant Regional Director for Refuges, FWS 2/9/11

Oregon and California Wildlife Refuges: appropriation for ag or fish and wildlife early 1900's. Page 1, & Page 2
From Klamath Drainage District appeal before Dept. of Interior 1953 relating to refuges, grain leases and homesteads, Reclamation Act, purpose of the Klamath Reclamation Project, and attempts by the federal government to change that purpose.
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3/2/11 - Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation, Draft Vision, 2011. Covers land acquisitions, farming, acquiring water rights, managing land outside the refuge, climate change, ... Draft Vision information page. Draft Recommendations.

 PRESS RELEASE: Salazar draft vision for future of refuges 2/24/11, "Spanning more than 150 million acres of land and water..."

The KBRA/Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement 15.1.3 changes the purpose of the Klamath Reclamation Project. Continue reading KBRA document regarding the new water right given to Fish and Wildlife Service. Tule Lake Refuges October, 2010 - KBC refuge  photos Does it look like there is no water in the Klamath Basin Refuges, nowhere for the birds to go? More KBC photos, and H&N article HERE
TuleLake Refuge farmland Oct. 2010. No water. No crops. Noxious weeds. Waterfowl normally eat 70 million ponds of food here, 1/2 coming from the farms.	TuleLake Refuge lake for birds Oct. 2010. Presently FWS has no water right on the refuge; when farms get water, then the refuge gets all that runoff; both win, farmers and wildlife. This year was different. Why?

Dave Mauser, FWSbiologist

‘It’s a tough situation. There’s not enough water to go around,’ H&N, posted to KBC 11/5/10

" 'Fall birds will migrate until the beginning of November. With no water, the birds will have to go someplace else..We’re running out of places for birds to go,' Mauser said. 'Endangered species and tribal trust obligations come first, then farmers, and then what’s left over goes to the refuges.'"

 

Letter from Bureau of Reclamation Susan Fry to Ron Cole, Fish and Wildlife Tulelake Refuge Manager, regarding FWS takeover of leaseland management, posted 7/23/10. "Ron,  I understand you held a meeting with Lease Land growers on July 14^th and announced that FWS had “fired the Bureau” and would be taking over the lease land program.  Since I have not heard from you regarding the lease land program since April/May, I am surprised to hear of this announcement..."

Klamath Basin Refuge management public comment by June 28

Suckers being moved from (Tulelake) refuge to (Klamath) lake, H&N 5/13/10. "...We think most, if not all, of these (fish) originated in Upper Klamath Lake, so we’re just putting them back where they came from...”

Klamath Basin Refuges public meetings: Klamath Falls May 13
Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges Conservation public planning sessions, 4/30/10

Photo: A new two-acre island for Caspian terns, shown before it was flooded, was built at the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Restoring refuges - Wildlife refuges benefit from stimulus funds, H&N, posted 10/16/09.
RELATED ARTICLE: Stimulus funds bring Caspian tern project to Siskiyou County, Siskyou Daily News 8/12/09. "...the Tulelake reserve rock island’s cost is approximately $1.1 million, the Orems unit rock island’s cost is approximately $650,000 and the Sheepy Lake floating island’s cost is approximately $2.3 million...an estimated colony of 10,000 nesting pairs of Caspian terns on Rice Island in the Columbia River were consuming approximately 6 million to 25 million salmonid smolts per year, according to a 1999 USACE report."

Agreement guarantees refuges water, H&N 10/16/09. "(Cole) defends the Endangered Species Act and the involved National Environment Protection Act, which are often seen as obstacles....“They allow citizens the right to work for solutions, not to stop achieving solutions.”
“Throwing our hands up and saying, ‘let’s go to court,’ is not a solution. The time to solve the problem is here,” (Mauser) says. (KBC NOTE: An author and person at the table of the closed-door Klamath Settlement Craig Tucker is on the board of Riverkeeper who opposes the agreement and promises to litigate if their demands are not met.)

! Walking Wetland Controversy, and Bureau of Reclamation blackmail issues, by KBC reporter July 19, 2009

Farming For  Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, 2009. "This grant will sponsor an informational trip by some of the participating farmers and other agricultural stakeholders in the Skagit Delta to Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the Klamath Basin region of Northern California."

Refuges receive stimulus money, H&N 5/19/09. "The stimulus money will be used to create a block of 1,300 acres that will be flooded for two years this fall. In 2010, the land will be returned to crops for three to five years."

(Klamath Basin) Walking Wetlands, Iowa Public Television, posted to KBC 5/19/09. Tulelake refuge manager Ron Cole, and Tule Lake farmers Marshall Staunton and Rob Crawford, tell about the Walking Wetland program.

From farms to wetlands; Walking Wetlands program benefits farmers, refuges and wildlife, H&N 11/20/08

From Farms to Wetlands, A partnership with agriculture, Herald and News 11/20/08

From farms to wetlands; Transforming tracts of farmland to wetland, Herald and News 11/20/08

Klamath Marsh event planned, H&N 6/9/08. "It originally had 16,400 acres but was expanded to 40,646 acres following purchases in 1990 and 1998. Of that acreage, 37,023 acres, or more than 90 percent, is in wetlands." (KBC NOTE: The Marsh was taken out of agriculture, decimating the cattle industry in the Upper Basin. It evaporates 2ce the water as irrigated ag, while the federal promise was, this federal acquisition would provide more irrigation water for the rest of the irrigators, somehow...Farmers and ranchers, who grew up with hand-shake contracts, fall for this line every time, to their demise. More than 100,000 acres in the Upper Basin have been converted from private ag land to federal standing-water swamps.)

Wetlands-crop rotation paying off, H&N 6/5/08

Doing fowl deeds to fields, followed by Farms’ support of birds studied, H&N 4/24/08

Counting Birds, Annual Christmas count finds more than 100 different species, followed by Winter Wings, H&N 12/22/07

Bird hunters flock to Klamath Basin; Farms offer critical food source for migrating waterfowl, Capital Press by Jacqui Krizo 11/9/07. "...the Klamath farmers are crucial to waterfowl. If farms are healthy, the waterfowl can serve people up and down the Pacific Flyway. Klamath Basin has the largest concentration of waterfowl in North America,"

. said Dr. Robert McLandress, President of California Waterfowl Association

Growing crops and ducks, Integrating wetlands into commercial crop rotation in the basin, Pioneer Press, posted to KBC 8/17/07, followed by Compromise, and Environmental Groups.

The silent summer; When farms and refuges work together the animals are the ones who benefit, by Lance Waldren, Pioneer Press July 25, 2007

Dry year may work in irrigators’ favor, H&N, posted to KBC 6/27/07. "Wildlife refuges may also get more water"

US Fish and Wildlife stole $60 million dollars POLITICAL BEDTIME STORY (FOR HUNTERS, FISHERMEN, TRAPPERS & OTHER NEOPHYTES) by Jim Beers 12/30/06. "Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow.

(Klamath) Winter Refuge, H&N, posted to KBC 12/12/06

Birds are back, thanks to farmers' recovery efforts Issue Date: July 12, 2006  by Kathy Coatney, California Farm Bureau Federation Ag Alert' Walking Wetlands Program participant Marshall Staunton shows land that is currently being flooded for wetlands at the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. This land will eventually be planted with an agricultural crop.

Mild winter brings early birds to Klamath refuges, H&N posted to KBC 3/10/05. (When the government mandates taking over 1/3 of our area's irrigation water this year, which is designed to end up in the refuges, it affects these 594,000 birds. Single species management of illegally-listed coho salmon, and tens of thousands of listed sucker fish, is destroying the rest of our ecosystem and economy.) For more local wildlife, go HERE. Fish and Wildlife Service Dave Menke

Managers, farmers attempt to balance wildlife and harvests at Tule Lake refuge, The Oregonian 11/24/04

Refuge managers, farmers, find common interest, Herald and News 11/1/04, by Jacqui Krizo. "Remember, this biological opinion was created from the agenda-driven Hardy studies. Dr. Thomas Hardy of Utah State University was hired by the Department of Justice and Bureau of Indian Affairs to go against the farmers in the water adjudication litigation."

Refuge report earns an "F", Klamath Courier 10/20/04.

Sharing the Land Range Magazine Fall 2004 . "Wildlife and agriculture sharing the land can be spectacular and burdensome." Story by Klamath Basin Farmer Steve Kandra. Photos © Larry Turner.

During spring and autumn migrations, millions of snow geese forage on private fields along the Oregon-California border.

Media Advisory by Klamath Water Users Association: Defenders of Wildlife Refuge Report Misses Mark 10/8/04.
The 10 Most Endangered Wildlife Refuges - Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, Refuges at Risk, Defenders of Wildlife 10/8/04
U.S. wildlife refuges facing threats, Seattle Post-Intelligencer AP Oct 8, 2004 (Klamath on list)

Note from Klamath Water Users Association regarding our refuges 10/7/04: "Earlier this year, the Oregon Natural Resources Council, WaterWatch of Oregon, and other long-time critics of family farms and ranches, released a report entitled “Refuges in Peril", which portrayed Klamath national wildlife refuges. While at the same time Klamath Project irrigators and federal agencies greeted the recent release of the 2004 Klamath Project operations plan with a sense of renewed optimism, these farming critics were already forecasting doom for the region’s national wildlife refuges."  
     As usual, the doom and gloom prediction proved wrong. The Tule Lake and Lower Klamath national wildlife refuges are wetter than they have been for years, federal officials said this week.
     "Some people are telling me that this is as good as it looked five years ago," said Ron Cole, refuges manager. "It is certainly a change from when I got here a year ago."

What do Klamath Basin wildlife refuge managers and farmers have in common? And Organic Farming is on the Rise, KBC September 25, 2004.        KBC was given a tour of the Lower Klamath wildlife refuge, seeing the permanent and seasonal wetlands, while at the same time watching migrating geese coming to the basin, sand hill cranes, and an otter crossing the road.  HERE FOR STORY

l-r FWS Fran Mais, master gardener Larry Herne, FWS manager Ron Cole and FWS biologist Dave Mauser watching birds

Leave it alone, H&N letter by Henry Christiansen, past Tulelake refuge manager 9/8/04, regarding Rep Earl Blumenauer's persistence in trying to eliminate refuge farming, "...it would take 162,800 acre-feet more water to flood the farm area than it takes to farm it. At present, that amount of water isn't available and there isn't anything indicating it will ever be available."

Congressman Blumenauer from Portland has often tried to downsize the Klamath Project farmland by trying to abolish refuge farming. He recently visited the Klamath Basin with 'environmentalists', however spent over an hour with water users. The following is some of the recent interaction:
Letter from KWUA to Congressman Blumenauer posted to KBC from www.kwua.org  website.9/6/04. re: August 26 meeting in Klamath Falls 9/1/04 followed by attachments 1-6. There are 2 missing graphs that hopefully will appear soon:
1. KWUA’s comments sent earlier this summer regarding "Scoping Document No. 1" prepared by FERC in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"). This should provide you with the additional detail you requested regarding our stance on, and related history of, the current power rate enjoyed by Klamath Project irrigators.
2. Description of pre-Project hydrology, relative to downstream flows in the Klamath River.
3. Description of Klamath Project efficiency.
4. Summary of cropping patterns and irrigation.
5. Summary of March-October diversions, 1962-2001.
6. Summary of refuge water demands, 1951-2001.

Congressman Blumenauer's response to a H&N editorial, Failure to deal with Basin problems the real threat in H&N posted to KBC 9/5/04. (Farms use less than half the water than wetlands. In the past 10 years, over 92,000 acres of farmland have been converted to wetlands,--go HERE for documentation--. He feels taking 1/10th of our land out of production will help Oregon, the state that sports the highest unemployment in America. Our agriculture contributes 200 million dollars into the economy and employs thousands of workers. KBC) HIs article is after the article that he responded to:: Congressman's words conflict with each other, H&N 8/31/04, "So, the question for Blumenauer is this: Which is it? Is the route to a resolution through local bargaining? Or is it through a decision in Washington to take the most productive tenth of the Klamath Reclamation Project out of crops and start Basin agriculture into a death spiral?"
Representative opposed to lease-land farming, H&N August 29, 2004. "A change Blumenauer has tried to bring to the Basin is the end of agriculture on lease lands on national wildlife refuges." (...even though over half the feed for wildlife comes from Klamath Basin farms and it would destroy our local economy like the rest of Oregon. KBC)
Letter to Klamath Basin farmers from Jim Beers in response to Blumenaur article, 8/30/04.

Go here for summary of the Audubon/USFWS partnership, and the transcribed speeches of each group present:
Informational sheet by Ron Cole
Speech by Ron Cole, US Fish and Wildlife Service
Speech by Christine Karas, Bureau of Reclamation
Speech by Dave Eshbaugh, Audubon
Speech by Steve Kandra, Farmer and Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) President
Speech by Rick Maher, CWA regional biologist
Media Advisory by Dan Keppen, KWUA Executive Director
Refuges, Myth vs Fact, KWUA
Press Release: Tulelake private well pumpers