http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/05/17/viewpoints/letters/aletters.txt

Food for the birds

After reading that several environmental groups advocate stopping commercial farming on the refuge and flooding the 22,000 acres that is now farmed, I wondered if they realized what would happen to the refuges if they were actually able to get this accomplished.

After the almost complete collapse of the local Fish and Wildlife Service, the few birds (600,000 this year, down more than 90 percent) that still stop here are now totally dependent not only on what those farmers plant on the refuges for them to feed on, but what they can glean from the farmers' and ranchers' fields.

It would also further devastate the local farm economy, which is already in dire straits.

If the 22,000 acres of farmland is flooded, it would take 22,000 acre-feet of already badly needed water for each foot of water used. On top of that, it would take more than 80,000 acre-feet of water each year to take care of evaporation, which is more than 3.5 feet per year.

Annual water consumption on the Basin farms is approximately two acre-feet per acre, so those hated refuge farmers are using less than half the amount of water it would take to flood the refuge farmland.

The refuges don't need any more water. Food is what brought those millions of waterfowl back to the refuges year after year.

The water wouldn't provide any waterfowl food because the water in the Basin is virtually sterile, as a result of using Acrolein to kill the weeds in the ditches and something that is used to raise potatoes, that gets into the Basin water from the potato processing plants.

If these environmental groups are really interested in rebuilding the refuges, they can start by putting pressure to get their employees back into the fields planting food and browse for the waterfowl to feed on. Reinstate a predator control program and again, on a daily basis, pick up and take care of the waterfowl dying from botulism and cholera. Build a holding pen where the waterfowl recovering from botulism can be kept until they are able to take care of themselves. Rebuild the grain-handling facilities where grain can be stored to be used for planting and as bird feed during bad winters.

What they need to do is to force the Fish and Wildlife Service to go back to the refuge program that made the Basin the showplace of the world.

The Pacific Flyway needs rebuilding also. When the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to pick up the birds dying from botulism and cholera for so many years, it almost wiped out many of the bird species in the flyway, especially pintails, which use to peak out at more than a million on the refuges each year.

Farming on the refuges had nothing to do with the destruction of the Tule lake and Lower Klamath refuges. When the Fish and Wildlife Service built that elaborate office complex on Hill Road, it destroyed the refuges.

Henry Christensen

Tulelake

Former employee of the Tulelake Refuges