http://www.basinalliance.com/
Klamath Basin Alliance,
8/20/08
"The response to our
petition has been quite encouraging. In fact, many of the
respondents enclosed additional comments with their
petitions. Here are just a few samples:"
On one of the
petitions, the sender refused to sign his name for the
following reasons, and I quote:
"I am against this
agreement. It’s extortion, blackmail and illegal all the
way. Secret indeed! Tribes do not have more water rights
than farmers! The Klamath Basin River Compact, authorized
by Congress, has been totally ignored. How can this happen
in America? I cannot sign or identify myself because of
threats of harm to me and mine."
A tribal member had
this (in part) to write:
"…I grow up here in
Klamath County and I like to say the Klamath Tribe don’t
do anything for us. We have to beg for what we can get…
Anyways the way I see it, the tribe has no rights of this
land or the water…"
Other comments from
petitioners:
"...The only solution
to the problem is off stream storage."
"…makes no sense at
all, especially at this time in history."
"Shelve this scam, if
can’t be shelved – place on Nov ballot that will take care
of this. American people do not need this. No blackmail."
We received the
following letter, whose author will go unnamed to protect
his/her privacy.
“Enclosed is my signed
opposition for the Restoration Agreement for all of the
reasons stated, and I would like to add one.
As a part time
commercial fisherman from approximately 1976 to 1982, I
would suggest to you that at least part of the reason for
the loss of salmon for the Lower Klamath River Tribes was
their own greed and lack of conservation on their part. My
understanding was their fishing rights were for
subsistence, and not for the sale of salmon. I personally
saw gill net fish for sale at the buyers for the canneries
in Brookings, there were no other gill net fisheries at
that time, only Klamath River fish. They also were caught
in Reno with a truck load of salmon for sale. Almost every
year at that, the commercial fishery was cut by several
weeks each year to protect the Klamath River fish.
To be completely
honest, the foreign trawlers were also responsible for the
demise of the fishery industry. The cannery ships were
humungous and the support boats weren’t little. Many times
at Whales Head Beach I saw trawlers just offshore from the
beach, not 3 or 6 miles out. They took every fish in their
nets, at that time, the Coast Guard would not respond to
that kind of call out. Of course, their boats don’t
compare in size to foreign boats.
I do not believe salmon
can survive in Klamath Lake, but that’s another issue.
Whether they can survive to go upstream I don’t know.”
Klamath Basin resident
Nell Kuonen provided the following letter she wrote to
Pacific Corp on January 28, 2008. We were given her kind
permission to share the letter in hopes it may be of value
regarding the KBRA.
"Just plain logic and
common sense would dictate leaving the Klamath River dams
in place. When Cecil Andrus was Secretary of the Interior,
he flew over the Klamath River and the Klamath Irrigation
Project. He was very impressed and said it was a great
"working" river.
"In 1983 President
Reagan appointed me the Federal Representative and
Chairman of the Klamath River Basin Compact Commission. I
continued to serve under the first President Bush. As you
probably know, the Compact and been agreed to by both the
Oregon and California legislatures and ratified by
Congress in April 1957 and it worked! Too bad it was
allowed to vanish! The value of the hydroelectric energy
produced at the dams on the Klamath River is beyond
measure. In addition to the valuable energy, there has
been flood protection that is most important. Now, more
than ever, both the energy and flood protection is needed.
Civilizations have vanished by having no water or by bad
water management.
"I sincerely hop a
reasonable solution can be reached without removing any
dams.
"Do the proponents of
the removal of the dams ever consider the salmon that
never get started up the river because they have eaten by
seals at the mouth? I live near the Klamath River and it
doesn’t look like it’s dying or even sick!"
Note: the
Klamath River Basin Compact can be read in it’s
entirely at our links from
Grange-PFUSA.
To participate, click
the
PETITION
button to the left, fill out and return by September 1st,
2008.
See our recent newspaper
ad - click
HERE.
