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More water storage better than screens for fish populations
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| Jack O'Connor is a life-time Klamath Basin resident engaged in ranching and farming. |
By Jack O'Connor
Has anyone studied the adverse effects the screen on the A Canal will have on sucker fish?
Turning them back at the headgates will bunch them up at the Link River Dam. This undoubtedly will force them down the river to Lake Ewauna, which is not suitable habit. Most of them will die before they get to Keno.
Historic sucker habitat below the head gates, and in the project, bears consideration. The ponds, lakes and drain ditches radiating out from the canal system have always been great sucker habitat.
The suckers are an important part of the Klamath Reclamation Project ecosystem for the species that depend on them for food - the osprey, eagles, other birds of prey and mammals. The lower project and refuge ecosystems were badly damaged when the water was shut off. This was especially hard on our bird population. There was no water in the canals. Fish and amphibian populations that provide food for many birds were decimated. Birds that eat aquatic plants starved or moved elsewhere.
This year we need a study to see the degree of recovery, if any, of the chubs, minnows and plants in the canal environment.
If fish populations within the project area aren't restored and maintained by outflow from the upper lake, where are they going to come from? Maybe, canals should have water flowing year around so fish could spawn there, providing food for other species. The canals could probably be enhanced into additional sustaining sucker habitat for much less than the millions of dollars being spent on screening them off.
What kind of questionable science influenced a decision that a costly fish screen was the best use of tax money to address water problems? Wouldn't this money be better spent addressing the creation of more and better quality water for all purposes?
The old Geary Ranch farm ground, now the Running Y, would be a natural storage site with very little engineering. Water could be pumped in during the winter and released in the summer to lower water temperature for the benefit of downriver salmon. That site has a potential to store half a million acre-feet (7,000 acre-feet per foot of reservoir depth.)
The pluses:
n This would clean up Howard Bay by moving water flow through it.
Orindale Draw road could go northwest from the high point south of the ranch and follow the ridge to Doak Mountain grade. This road would be a gradual grade and come out on top of Doak Mountain. Lakeshore Drive would feed into Orindale by grading it and adding some fill dirt.
The storage created would be a great recreation area: Less wind than on the lake, fresh, cooler water, beautiful mountains surrounding it, and the protection from the west would keep the sun off longer. Different species of fish could be planted in this storage area because the water would be colder and deeper, thus ex-panding recreational possibilities.
This is very doable.
Rather than dumping excess water for flood control down the river, it could be stored and sent down the river in July and August to keep stream flow steady and cold.
Upper Klamath Lake took care of everyone through six years of drought in the 1990s including the Native Americans, rafters, farmers and fish. By creating this additional storage, if managed properly, it could sustain us through 10 years of drought.
A low-head power plant could be installed to get 80 percent of the pumping charge back.
This plan needs to be seriously evaluated. Now.
Turning them back at the headgates will bunch them up at the Link River Dam. This undoubtedly will force them down the river to Lake Ewauna, which is not suitable habit. Most of them will die before they get to Keno.
Historic sucker habitat below the head gates, and in the project, bears consideration. The ponds, lakes and drain ditches radiating out from the canal system have always been great sucker habitat.
The suckers are an important part of the Klamath Reclamation Project ecosystem for the species that depend on them for food - the osprey, eagles, other birds of prey and mammals. The lower project and refuge ecosystems were badly damaged when the water was shut off. This was especially hard on our bird population. There was no water in the canals. Fish and amphibian populations that provide food for many birds were decimated. Birds that eat aquatic plants starved or moved elsewhere.
This year we need a study to see the degree of recovery, if any, of the chubs, minnows and plants in the canal environment.
If fish populations within the project area aren't restored and maintained by outflow from the upper lake, where are they going to come from? Maybe, canals should have water flowing year around so fish could spawn there, providing food for other species. The canals could probably be enhanced into additional sustaining sucker habitat for much less than the millions of dollars being spent on screening them off.
What kind of questionable science influenced a decision that a costly fish screen was the best use of tax money to address water problems? Wouldn't this money be better spent addressing the creation of more and better quality water for all purposes?
The old Geary Ranch farm ground, now the Running Y, would be a natural storage site with very little engineering. Water could be pumped in during the winter and released in the summer to lower water temperature for the benefit of downriver salmon. That site has a potential to store half a million acre-feet (7,000 acre-feet per foot of reservoir depth.)
The pluses:
This is very doable.
Rather than dumping excess water for flood control down the river, it could be stored and sent down the river in July and August to keep stream flow steady and cold.
Upper Klamath Lake took care of everyone through six years of drought in the 1990s including the Native Americans, rafters, farmers and fish. By creating this additional storage, if managed properly, it could sustain us through 10 years of drought.
A low-head power plant could be installed to get 80 percent of the pumping charge back.
This plan needs to be seriously evaluated. Now.
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