FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS

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KLAMATH BASIN DEVELOPMENTS

The Klamath River once supported the third largest salmon and steelhead runs (after the Sacramento and Columbia rivers). These runs have been devastated as a result of excessive water withdrawals, agricultural pollution, dams which block access to one third of the salmon habitat, excessive logging on steep, unstable slopes and excessive harvest of salmon stocks. The decline of these runs has done major damage to the economies of coastal communities in southern Oregon and northern California.

All the factors which contribute to the decline of salmon and steelhead in the Klamath Basin need to be addressed. However, the primary factor, which is in the headlines right now, is excessive diversion and use of summer and fall-season water for irrigated agriculture. Up to half of the water diverted for irrigation in the Klamath River Basin is diverted by the Bureau of Reclamation's Klamath Project. The remainder of the water, which is diverted for agriculture in the basin, is under the jurisdiction of the state governments of Oregon and California.

Two, native American tribes involved have priority rights under state water law to enough water to maintain salmon and other fisheries. Even though these rights have been affirmed by both the Supreme Court and the Solicitor General of the Interior Department, the tribes--the Yurok and Klamath tribes--have not been able to get the water, to which they have a right, reallocated to "in-stream flows" irrigation activities.

The Coalition for the Klamath Basin (of which the Klamath Forest Alliance is a founding member) has been in the lead in using the federal Endangered Species Act to get more water put into the Klamath Basin, to reduce the amount of land which is under irrigation through providing compensation to buy out farmers using irrigation water, and to get the marsh land around the Upper Klamath Lake restored and its water quality improved and the land ecosystem restored. Moreover, as a matter of social justice, the tribes deserve to get the water to which they have a right.

In 2001, the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs called for the federal government to reform management of the Klamath Irrigation Project, to reduce the water use there, to buy out willing sellers, terminate water leases in the refuge, augment water supplies there and to restore fish and wildlife habitat.

The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs supports efforts by Klamath Basin tribes and the Coalition for the Klamath River to restore wetlands in the Upper Klamath River Basin and calls again for action to reduce the amount of water which is being removed from Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River and its tributaries--in order to improve water quality and to provide river and stream flows which are critical to the restoration of commercially and ecologically important fish species, including salmon and steelhead.

It calls upon Interior Secretary Gail Norton to take the lead in balancing the waters of the Klamath River Basin by supporting a reduction in the amount of land which is irrigated within the Klamath Project through buying land from willing sellers and/or securing nonirrigation conservation easements from willing sellers and through restoring lands to wetlands in order to reduce water pollution. Moreover, flows should be restored in the Klamath River and conditions in Upper Klamath Lake should be restored. The treaty rights of the Yurok and Klamath tribes should be recognized.

Secretary Norton should expedite release of the final report of the scientific team which has been working to determine the levels of the specific flows which are needed in the Klamath River to protect endangered species and the water rights of the tribes.

Finally the Federation urges the governors of California and Oregon to reform water management in the Scott and Shasta valleys in order to provide the flows, which these rivers and their tributaries contribute to the Klamath Basin, to restore fisheries and improve water quality (which are under state jurisdiction).


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