Phosphorus causing decline in Klamath sucker fish

by David Hill, rancher, Merrill, for Herald and News 7/25/19

Regarding "Consider entire Ecosystem for fish recovery", Mr. Stanton states "The major source of nutrient laden runoff is from cattle manure." Wrong!

The major element causing the problem is phosphorus, which comes from the leaching of phosphorus from the volcanic ash, "pumice" in Annie Creek and numerous other streams feeding into Klamath Lake, as was found from research done in the 1970s.

Klamath Lake is a euphoric lake, meaning it is a self dying lake which was noted by the Fremont Expedition as "stinking water" in the 1800s, no cattle were present then.

Ranchers and cattle always get the blame for every environmental issue including the alga bloom on Klamath Lake and by global warming issues which include the sucker fish from "cow flatulence." This gas is not flatulence, but gas produced by eructating food for re-chewing, all ruminants, including deer, elk, moose and pronghorn, which are no different than cattle when "chewing their cud."

The low number of sucker fry could be possibly explained by their consumption by record class trophy trout in Klamath Lake and or by the cormorant, which is a major factor in salmon fry loss in the Columbia River system. But we never hear of this by the fish and game biologists.

Check your false claims opinion before you state "facts" next time. Go look it up!

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