Perhaps the best comparison of life before 2001, and after 2001 in the Klamath Basin, would be something like prewar, an ambush, mass destruction, shock, then picking ourselves up and trying to survive the follow-up attacks.

Before 2001. A typical day on the farm was work work work. It was another God-blessed day, basking in the freedoms of America. One had a farm, machinery, kids, livestock, and the schedule of chores from dawn to dusk. Camaraderie was the cornerstone of our community. Neighbors helped neighbors. Life was hard, but there was always God, wildlife, neighbors, the harvest, and freedom to farm, and confidence in American’s rights. Our Agricultural Organizations were active and dependent upon a small group of producers for input and action. On the ground, producers were doing the right thing, building projects to benefit wildlife and water, and growing crops.

After World War I and World War II, veterans were invited to be in a lottery to win a homestead on land reclaimed from the former lake bed. These young families came to grow food for America for the rest of their lives. Each holds a water right signed by their President on the land reclaimed from the lakes.

2002. Full water deliveries were restored to farms and ranches.

December 2003. The vultures have arrived. Since the Bureau of Indian Affairs, through the Yurok Tribe, reimbursed the Department of Justice in hiring Dr. Hardy to study the Klamath Basin watershed, Biological Opinions and Project Operations Plans were largely formed using tribal ‘science’. Irrigators were not allowed at the table. Using year types that were 30% higher than average, his science called for more water to be demanded from the Klamath Project than was physically possible..

One year ago, the Department of the Interior (DOI) asked the Project irrigators to form a water bank. Our water bank design included farmers being paid either to not irrigate land, or using our aquifer water rather than stored surface water to meet these unrealistic goals. Also, as soon as the results of the National Academy of Science report were to come out, the BOR would encourage re-consultation on the Biological Opinions of USFWS and NOAA Fisheries. After spending over 50 afternoons and evenings designing this intricate water bank that we knew would work, the Department of the Interior threw it out and created one of their own that did not work. The Operation Plan required 50,000 Acre Feet (AF) of water from the Project to send to the ocean, and they took 78,000 AF. Because their plan did not work as designed, much of that water was once again taken from Project irrigators who did not participate in the water bank.

The BOR shut off our water for a few hours this summer because we had a wet spring. Their rules say that if there is more rain, irrigators get less water. So the blackmail was, with over $200 million of crops in the ground, we had to pump our groundwater all summer at our own expense, in addition to the BOR water bank. Meanwhile, they poured our stored water down the river, threatening to again shut down the Klamath Project if we didn’t cooperate.

Many good things happened this year. Klamath Water Users won Oregon’s ‘Leadership in Conservation’ award, sporting over 600 projects that conserve water. We joined Coastal Fishermen and County Commissioners for tours of their docks and our irrigation system. They are dealing with the same ‘environmentalists’, who have limited their catch and regulated many of them out of business. Then the feds came in like good buddies, offering to buy their boats to be nice, while their local communities and economies are being decimated, and while the fish are having record runs.

This summer, within seven months, a $14 million fish screen was built on the A Canal so endangered sucker fish could not swim by. Attorney James Buchal filed to delist the suckers. Although the motion to study this concept was granted by the court, the Department of Justice filed to stop the study. The removal of the Chiloquin Dam, which blocks 95% of sucker habitat, has been approved. Portland Democrat Congressman Earl Blumenaur and Democrat Mike Thompson again introduced legislation to dictate to farmers what they could grow on our farmed leaseland. Fortunately, it was again shot down.

Even though we live 200 miles from the coast, the tax-exempt ‘environmentalist’ groups and Tribes blamed the Klamath Project when Trinity River fish died near the mouth of Klamath River in 2002. Our water consists of 3 ½% of the total water at the mouth of the river. Several scientists have proved that they were wrong, but the facts don’t count with groups serving an agenda.

In October the National Academy of Science final report came out, giving irrigators encouragement that the science shutting down irrigation supplies to the Klamath Project was flawed. The committee found no causal connection between Upper Klamath Lake water levels and sucker fish health. They determined that higher summer flows on the Klamath River would not help the Coho salmon, and might actually harm them. The fish that died in 2002 were not caused by lack of more Project water, and more water would not have prevented the fish die-off. The committee stated "Recovery of endangered suckers and threatened Coho can not be achieved by actions focused on the operation of the Klamath Project".

Since the NAS is the best available science in the United States, one would think that the Project Operation plan for 2004 and thereafter would reflect that science. Think again. The BOR is not supporting re-consultation to change the Operation Plan to the best available science. (Incidentally, the BOR is the largest wholesaler of water in the country.)

Next year the BOR demands 75,000AF water, and 100,000 AF Project downsize in 2005, regardless of water year types. Now the Department of the Interior wants us to negotiate with the Klamath Tribes and Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust (KBRT). The Tribes want 690,000 acres if the Winema Forest back, which they sold twice, and all the water rights in the basin. They also filed against the irrigators in the federal Court of Claims lawsuit where the Project irrigators are seeking payment for the irrigation water taken from them in 2001 KBRT gets paid $300 per acre by the Federal Government to buy Upper Basin water easements for $200. The irrigators just want certainty for irrigation deliveries, but we are told that we have to support these other two agendas or we will not have as much irrigation water. Our little basin is surrounded by government property. In fact, The Nature Conservancy and federal agencies have bought over 94,000 acres of ag land in the Upper Basin, converting it to swamp that evaporates almost twice the amount of water that irrigation would use. That also increases the phosphorus load. Like a neighbor expressed today, "When is it going to be over? How much is enough? Nothing is enough!"

While we have been overwhelmed with the issue of water quantity, the Clean Water Act and our water quality is quickly becoming the issue of our lives. The development of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) for agriculture make our issues of the past pale in comparison. The TMDL for phosphorus in the headwater region of upper Klamath Lake is lower than natural background levels. This means that our allocation for agricultural practices will be zero. TMDL set water temperature is another unobtainable goal. The only way we can deliver water that is cooler than the water we use is to refrigerate the return flows or eliminate the use of water in the first place

If only we could go back in time 5 years, when days were filled with honest labor, nights were spent with our families, we trusted our government, and we were ignorant of the agenda being planned for our demise. Now our days and nights are spent at meetings, our families do not see each other, our money is tied up in litigation to defend our rights, and no one knows whether our government will allow us to farm next year.

If we learned any thing, it would be: get involved, God is good, learn your rights, know your laws, and don’t sleep or turn your back. If we don’t defend our rights, what our fathers and grandfathers did to establish and protect that freedom will have been in vain.

by KBC News editor
(These are not necessarily the views of KBB, KWUA or TGA)