Our Refuges
includes private and federal land and water where our wildlife takes refuge

Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges Table of Contents

Klamath Basin Wildlife Galleries

Wildlife and Farmland HERE FOR AUDIO, President of California Waterfowl Association Ph. D. Robert McLandress, UC Davis ecology: "There are (433) species of wildlife here; the (biological) opinion deals with three..." Here in the Pacific Flyway, Klamath Basin is "...the most important waterfowl area in North America..." Waterfowl eat "...70 million pounds of food here...," and more than half comes from the farms.  

Articles, editorials, letters and facts

Ducks Unlimited awarded $2.6M for pumping stations in Klamath Basin (refuges), Capital Press 8/31/22. "Jeff McCreary, western region director of Ducks Unlimited, said the refuges today are historically dry. He called it a "crisis situation." KBC NOTE: Our refuges and farms are "historically dry" because the Bureau of Reclamation withheld from farmers 40,000 acre feet of our legally stored irrigation water in 2021, and presently shut off our water to Klamath Project farms while keeping in Klamath Lake 1 1/2' of our stored water ABOVE biological opinion mandates for suckers. The lake is 3' higher than it was historically before we built and paid for the Klamath Project.  Klamath Lake and Klamath River are presently full. When water goes to the farms, it then fills the refuges then is diverted OUT of the Klamath Basin and into Klamath River.

9th Circuit rejects arguments against farming in Klamath wildlife refuges, Capital Press 7/19/22. "A unanimous panel of three 9th Circuit judges has now upheld that decision, ruling that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan complies with all the laws governing the 200,000-acre refuge complex... The 9th Circuit has disagreed with that argument, ruling that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan struck the appropriate balance between agriculture and wildfowl management as required by refuge management statutes...FWS adequately explained that some amount of pesticide use was necessary on the Refuges to ensure sufficient crop production, on which Refuge waterfowl now depend..."

KBC NOTE: This photo was taken February 9, 2022 of thousands of acres of the world famous Tule Lake Refuge, the most important stop in the Pacific Flyway for migrating waterfowl.  According to U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service, "For more than 10,000 years, Native Americans camped along the lakeshore to hunt, fish and harvest a variety of marsh plants..." In 2021 the Bureau of Reclamation for the first time in history denied our stored water to our refuges and farms, against a court order, for an entire year.
   With the pretext of protecting Endangered suckers to throw farmers off their land, the Bureau of Reclamation kept our stored irrigation water in the full Upper Klamath Lake to supposedly help 2 species of suckers, threatening 433 species of wildlife and our farms. Hundreds of domestic wells went dry. The Bureau is succeeding in eliminating farmers and ranchers like the government agencies destroyed hundreds of lumber mills. In the past 2 years alone California and Oregon have lost millions of acres of forests, millions of animals and spotted owls, many towns and lives due to wildfires from overgrown and many diseased trees in the guise of protecting the endangered owl from loggers. The Bureau plans to withhold our water again in 2022, keeping Klamath Lake higher than historically possible, for the two suckers which continue to decline with this extreme Klamath Lake level, against advice from the peer-reviewed National Resources Committee.

Off-season irrigation could pause as Reclamation 'pays back' PacifiCorp reservoirs, H&N 12/4/21. "A coalition of conservation groups, including the California Waterfowl Association, Ducks Unlimited, the Klamath Basin Audubon Society and Bird Ally X, wrote to Reclamation in October asking them to continue the "well-established practice" of releasing the lake's surplus water for fall migration and irrigation purposes. Reclamation declined to do so, citing concerns about meeting higher minimum lake elevations come spring, especially following two extremely dry years. Klamath Basin Refuge Complex Supervisory Biologist John Vradenburg told the Herald and News last month that, while the lack of water on Lower Klamath and Tule Lake refuges this summer may have helped stave off an avian botulism outbreak, not having winter water to produce food and habitat for birds migrating north in the spring is a much more serious problem. Millions of birds already skipped the Klamath Basin, once the single most important wetland complex on the Pacific Flyway, for the 2021 fall migration, and their wintering grounds in the Central Valley are producing less food due to drought. When they return in the spring, they'll be extra hungry and in need of a rest stop."

Beating botulism (in Tule Lake refuge), H&N 11/16/21. "Tule Lake Sump 1A is mostly dry after most of its water was drained to Sump 1B to try and prevent the spread of botulism..." (KBC NOTE: because The Bureau of Reclamation denied water to the farms and refuges) Eventually, refuge managers will try to refill Sump 1A and create a better environment for waterfowl."

KILLING SUCKERS: The following comment was on our Klamath Basin Crisis Facebook page: November 2022 - From Matt Brimmer 4 days ago in a discussion in this fb group regarding suckers, hatchery, and draining Sump 1A : "Michael this has been attempted on a couple different instances since 2001 and has failed. I sat in on one of the original meetings regarding a Sucker Hatchery. It was set up on Lower Klamath Wildlife refuge towards the Sterns Unit. It was working well until the Birds found it and ate most of them! I also had the opportunity to be part of the Team that assisted with Sucker fish capture on the Caldona (Running Y) marsh when the dike broke. This made for what the ESA and the Tribes called the perfect Sucker Habitat. However, I believe we only captured around 30-40 Suckers. Then let’s fast forward to this year when TID with the assistance of Ducks Unlimited and the Tulelake Basin Farmers drained Sump 1A (again supposed perfect sucker habitat). Multiple Large Adult Breeding suckers were trapped however were not allowed to be moved from 1A to Klamath Lake. They were moved to Sump 1B where most were found floating a few weeks later."

Upper Klamath irrigators challenge water transfer to wildlife refuge, Capital Press 10/1/21. "A lawsuit claims Oregon water regulators have authorized a water transfer to a wildlife refuge without properly analyzing the impacts on Upper Klamath irrigators.

Emergency water delivery aims to help birds, fish at Tule Lake, H&N 8/13/21. "...Ducks Unlimited announced that, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Tulelake Irrigation District and local farmers, they had secured 10,000 acre-feet of water to deliver to the sump...The water will be “borrowed” from PacifiCorp’s hydroelectric reservoirs on the Klamath River...By lowering the reservoirs by 10,000 acre-feet and adjusting flows upstream, the action isn’t expected to majorly affect flows out of Iron Gate Dam or the elevation of Upper Klamath Lake... the PacifiCorp reservoirs will have to be refilled later in the year, ideally following a precipitation event in the fall or early winter..."

Evaporation, diversions increase botulism risk at Tule Lake, H&N 7/17/21. "Last month, biologists and irrigators drained Tule Lake’s largest unit of open water to mitigate avian botulism outbreaks on Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge..."

* Wish List for Suckers Nails Farms, USFWS proposal 1992
* Leave it alone, by former Tulelake Refuge Manager, the late Henry Christiansen, H&N 9/8/04. "...What would happen if they stopped farming the refuge and let the 22,000 acres of farmland sit idle? ... envision 22,000 acres of weeds. This is in an area where the local farmers have spent hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars fighting weeds throughout the years....it would take 162,800 acre-feet more water to flood the farm area than it takes to farm it. At present, that amount of water isn't available and there isn't anything indicating it will ever be available..."

Wood River rancher sells water right to help downstream refuges, H&N 3/16/21. "The Wood River Valley rancher...proposed selling 4,500 acre-feet of his water right to the refuge...CWA is in the process of lobbying the federal government to eventually purchase the full 30,000 acre-feet, which could cost up to $60 million. That could easily be funded by Congress... a 30,000 acre-feet delivery would allow Lower Klamath to support an additional 3,000 acres of grain, 1,000 acres of pasture, 2,000 acres of permanent wetlands and 4,600 acres of other wetlands..." Go HERE for the previous 100,000 acres of agricultural land acquisition by the U.S. government: "One ranch at a time, Government agencies and TNC promised that these farm and ranch acquisitions would save water, improve water quality, benefit fish, and store water for the rest of the irrigators and put more water into the Klamath River. The opposite is true..."  KBC NOTE: Our refuges were designed to receive water after it was pumped through the Klamath Reclamation Project. This amount was substantial until the government-mandated instream-required-water-for-fish skyrocketed. Water for fish = less or no water for birds and 489 species of wildlife, and farmers. Thus, when the Klamath Project gets it's full delivery, the runoff water goes to the refuges. This Project water historically was in a closed basin until Reclamation blasted a tunnel through Sheepy Ridge to supply Lower Klamath Refuge and keep farms from flooding. Pacific Power raised Project power rate more than 2000%, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuses to pay the $100's of thousands power costs for D Plant to pump water into Lower Klamath Refuges from the Project.

Klamath farmers confront dry year, legal challenge, CFBF 3/24/2021. "...Environmental groups challenged the plan's continued allowance of leasing refuge lands for agriculture as inconsistent with the refuges' purpose of waterfowl management. Conversely, the Tulelake Irrigation District challenged the new restrictions as inconsistent with the Kuchel Act, which identifies agriculture as a key purpose of the refuges...John Crawford, president of the Tulelake Irrigation District board of directors, farms on the refuge and said he is proud of local farmers' contribution to the waterfowl population...'We leave a tremendous amount of grain standing there for ducks and geese every year. Right now, there's thousands of geese utilizing that standing grain that was left last fall...' "...U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it anticipates it will not have enough water this summer to meet minimum requirements for endangered fish, let alone to fulfill irrigation demands."
* Leave it alone, by former Tulelake Refuge Manager, the late Harry Christiansen. "...What would happen if they stopped farming the refuge and let the 22,000 acres of farmland sit idle? ... envision 22,000 acres of weeds. This is in an area where the local farmers have spent hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars fighting weeds throughout the years....it would take 162,800 acre-feet more water to flood the farm area than it takes to farm it. At present, that amount of water isn't available and there isn't anything indicating it will ever be available..."
* Wish List for Suckers Nails Farms, USFWS proposal 1992

Farmers, ranchers can run Basin better than 'experts,' H&N letter to editor by David Hill, Merrill 9/13/2020. "...For more than 20 years now, the agriculture community have been the whipping boy for all the problems concerning the salmon, sucker and algae in the Klamath Lake Basin. So called “experts” from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the tribes above and below the lake, fisheries personnel, a local MD, biologists and others have told us how to fix the problem: Fence the riparian area of all streams, remove 30-40,000 acres of productive farm ground along the lake, keep water levels high in lake, remove cattle or keep manure out of lake. All the above have been done and nothing works. Maybe the decline in suckers is due to the trophy trout population consuming the sucker fry or the cormorants and terns and other fish eating birds are responsible. Cormorants and terns are major factors with salmon fry in the Columbia River system...

Reclamation announces more water for Klamath Project, refuges, H&N 9/6/2020

Reduce Klamath Cormorant population to save the fish, by Debbie Klaja for H&N 5/26/2020. "Has anything been done to reduce the number of fish-eating Cormorants? It seems everyone thinks the problem with no surviving baby sucker fish is the water level..." KBC NOTE: See our Refuge Page articles for more on fish-eating Caspian Terns lured to Tulelake and Lower Klamath refuges on million-dollar, FWS-made islands from eating baby salmon. Now baby suckers? Scroll down for more Caspian Tern information

Environmentalists and farmers lose lawsuits over Klamath refuges, Capital Press 4/22/2020. "The agricultural plaintiffs argued these burdens would threaten the viability of farming and interfere with a federal law governing leases of refuge lands."
WISH LIST FOR SUCKERS NAILS FARMS, February 11, 1992. KBC NOTE: The FWS Wish List for Upper Klamath and also Tulelake Refuges is finally coming true. "“Marshall Staunton, president of the Tulelake Growers Association, said the proposal ignores the impact on farmers in the Basin. He said he felt betrayed by the wildlife service. “We thought we were shooting for a win-win situation...I think it shows tremendous bad faith when we’re supposed to be working together.” 

Lower Klamath refuge to start getting water, KWUA 9/5/19. “Even in a year with 130 percent of average precipitation, we still did not have a full allocation to the Project,” said Klamath Irrigation District Manager Gene Souza. "The ESA requirements for fish are overwhelmingly the biggest risk to the water needs of the Refuge as well as the Project.”

TID pumping water to Lower Klamath Refuge, H&N 2/19/19, FOLLOWED BY:
Amidst Uncertainty, Klamath Project farmers increase water delivery to Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, KWUA press release.

Oregonians for Food and Shelter Legislative Review 1/11/19. Bans neonicotinoids, aerial pesticide prohibition, forest practice bans, dairy size prohibitions and regulations, Articles: Carbon Cap, Wolf talks, Klamath Refuge Management Attacks, Walden townhalls.

Comments due July 6 for Klamath refuges acquiring irrigator's water

USFWS releases water from the refuge, H&N, 3/29/18.

Fish & Wildlife weighs drawdown of 10k acre feet from lower refuge, H&N 3/13/18

Lower Klamath Refuge construction an effort to save salmon (on the Columbia River). Habitat restoration aimed at dispersing (fish eating) Caspian Tern populations, H&N 2/14/18. "...According to Beckstrand, the Caspian tern population along the Columbia River has been responsible for around 15 million to 20 million salmon smolts being eaten annually. The cormorant population growing on East Sand Island is estimated to be responsible for an additional 11 million young salmon each year..."
FWS wildlife biologist/tour guide John Beckstrand feels solution is farmer buy-out, KBC News 5/22/04
* Caspian Tern Management to reduce Predation of Juvenile Salmonids in the Columbia River Estuary - Final EIS. Refers to Warner Suckers Ch 3 - 14. January 2005
* Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge - Floating Islands Enhance Salmonid Recovery by Creating Alternative Nesting Habitat for Caspian Terns,  US Army Corp of Engineers, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and NOAA Fisheries plan succeeded, with OSU and USGS,  to bring fish predators to Klamath Basin. Floating Island International 2010, posted to KBC 6/13/13. "In February 2010, FIW and Just Buckets built and launched a 40,000sq. ft. floating island at Sheepy Lake in Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge." (The fish-predator Caspian Terns population in 2010 went from 0 to 325 in 3 months on Lower Klamath.) "This innovative island has been a tremendous success, as the Sheepy Lake tern colony appears to have had the highest nesting success of any Caspian tern colony in the region during 2010."
* Restoring refuges - Wildlife refuges benefit from stimulus funds, H&N, posted 10/16/09.
RELATED ARTICLE: Stimulus funds bring Caspian tern project to Siskiyou County, Siskyou Daily News 8/12/09. "...the Tulelake reserve rock island’s cost is approximately $1.1 million, the Orems unit rock island’s cost is approximately $650,000 and the Sheepy Lake floating island’s cost is approximately $2.3 million...an estimated colony of 10,000 nesting pairs of Caspian terns on Rice Island in the Columbia River were consuming approximately 6 million to 25 million salmonid smolts per year, according to a 1999 USACE report."
For more on FWS bringing in fish-eating Caspian terns, go to our Refuge Article page, scroll to find many articles

Farming inside refuges transforms Klamath Basin agriculture, H&N by OPB 7/28/17

Irrigators file lawsuit over Klamath refuge restrictions, H&N from Capital Press 4/13/17. "The Tulelake Irrigation District, Klamath Water Users Association, Tulelake Growers Association and three private farms have now filed a complaint against the agency, arguing that plans for the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath refuges violate federal laws."

***FINAL Plan for Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges, available for public review, 12/9/16. It deals with acquiring more water, the KBRA, climate change, whether farming is compatible with refuges...

US Fish and Wildlife Service: Klamath Basin leaseland farming on the refuges with hundreds of new proposed regulations that would shut down leaseland farming. COMMENT PERIOD is extended to August 4th. Follow this link for FWS documents > https://www.regulations.gov/docketBrowser?rpp=25&so=DESC&sb=commentDueDate&po=0&dct=SR&D=FWS-R8-NWRS-2016-0063
*** This link for sending comments > https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FWS-R8-NWRS-2016-0063-0374

*  COMMENTS DUE JUNE 20: Notice of Availability of Draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan/Environmental Impact Statement on Lower Klamath, Clear Lake, Tule Lake, Upper Klamath, and Bear Valley National Wildlife Refuges, Klamath County, OR; Siskiyou and Modoc Counties, CA
* All Chapters and attachments, summary.
   Chapter 1, Intro and Background - Klamath Basin FWS Refuges
   Chapter 2, Comprehensive Conservation Planning Process

< Photo Lower Klamath Refuge April 24, 2015
Ron Cole, (former) Klamath Basin Refuge Manager, alerts Audubon groups that there is not enough water on refuges because farmers can't afford the power bills to pump it into the refuges and river on Feb. 10, posted 3/29/12

Refuges seeking contracts with farmers by April 3rd. Agreements are crop share and growers are responsible for all growing costs, H&N 3/26/15

* Tule Lake was a navigable lake up to 30' deep in a closed basin. There was no outlet for this water. To farm the land, and provide water for affordable regulated hydropower for the West, at the farmers' expense, we rerouted that water and blasted a tunnel through Sheepy Ridge so 20-30 acre feet of that water would go into FWS Lower Klamath /Wildlife Refuge, where it could never go before, then into the Klamath River. Tulelake Irrigation District pays for 100% of the Operations and Maintenance of D Plant (the electric pumps pumping that water uphill through the tunnel) and Lease Land farmers pay for 98% of that cost. HERE is a Power Usage & Cost comparison. Our power costs have increased 2729% in 7 years.

RESCUE in the REFUGE, Botulism outbreak: 100 birds a day found ill or dead, and KBC NEWS commentary, Herald and News 8/31/14. "According to Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, in the KBRA, a block of water is allocated for the Klamath Project and for the Klamath refuge complex...All the problems we’re seeing in the community related to water can be resolved with the Klamath Settlement Agreements...” Part of Commentary: "Take, for example, the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge. The complex has been perpetually short on water in recent years and a jump in power costs in 2004 has made pumping water to replenish wetlands prohibitively expensive....(Manager Ron Cole) estimates that in 2001 it cost 33 cents to pump an acre-foot of water onto the refuge. The cost to do the same to day is $9.20.

Klamath Basin - Lack of bird refuges plan spurs lawsuit, H&N 4/25/14.

Tribe seeks protection for refuges; Modoc Nation members want to halt water removal, H&N, posted to KBC 3/16/14. “The Modoc Nation respectfully requests the U.S. Congress, Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife stop all pumping and irrigating off the sacred water in this refuge complex"  KBC NOTE: The Modoc Tribe, recently branched off from the Klamath Tribe in 2010. The Klamath Tribe in the KBRA agreed with the Congressional right of irrigators to farm the FWS refuge leases. The Modoc Tribe requests all water to be used for their sacred endangered suckers. FWS has built two islands in these refuges which are successfully attracting fish parasites, Caspian Terns, which eat baby fish and keep the species endangered.

Comments due 2/21/14 on more relocation of Columbia Basin fish predators Caspian Terns, which were relocated to Tule Lake and Klamath refuges.

Corps seeking comment on plans to again reduce Caspian Tern nesting area on East Sand Island, Due Feb 21, 2014, CBB 1/24/14. “In 2013, at 1.58 acres of nesting habitat on East Sand Island, the number of nesting pairs was near 7,600 and predation on juvenile salmon was near 4.7 million...“In 2013, approximately 680 Caspian terns moved from East Sand Island to some of the constructed inland sites, including Summer Lake, Malheur Lake, Crump Lake, Sheepy Lake, and Tule Lake.” KBC NOTE: These fish predators eat baby fish and were relocated to Tule Lake and Klamath refuges. Our baby suckers are mysteriously vanishing. 100,000 acres of irrigation water were shut off above the Klamath Project because Indians demanded it due to low juvenile sucker counts, claiming more water in the lake makes more suckers. Write comments regarding Columbia building Caspian Tern habitat, terns killed millions of juvenile salmon so they relocated them here, and plan to relocate more. http://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/Media/Announcements/tabid/1887/Article/21181/draft-ea-caspian-tern-nesting-habitat-reduction-east-sand-island.aspx

Hunting improves on bird refuges, H&N, posted to KBC 11/17/13. "A flyover on Nov. 1, conducted by Jim Hainline for the USFWS, revealed nearly 100,000 birds are currently in the refuge..."
 

Oregon Senator Doug Whitsett 6/13/13 Newsletter: Thousands of fish-eating Cormorants eating baby suckers?

Water for the refuges: Spring diversions to the refuge are helping to attract wildlife, H&N, posted to KBC 7/10/12. KBC EDITOR: As we understand it, the refuges have lowest water priority. Historically this farmland was not without water; it was a huge navigable lake. So when our government allows our farms to have their deeded water, all the runoff goes into the refuges, then into the Klamath river. We pump our water out of the basin, diverting it uphill through a man-made tunnel into refuges then into the Klamath River, all at Klamath Project irrigators' expense, where it historically could not be diverted. Our NMFS biological opinion presently does not allow the lake to fill. When it reaches a certain level the BO mandates the water to go down the river, or in the case this year, directly from the lake into the refuges. This has created a shortage for the farmers, so money is being paid to farmers to fallow land, pump groundwater, or irrigate like crazy early so at certain dates they use no more water and get paid for not irrigating later in the year. When water goes directly to refuges that runoff does not go to the farms. Last winter, since our power rate has increased more than 2000%, farmers could not afford to pump the water as much as before, and normally Fish and Wildlife is not willing to pay for this water, from a historic close basin, to be pumped to benefit fish and wildlife. HERE for Klamath Basin Refuge Page and related articles.

(Klamath Basin) Farmland lease bids hit new record, H&N 4/26/12.

ESA partially to blame for bird kill at refuges, Debbie Kliewer, H&N letter 4/7/12.

Leave it alone, H&N letter by Henry Christiansen, past Tulelake refuge manager 9/8/04, regarding Rep Earl Blumenauer's persistence in trying to eliminate refuge farming, "...it would take 162,800 acre-feet more water to flood the farm area than it takes to farm it. At present, that amount of water isn't available and there isn't anything indicating it will ever be available."
Management shift dooms local wildlife refuges, Henry Christensen 2/9/03

Ron Cole, Klamath Basin Refuge Manager, alerts Audubon groups that there is not enough water on refuges because farmers can't afford the power bills to pump it into the refuges and river on Feb. 10, posted 3/29/12
Ron's letter prompted Center for Biological Diversity and a coalition of other environmental groups to write letter to Interior Secretary Salazar suggesting the feds buy out farmer's water rights 3/27/12. "The Department of the Interior and Congress should work together to develop a voluntary demand reduction program, where private water right holders can retire their claims to water..."

"To make matters worse, these commercially leased agricultural fields regularly receive water even in years when the refuge’s wetlands are, in stark contrast, left totally dry." KBC EDITOR: Check out these KBC photos below from fall 2010. Photo to left is dry dead fields. Center photo is farm leaseland on left and Tule Lake wildlife refuge on right. Photo on right is full Tule Lake.
 

KWUA newsletter regarding Buying out Irrigators 5/11/04 by director Dan Keppen, when environmental groups and USFWS promoted it before.

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Geothermal energy plant planned for Klamath wildlife refuge, SBO, posted to KBC 3/29/12. "Take, for example, the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge. The complex has been perpetually short on water in recent years and a jump in power costs in 2004 has made pumping water to replenish wetlands prohibitively expensive....(Manager Ron Cole) estimates that in 2001 it cost 33 cents to pump an acre-foot of water onto the refuge. The cost to do the same to day is $9.20.

26 Organizations Sound Alarm on Klamath Water, Obama Administration Urged Not to Allow National Wildlife Refuges to Go Dry, Center for Biological Diversity Press Release, posted to KBC 3/29/12.

10,000 dead birds at refuges (from cholera), H&N, posted to KBC 3/29/12

Energy site work could begin later this year, Geothermal facility on refuge considered, H&N, posted to KBC 3/1/12. "Depending on volumes produced by the geothermal wells, Cole said the refuge complex could meet all or part of those power needs and provide water to parched wetlands."

Interior Secretary Announces more than $20 Million for Wetlands Grants for Migratory Birds, 9/14/11. More than $9 Million for Wildlife Refuge Acquisitions

National Wildlife Refuge System Understaffed, Poorly Maintained Due to Unsustainable Backlogs, Continual Federal Land Acquisition, 5/26/11

April 22 public comment due on refuge draft plan

Refuge employee (Dave Mauser) honored, biologist earns national award for wetlands program, H&N 3/18/11.“I think this award was not for perseverance but for the work I and a lot of others have done with the Walking Wetlands program,” he said, referring to the crop rotation program.  In some years, the Walking Wetlands program has added upward of 10,000 acres of wetlands and spurred expansion of organic farming." HERE for more on refuges, and FWS intentions of land and water rights acquisitions.

PUBLIC NOTICE - Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge Cooperative Farming, February 2011.  KBC Note: 979 acres of private land will become seasonal wetlands, and growers will be provided land to farm in the wildlife refuge. Our federal government pays farmers to use efficient sprinklers, yet they want 979 acres of private land to have standing water much of the year.

Pacific Region Selects New Assistant Regional Director for Refuges, FWS 2/9/11

Oregon and California Wildlife Refuges: appropriation for ag or fish and wildlife early 1900's. Page 1, & Page 2
From Klamath Drainage District appeal before Dept. of Interior 1953 relating to refuges, grain leases and homesteads, Reclamation Act, purpose of the Klamath Reclamation Project, and attempts by the federal government to change that purpose.
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6

3/2/11 - Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation, Draft Vision, 2011. Covers land acquisitions, farming, acquiring water rights, managing land outside the refuge, climate change, ... Draft Vision information page. Draft Recommendations.

 PRESS RELEASE: Salazar draft vision for future of refuges 2/24/11, "Spanning more than 150 million acres of land and water..."

The KBRA/Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement 15.1.3 changes the purpose of the Klamath Reclamation Project. Continue reading KBRA document regarding the new water right given to Fish and Wildlife Service. Tule Lake Refuges October, 2010 - KBC refuge  photos Does it look like there is no water in the Klamath Basin Refuges, nowhere for the birds to go? More KBC photos, and H&N article HERE
TuleLake Refuge farmland Oct. 2010. No water. No crops. Noxious weeds. Waterfowl normally eat 70 million ponds of food here, 1/2 coming from the farms.	TuleLake Refuge lake for birds Oct. 2010. Presently FWS has no water right on the refuge; when farms get water, then the refuge gets all that runoff; both win, farmers and wildlife. This year was different. Why?

Dave Mauser, FWSbiologist

‘It’s a tough situation. There’s not enough water to go around,’ H&N, posted to KBC 11/5/10

" 'Fall birds will migrate until the beginning of November. With no water, the birds will have to go someplace else..We’re running out of places for birds to go,' Mauser said. 'Endangered species and tribal trust obligations come first, then farmers, and then what’s left over goes to the refuges.'"

Letter from Bureau of Reclamation Susan Fry to Ron Cole, Fish and Wildlife Tulelake Refuge Manager, regarding FWS takeover of leaseland management, posted 7/23/10. "Ron,  I understand you held a meeting with Lease Land growers on July 14^th and announced that FWS had “fired the Bureau” and would be taking over the lease land program.  Since I have not heard from you regarding the lease land program since April/May, I am surprised to hear of this announcement..."

Klamath Basin Refuge management public comment by June 28

Suckers being moved from (Tulelake) refuge to (Klamath) lake, H&N 5/13/10. "...We think most, if not all, of these (fish) originated in Upper Klamath Lake, so we’re just putting them back where they came from...”

Klamath Basin Refuges public meetings: Klamath Falls May 13
Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges Conservation public planning sessions, 4/30/10

Photo: A new two-acre island for Caspian terns, shown before it was flooded, was built at the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Restoring refuges - Wildlife refuges benefit from stimulus funds, H&N, posted 10/16/09.
RELATED ARTICLE: Stimulus funds bring Caspian tern project to Siskiyou County, Siskyou Daily News 8/12/09. "...the Tulelake reserve rock island’s cost is approximately $1.1 million, the Orems unit rock island’s cost is approximately $650,000 and the Sheepy Lake floating island’s cost is approximately $2.3 million...an estimated colony of 10,000 nesting pairs of Caspian terns on Rice Island in the Columbia River were consuming approximately 6 million to 25 million salmonid smolts per year, according to a 1999 USACE report."

Agreement guarantees refuges water, H&N 10/16/09. "(Cole) defends the Endangered Species Act and the involved National Environment Protection Act, which are often seen as obstacles....“They allow citizens the right to work for solutions, not to stop achieving solutions.”
“Throwing our hands up and saying, ‘let’s go to court,’ is not a solution. The time to solve the problem is here,” (Mauser) says. (KBC NOTE: An author and person at the table of the closed-door Klamath Settlement Craig Tucker is on the board of Riverkeeper who opposes the agreement and promises to litigate if their demands are not met.)

! Walking Wetland Controversy, and Bureau of Reclamation blackmail issues, by KBC reporter July 19, 2009

Farming For  Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, 2009. "This grant will sponsor an informational trip by some of the participating farmers and other agricultural stakeholders in the Skagit Delta to Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the Klamath Basin region of Northern California."

Refuges receive stimulus money, H&N 5/19/09. "The stimulus money will be used to create a block of 1,300 acres that will be flooded for two years this fall. In 2010, the land will be returned to crops for three to five years."

(Klamath Basin) Walking Wetlands, Iowa Public Television, posted to KBC 5/19/09. Tulelake refuge manager Ron Cole, and Tule Lake farmers Marshall Staunton and Rob Crawford, tell about the Walking Wetland program.

From farms to wetlands; Walking Wetlands program benefits farmers, refuges and wildlife, H&N 11/20/08

From Farms to Wetlands, A partnership with agriculture, Herald and News 11/20/08

From farms to wetlands; Transforming tracts of farmland to wetland, Herald and News 11/20/08

Klamath Marsh event planned, H&N 6/9/08. "It originally had 16,400 acres but was expanded to 40,646 acres following purchases in 1990 and 1998. Of that acreage, 37,023 acres, or more than 90 percent, is in wetlands." (KBC NOTE: The Marsh was taken out of agriculture, decimating the cattle industry in the Upper Basin. It evaporates 2ce the water as irrigated ag, while the federal promise was, this federal acquisition would provide more irrigation water for the rest of the irrigators, somehow...Farmers and ranchers, who grew up with hand-shake contracts, fall for this line every time, to their demise. More than 100,000 acres in the Upper Basin have been converted from private ag land to federal standing-water swamps.)

Wetlands-crop rotation paying off, H&N 6/5/08

Doing fowl deeds to fields, followed by Farms’ support of birds studied, H&N 4/24/08

Counting Birds, Annual Christmas count finds more than 100 different species, followed by Winter Wings, H&N 12/22/07

Bird hunters flock to Klamath Basin; Farms offer critical food source for migrating waterfowl, Capital Press by Jacqui Krizo 11/9/07. "...the Klamath farmers are crucial to waterfowl. If farms are healthy, the waterfowl can serve people up and down the Pacific Flyway. Klamath Basin has the largest concentration of waterfowl in North America,"

. said Dr. Robert McLandress, President of California Waterfowl Association

Growing crops and ducks, Integrating wetlands into commercial crop rotation in the basin, Pioneer Press, posted to KBC 8/17/07, followed by Compromise, and Environmental Groups.

The silent summer; When farms and refuges work together the animals are the ones who benefit, by Lance Waldren, Pioneer Press July 25, 2007

Dry year may work in irrigators’ favor, H&N, posted to KBC 6/27/07. "Wildlife refuges may also get more water"

US Fish and Wildlife stole $60 million dollars POLITICAL BEDTIME STORY (FOR HUNTERS, FISHERMEN, TRAPPERS & OTHER NEOPHYTES) by Jim Beers 12/30/06. "Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow.

(Klamath) Winter Refuge, H&N, posted to KBC 12/12/06

Birds are back, thanks to farmers' recovery efforts Issue Date: July 12, 2006  by Kathy Coatney, California Farm Bureau Federation Ag Alert' Walking Wetlands Program participant Marshall Staunton shows land that is currently being flooded for wetlands at the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. This land will eventually be planted with an agricultural crop.

Mild winter brings early birds to Klamath refuges, H&N posted to KBC 3/10/05. (When the government mandates taking over 1/3 of our area's irrigation water this year, which is designed to end up in the refuges, it affects these 594,000 birds. Single species management of illegally-listed coho salmon, and tens of thousands of listed sucker fish, is destroying the rest of our ecosystem and economy.) For more local wildlife, go HERE. Fish and Wildlife Service Dave Menke

Managers, farmers attempt to balance wildlife and harvests at Tule Lake refuge, The Oregonian 11/24/04

Refuge managers, farmers, find common interest, Herald and News 11/1/04, by Jacqui Krizo. "Remember, this biological opinion was created from the agenda-driven Hardy studies. Dr. Thomas Hardy of Utah State University was hired by the Department of Justice and Bureau of Indian Affairs to go against the farmers in the water adjudication litigation."

Refuge report earns an "F", Klamath Courier 10/20/04.

Sharing the Land Range Magazine Fall 2004 . "Wildlife and agriculture sharing the land can be spectacular and burdensome." Story by Klamath Basin Farmer Steve Kandra. Photos © Larry Turner.

During spring and autumn migrations, millions of snow geese forage on private fields along the Oregon-California border.

Media Advisory by Klamath Water Users Association: Defenders of Wildlife Refuge Report Misses Mark 10/8/04.
The 10 Most Endangered Wildlife Refuges - Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, Refuges at Risk, Defenders of Wildlife 10/8/04
U.S. wildlife refuges facing threats, Seattle Post-Intelligencer AP Oct 8, 2004 (Klamath on list)

Note from Klamath Water Users Association regarding our refuges 10/7/04: "Earlier this year, the Oregon Natural Resources Council, WaterWatch of Oregon, and other long-time critics of family farms and ranches, released a report entitled “Refuges in Peril", which portrayed Klamath national wildlife refuges. While at the same time Klamath Project irrigators and federal agencies greeted the recent release of the 2004 Klamath Project operations plan with a sense of renewed optimism, these farming critics were already forecasting doom for the region’s national wildlife refuges."  
     As usual, the doom and gloom prediction proved wrong. The Tule Lake and Lower Klamath national wildlife refuges are wetter than they have been for years, federal officials said this week.
     "Some people are telling me that this is as good as it looked five years ago," said Ron Cole, refuges manager. "It is certainly a change from when I got here a year ago."

What do Klamath Basin wildlife refuge managers and farmers have in common? And Organic Farming is on the Rise, KBC September 25, 2004.        KBC was given a tour of the Lower Klamath wildlife refuge, seeing the permanent and seasonal wetlands, while at the same time watching migrating geese coming to the basin, sand hill cranes, and an otter crossing the road.  HERE FOR STORY

l-r FWS Fran Mais, master gardener Larry Herne, FWS manager Ron Cole and FWS biologist Dave Mauser watching birds

Leave it alone, H&N letter by Henry Christiansen, past Tulelake refuge manager 9/8/04, regarding Rep Earl Blumenauer's persistence in trying to eliminate refuge farming, "...it would take 162,800 acre-feet more water to flood the farm area than it takes to farm it. At present, that amount of water isn't available and there isn't anything indicating it will ever be available."

Congressman Blumenauer from Portland has often tried to downsize the Klamath Project farmland by trying to abolish refuge farming. He recently visited the Klamath Basin with 'environmentalists', however spent over an hour with water users. The following is some of the recent interaction:
Letter from KWUA to Congressman Blumenauer posted to KBC from www.kwua.org  website.9/6/04. re: August 26 meeting in Klamath Falls 9/1/04 followed by attachments 1-6. There are 2 missing graphs that hopefully will appear soon:
1. KWUA’s comments sent earlier this summer regarding "Scoping Document No. 1" prepared by FERC in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"). This should provide you with the additional detail you requested regarding our stance on, and related history of, the current power rate enjoyed by Klamath Project irrigators.
2. Description of pre-Project hydrology, relative to downstream flows in the Klamath River.
3. Description of Klamath Project efficiency.
4. Summary of cropping patterns and irrigation.
5. Summary of March-October diversions, 1962-2001.
6. Summary of refuge water demands, 1951-2001.

Congressman Blumenauer's response to a H&N editorial, Failure to deal with Basin problems the real threat in H&N posted to KBC 9/5/04. (Farms use less than half the water than wetlands. In the past 10 years, over 92,000 acres of farmland have been converted to wetlands,--go HERE for documentation--. He feels taking 1/10th of our land out of production will help Oregon, the state that sports the highest unemployment in America. Our agriculture contributes 200 million dollars into the economy and employs thousands of workers. KBC) HIs article is after the article that he responded to:: Congressman's words conflict with each other, H&N 8/31/04, "So, the question for Blumenauer is this: Which is it? Is the route to a resolution through local bargaining? Or is it through a decision in Washington to take the most productive tenth of the Klamath Reclamation Project out of crops and start Basin agriculture into a death spiral?"
Representative opposed to lease-land farming, H&N August 29, 2004. "A change Blumenauer has tried to bring to the Basin is the end of agriculture on lease lands on national wildlife refuges." (...even though over half the feed for wildlife comes from Klamath Basin farms and it would destroy our local economy like the rest of Oregon. KBC)
Letter to Klamath Basin farmers from Jim Beers in response to Blumenaur article, 8/30/04.

Go here for summary of the Audubon/USFWS partnership, and the transcribed speeches of each group present:
Informational sheet by Ron Cole
Speech by Ron Cole, US Fish and Wildlife Service
Speech by Christine Karas, Bureau of Reclamation
Speech by Dave Eshbaugh, Audubon
Speech by Steve Kandra, Farmer and Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) President
Speech by Rick Maher, CWA regional biologist
Media Advisory by Dan Keppen, KWUA Executive Director
Refuges, Myth vs Fact, KWUA
Press Release: Tulelake private well pumpers

Tule Lake Migratory Bird Festival a Success.
FWS wildlife biologist/tour guide John Beckstrand feels solution is farmer buy-out;
FWS manager commends farmers on outstanding work
by KBC News 5/22/04