Klamath Water Users Association/KWUA Newsletter Year In Review, 12/2021

Appeals court stays injunction against Upper Klamath Lake releases, H&N 12/30/21. "... the lack of an injunction won’t change the way water is currently flowing in the basin, because the presence of an injunction didn’t do so either..."

Oregon Senate includes over $22 Million for Klamath Basin, H&N 12/24/21. "...livestock watering wells, more than 250 wells have gone dry...requests from the Klamath Tribes..." etc

Judge refuses to declare Oregon state forest logging 'takes' coho salmon, Capital Press 12/24/21. "A federal judge has refused to declare that logging activities in Oregon’s Clatsop and Tillamook state forests have unlawfully harmed threatened coho salmon..."

Klamath secures $10 million for 2022 drought relief, H&N 12/22/21 "

Agriculture faces host of new state laws in California, AgAlert, CFBF 12/22/21. Farmworker overtime, hen living conditions, pot and ag, animal housing, veal, slaughter rules...

State drought assistance earmarked for Klamath Basin, H&N 12/21/21. "Klamath Tribal Chairman Don Gentry...said input from tribal members will help inform exactly how that (tribal) money will be spent over the coming months...$40-million pot of loans for Oregon producers...$35 million from the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Agriculture..."

Massive but controversial restoration project in the works for Upper Klamath Lake (Barnes and Agency Ranches/Gov't acquisitions), H&N 12/18/22.

Upper Klamath wetland restoration stirs concern among irrigators - (Barnes and Agency Ranches Government Acquisitions), Capital Press 12/6/21. "According to the preliminary data, the project would reduce average water deliveries from Upper Klamath Lake for agriculture by 3,000 acre-feet per year. Deliveries for the other Klamath Basin wildlife refuges would drop by 1,000 acre-feet annually, and in-stream flows for the Klamath River would drop by an average of 34,000 acre-feet. “To the extent that there is less water available for the river ... we would be concerned the Project would end up sucking up the whole burden,” Simmons said..."

Off-season irrigation could pause as Reclamation 'pays back' PacifiCorp reservoirs, H&N 12/4/22. "A coalition of conservation groups, including the California Waterfowl Association, Ducks Unlimited, the Klamath Basin Audubon Society and Bird Ally X, wrote to Reclamation in October asking them to continue the "well-established practice" of releasing the lake's surplus water for fall migration and irrigation purposes. Reclamation declined to do so, citing concerns about meeting higher minimum lake elevations come spring, especially following two extremely dry years. Klamath Basin Refuge Complex Supervisory Biologist John Vradenburg told the Herald and News last month that, while the lack of water on Lower Klamath and Tule Lake refuges this summer may have helped stave off an avian botulism outbreak, not having winter water to produce food and habitat for birds migrating north in the spring is a much more serious problem. Millions of birds already skipped the Klamath Basin, once the single most important wetland complex on the Pacific Flyway, for the 2021 fall migration, and their wintering grounds in the Central Valley are producing less food due to drought. When they return in the spring, they'll be extra hungry and in need of a rest stop."

< At left, an area where both thinning and controlled burning took place before the Bootleg Fire. At right, an area where no thinning or controlled burning took place. photo by Brady Holden/The Nature Conservancy
Managing forests to reduce wildfires, Capital Press Editorial 12/2/21. KBC NOTE: an AMAZING discovery by The Nature Conservancy, Klamath Tribes, and U.S. Forest Service!

Story of fatal Bly, Oregon Japanese balloon bomb, WWII, featured in documentary, H&N 12/1/21. "Between 1944 and 1945, Japan launched more than 9,000 bomb-rigged balloons across the Pacific Ocean."