September 20, 2005

Dear Stakeholders:      

At the Chiloquin meeting in June, you affirmed your willingness to move ahead with fostering the purposes we developed during the workshop.  You know we have scheduled the next workshop for November 1–3 at the Miners Inn in Yreka.  That doesn’t mean we have to wait until then to get started.  Your advice to us at the end of the meeting indicated you wanted to move as quickly as possible.

Attached is the list of Focus Areas we had on the wall at the Chiloquin meeting.  We want you to select the areas on which you would be willing to work. Directions are provided to do that.  We want to start these committees working right away, at the November workshop, or earlier if we can.

Please do this in a timely way.  We would like to have the committees identified before the end of this month.

The magnitude of work is daunting.  But we have already done what some would consider impossible with our five workshops over the past year.  Who would have ever imagined we would have accomplished that?  I believe that by each of us chipping in, we can make achieve the purposes we have agreed are so important to the future of the Klamath Basin.

It is once again time to move ahead.  Thank you for making it happen.

Alice
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THE KEY FOCUS AREAS

Attached is a list of 16 Key Focus Areas developed from the work the Stakeholders accomplished during the 5 Klamath Basin Stakeholders workshops.

These focus areas resulted from an in-depth review of each workshop report, seeking commonalities, until each rose to the surface. Each focus area description includes information gleaned from the five workshop reports, with page locations for each statement, so they can be easily referred to for context. This includes: short term purpose, long term purpose, the situation; new beliefs, the strategies.

It is possible there are other issues that have not yet risen to the surface. When these become evident, they will be included. It is possible some areas can be consolidated, or deleted. That is a decision you can make at the next workshop.

The attached list includes the names of stakeholders who signed up to work on a Key Focus Area Committee. This was done at the end of the Chiloquin workshop. We are asking the rest of the stakeholders who attended a workshop, and any others interested, to review these focus areas, choose the ones you are interested in, and send your list to Bob Chadwick at wick5836@aol.com. A final list of those interested in further developing these issues will be prepared for our next Stakeholder workshop.

In making your decision:

We will accept any advice on adding, consolidating, or deleting any of these areas.

We will convene the Key focus Area committees at the next workshop, or, if time allows, prior to the next workshop. Our purpose will be to get everyone started with progress on each of these important tasks.

FOCUS AREA 1: BUILDING A ONE BASIN COMMUNITY: "Community at a Basin level emerges. We create a sense of community where we naturally look out for each other."

John Hyde

Judy Messier

FOCUS AREA 2: COMMUNICATION THROUGHOUT THE KLAMATH RIVER BASIN: "Identify ways to communicate in a meaningful way (throughout the basin) when lots of entities are still apprehensive about dialog."

Rae Olsen

Kelly Hollums

Terry Morton

FOCUS AREA 3: TRIBAL RELATIONSHIPS AND TRUST ISSUES NEED TO BE ADDRESSED: "Tribal recognition is supported, recognizing tribal trust responsibilities with the federal, state and local governments."

Yvonne Rauch

Sally Wells

Chuck Wells

Mary Roerich

Sam Henzel

Jayne Goodwin

Don Flickinger

Phil Detrich

Kelly Hollums

John a Smith

FOCUS AREA 4: DEVELOPING AN INTEGRATED WHOLE BASIN PLAN: "We develop a comprehensive approach to restoring the Klamath Basin’s natural resources."

Alice Kilham

Bill Bennet

Rick Ragan

Chuck Wells

Terry Simpson

Bob Chadwick

Jim Regan-vienop

FOCUS AREA 5: SPEAK WITH ONE VOICE TO ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES: "Let our representatives in Congress know that we support Basin Wide restoration conducted at the local level."

Rae Olsen

Alice Kilham

Ron Hathaway

Sam Henzel

Rae Olsen

Gareth Plank

John Hyde

FOCUS AREA 7: DEAL WITH CONFLICTING SCIENCE. "We need someway to understand and incorporate the complexities and uncertainty of science and management without using those complexities and uncertainties to tell a tale that benefits our interest but rather the interest of the watershed."

Phil Detrich

Yvonne Rauch

Rae Olsen

Bill Bennet

Phil Detrich

FOCUS AREA 9: THE ROLE OF THE AGENCIES: "The two states and the Federal government will approach communities in a unified way." "We agencies will be expected to partner with each landowner individually and custom make solutions."

Alice Kilham

Bill Bennet

Phil Detrich

Don Flickinger

Rick Ragan

FOCUS AREA 10: EDUCATION: "Provide education up and down stream about diverse issues specific to each area."

Kelly Hollums

Susan Luxton

Stephen Most

Kelly Hollums

FOCUS AREA 11: DAMS - FISH PASSAGE AND POWER RATES: "Form a coalition between the Upper Basin irrigations/tribes/fisheries/agencies that provides for the needs of each other and supports decommissioning of the Iron Gate, COPCO 1 and 2 and JC Boyle Dams."

Jim Regan-Vienop

Jayne Goodwin

Terry Simpson

John Hyde

Rick Ragan

Yvonne Rauch

Sally Wells

FOCUS AREA 13: BUILDING CONFLICT RESOLUTION SKILLS AND CAPACITY: "I would like this group to be a conflict resolution body for the various issues as they arise; work on continuing consensus and education methods; look at funding strategies."

Judy Mchugh

Donna Burcher

Bob Chadwick

FOCUS AREA 14: EXPLORING A CEASE FIRE BETWEEN ALL PARTIES IN THE BASIN: "Not only is a cease fire declared, but both sides walk the talk."

Mary Roerich

John Hyde

Cody Hoffman

FOCUS AREA 15: WATER MANAGEMENT AND ALLOCATION. "Form a water allocation and demand working group that looks at the whole watershed."

FOCUS AREA 16: EXPLORING WAYS TO MANAGE THE DROUGHT OF 2005: "That this group comes up with a creative solution to the water allocation problems in the basin and specifically addresses what should be done in wet years and drought years."