Dave Sabo

http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2006/02/27/viewpoints/letters/letters.txt

Thank you for your recent article describing 's new job opportunity in Salt Lake City.

I had the pleasure of working with Dave for three years when I was with the Klamath Water Users Association.

I firmly believe that Dave Sabo had the most difficult position in the western water resources arena.

With incredible focus placed on the relatively small amount of water provided by the federal Klamath Reclamation Project, Dave had a very challenging job trying to balance the water needs of irrigators, four tribes, a national wildlife refuge, and three fish species protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Very rarely did Dave make a tough decision and not have someone (sometimes me) screaming at him over the phone, in person, or threatening to take him and his agency to court.

The Bush administration has placed tremendous priority on trying to resolve the challenges of the Klamath River watershed, and we were lucky to have him on the ground, here in Klamath Falls, helping to direct those efforts.

He has laid the groundwork for the conservation implementation program - modeled after a successful fishery recovery program on the Upper Colorado River that he was a part of - which offers the best chance we have to move down a path towards recovering Klamath Basin fish.

That path will be defined by a comprehensive, coordinated and cooperative approach that realistically addresses all of the watershed-wide stressors that affect the health of Klamath fish.

I wish Dave and his family the best of luck as they return home to Salt Lake City. Thanks for all you did for our community.

Dan Keppen

Klamath Falls