Wendell Wood wrote:
March 8, 2001
MEDIA ADVISORY AND BACKGROUND:
For More Information:
Felice Pace, Klamath Forest Alliance (530) 467-5291
Tim McKay, Northcoast Environmental Center (707) 822-6918
Wendell Wood, Oregon Natural Resources Council (707) 465-6541; (541) 783-2206
Bob Hunter, WaterWatch (541) 772-6116
Bob Freimark, The Wilderness Society (206) 624-6430 ext. 228
Jan Erik Hasselman, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund (206) 343-7340
CONSERVATIONISTS ISSUE LEGAL NOTICE AIMED AT
PROTECTING KLAMATH BASIN'S ENDANGERED SPECIES
Seven conservation organizations, represented by Earthjustice Legal Defense
Fund, have sent a 60-day notice of intent to sue to Bureau of Reclamation
(BOR) and Interior Secretary Gail Norton for violations of the Endangered
Species Act in the BOR's proposed operation of the Klamath (water) Project
in the Klamath Basin of southern Oregon and northern California.
Organizations giving BOR notice of intent to sue are Oregon Natural
Resources Council, Klamath Forest Alliance, Northcoast Environmental Center,
Golden Gate Audubon Society, WaterWatch, Sierra Club and The Wilderness
Society.
Conservationists charge that BOR has not completed its legal obligations to
consult with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as required under
Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. At issue is the BOR's proposed
2001 Klamath (water) Project operating plan that will once again fail to
provide even minimal water needs for endangered species in Upper Klamath
Lake and on the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges.
Specifically, operation of the project as proposed will impact (still
listed) threatened bald eagles, by not providing water to Lower Klamath
National Wildlife Refuge--a major bald eagle winter feeding area. Local
irrigation demands also have often left Upper Klamath National Wildlife
Refuge with no water during the critical fall waterfowl migration season.
Additionally, priority diversions of water for commercial agriculture will
further endanger fish native to the upper Klamath Basin. Of major cultural
significance to The Klamath Tribes are fish known as C'wam (tshuam) and
Qapdo (cup-to) which were listed as endangered in 1988. These endemic
Klamath Basin fish species are also known locally as the "Lost River sucker"
(Deltistes luxatus), and "Shortnose sucker" (Chasmistes brevirostris). The
former, the only surviving species in its genus, achieves a length of one
meter and can have a life span of over 40 years. The latter is
approximately 18 inches in length and may live for over 30 years.
"We are especially concerned that the Klamath Falls office of the Bureau of
Reclamation is continuing a strategy of stall and delay in failing to fully
meet its legal requirements to consult with the US Fish and Wildlife
Service," said Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund attorney, Jan Erik Hassleman.
"Because water shut-offs ultimately impact threatened species in the Klamath
River such as coho salmon, BOR should have long ago completed consultations
for operation of the Klamath (water) Project before the beginning of this
water year (2001)."
(While not the subject of this particular 60-day notice, BOR has also failed
to initiate Endangered Species Act consultation with the National Marine
Fisheries Service with respect to providing adequate river flows for
threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River.)
"BOR's proposed limited flows and water diversions for Klamath Basin
agriculture also will have a significant negative impact on recreational
businesses, as well as sport, commercial and tribal fisheries," said ONRC's
Southern Oregon Field Representative, Wendell Wood. "These impacts also
result when water needed by fish and wildlife is instead used to irrigate
commercial agricultural crops grown on federal national wildlife refuges."
Conservationists cite USFWS memos that have for months requested that BOR
initiate consultation well before the beginning of the 2001 irrigation
season. In an extensive January 19, 2001 memo from the USFWS to BOR, the
USFWS also concluded that the BOR's "proposed action would likely lead to
significant (endangered) sucker mortality and prevent their recovery."
In the same memo, under "Preliminary Bald Eagle Status of Species and
analysis of Effects of Action," USFWS describes that without water at Lower
Klamath NWR this fall: "an unknown number of eagles may starve and an
unknown number of adult eagles may suffer from lowered condition at the
beginning of the breeding season."
The Service also wrote:
"Manipulation of the timing and amount of water available across the
landscape of the Upper Klamath Basin directly and indirectly affects the
health of bald eagles and the attainment of maintenance of recovery goals."
"One of the keys to (eagle) stability is feeding areas.Three main winter
(bald eagle) feeding areas are: Lower Klamath NWR, Tule Lake NWR, and the
agricultural lands adjacent to the refuges." Additionally, "in the last 10
years Tule Lake has been almost abandoned as a feeding area largely due to a
lack of waterfowl presence in the late winter," and "over the last five
years, wintering bald eagle use of other areas in the Basin has declined
markedly, indicating that Lower Klamath NWR is the preferred habitat of
these birds." (Adjacent private lands are now little used by eagles because
they are flooded too early or freeze, and food sources needed for eagles are
no longer available by the time most of the birds arrive.)
Conservationists were shocked to learn of the impact that the operation of
the Klamath (water) Project continues to have on the Klamath Basin's
endangered fish species, as detailed in the Jan. 19, 2001 memo from USFWS to
BOR. Under "Preliminary Status of Species - Lost River & Shortnose Sucker,"
the memo states: "from 1995 to 1997 there was a substantial decline in the
numbers of adults making spawning runs in the Williamson River, that
amounted to an estimated 80-90% reduction in the adult population size for
both LRS (Lost River suckers) and SNS (Shortnose suckers)" in Upper Klamath
Lake--Perkins et al. in prep. "Markle et al (2000) found evidence that
numbers of suckers in the Williamson River spawning migration in 1999 were
still apparently depressed by loss of adults in 1995-1997 fish kills."
In a previous Nov. 21, 2000 memo from the USFWS to BOR Subject: "Comments on
Nov. 8, 2000 pre-draft BA for Klamath Projects operation as they affect
listed species" it additionally states that BOR has not analyzed "unscreened
diversions of Project water, by private individuals and groups, that may
harm listed suckers, and return flows from lands irrigated by the Project
that may contain sediment, nutrients, and organics, as well as pesticides
and other contaminants that could affect listed suckers and bald eagles."
The US Fish and Wildlife Service maintains that due to near elimination of
these adult endangered fish in Upper Klamath Lake, the lake should be
maintained at least one foot higher. "Previous minimum lake elevations,
while not protecting endangered fish, also regularly left Upper Klamath
National Wildlife Refuge totally without water during the critical migratory
waterfowl season," Wood said.
Conservation organizations also are deeply concerned about BOR's
administered commercial farming operations, whereby leases are annually
awarded on over 20,000 acres on Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National
Wildlife Refuges. Here, BOR project water is used to grow
pesticide-intensive crops of no value to wildlife. Ironically, the water
that was consumed by these commercial crops last year was approximately
equivalent to the water needed to flood refuge wetlands. Unfortunately,
such water was not delivered last year until after fall rains had met all
other basin irrigation needs. According to the conservationists' 60 day
notice, the BOR proposes to similarly operate the Klamath Project in 2001 in
a way that could have a significantly negative impact on the region's
wintering bald eagles.
"Besides providing winter feeding habitat for 90% of the area bald eagles,
Lower Klamath normally supports the largest concentration of waterfowl in
the Pacific flyway. Impacts to these birds harms consumptive and
non-consumptive wildlife related economies throughout Oregon and other
Pacific states," Wood said.
"Because fully three-fourths of all migratory waterfall in the Pacific
Flyway go through the Klamath Basin--improvements to the refuges and the
reestablishment of wetland habitats is the most cost-effective way to
favorably impact economies in this flyway from northern most Alaska to
Argentina," Wood said.
"For over 80 years, the Basin has been ruled by BOR Klamath Project and
irrigated agriculture. Farming has monopolized the Basin's riches and
poisoned them in the process. It is penny wise and pound foolish to grow
highly subsidized crops for which markets are increasingly depressed or
lacking, while impoverishing our nation's premier wildlife refuges to the
detriment of this part of the Klamath Basin's economy and many other
economies throughout the length of the Pacific flyway," Wood said.