KBC Response to Karuk Spokesman Craig Tucker's letter: Oregon Wild is PacifiCorp’s best Ally in Klamath Dam Fight! 11/5/07
regarding Federal Energy Regulatory Commission/FERC negotiations
 

This is so wierd. Up until last year Craig Tucker was spokesman for Friends of the River, which is in an alliance with KFA-Klamath Forest Alliance (founded by Felice Pace & Petey Brucker), ONRC/Oregon Wild, PCFFA, and more: http://www.klamathbasin.info/ , a website of PCFFA-Glen Spain. KFA, ONRC and PCFFA have all sued us irrigators. Karuks are in a lawsuit with Klamath Riverkeeper (KFA)and PCFFA against Buffett. Tucker was part of the alliance creating the Klamath irrigators' myths: http://www.klamathbasin.info/myths.htm with all the above groups. Pace working for Yuroks presently has lawsuits against us. Klamath Media (with KFA and Karuks) made film with KWUA and Karuks, being shown internationally on tribes & Klamath Water Users Association/KWUA being pro dam removal and pro farm. The earlier movie they still distribute, Salmon on Backs of Buffalo, is anti-Klamath ag.  Tucker's PhD is social justice and activism, and he works with destroying Western dams/infrastructure, orchestrating demonstrations.  I'm trying really really hard to swallow that when PCFFA, Yuroks and Hoopas petitioned against our power rate last year, and now are our buddies pitting us against the evil power company that they sided with months ago against us...we find it very hard to believe that this isn't a good cop bad cop thing with ONRC, who is allied with all the Karuk allies. There must be a very very lot we don't know.

And more wetlands? Hundred's of thousands acre feet of evaporation presently occurs in the more than 100,000 acres already taken out of ag land in the Upper Basin by federal agencies and Nature Conservancy. Tucker's letter says part of the FERC negotiations is more wetlands. The first 100,000 acres taken from "willing sellers," one ranch at a time, already destroyed the Upper Basin cattle industry. Water temperature increased with more warm shallow water. Enlarging Klamath Lake? More government or conservancy-owned land? What else is awaiting our approval--us insignificant farmers, ranchers and tax payers, when the negotiations are revealed? So far we have dam removal, more endangered species planted in the basin, more of our stored irrigation sent down the river for higher flows, and additional land taken out of farmland. What are the consequences if we don't agree with the group of Tribes, enviros, government agencies and farm spokesmen in closed door meetings? Maybe we will agree. Maybe less ag land, more evaporation, more government ownership, more endangered species, higher flows will be a good trade for a lower power rate and some ESA exemption for the remaining farms if there is enough water left to irrigate. National Academy of Science member William Lewis said that retiring more ag lands making more wetlands will not help Klamath Lake quality.

There are 489 species of wildlife in the Klamath Basin. According to California Waterfowl Association, the biological opinion deals with 3. Ducks and geese need  70,000,000#’s of food. ½ comes from the farms. There are already more than 97,000 acres open water and wetland habitat, in addition to Upper Klamath and Agency Lakes, plus our farms and canal habitat. Tucker says we need to "expand waterfowl habitat."

 

Negotiators, we think it's time you came clean with your communities that you purport to represent rather than making us search the press releases from one little bit of information at a time to see what more we are supposed to eventually accept.