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Starting at the headgates
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| Brian Bullock, pointing, of the Port of Brookings, spots something swimming in the main bypass of the A Canal Headgates' fish screen, while Elliot Schwartz, left, tries to see it himself. Bullock and Schwartz, executive director of the Rural Resources Alliance, were on a tour of the Klamath Reclamation Project led by Basin water users. |
Coastal county commissioners tour Klamath Reclamation Project
By DYLAN DARLING
Some coastal county commissioners got to see what the Klamath water issue looks like at the start of the Klamath River.
Commissioners from Coos and Curry counties, and representatives of the fishing industry on Oregon's south and California's north coast, toured the Klamath Reclamation Project Friday at the invitation of Klamath Basin water users and Klamath County commissioners.
In September the favor will be returned with a tour of coastal communities based on fishing.
"There is a lot more to this project than most of us understood from the coast," said Ralph Brown, a Curry County commissioner.
Brown, who owns two commercial fishing boats that go after groundfish, said salmon fishermen have been hurting for more than a decade. He said he has seen the number of Oregon boats drop from about 11,000 to about 1,100.
The Basin farmers showed their guests what they are doing to try to avoid becoming scarce themselves.
The project tour started at the new $15 million headgates and wound its way to the Olene gap, Malin and Tulelake before ending at the Klamath Straits, a canal and pump operation that regulates water southeast of Highway 97.
The two groups shared sack lunches at Mike and Wanda's restaurant in Tulelake, where black and white photographs of homesteaders adorn one of the walls.
Paul Kirk, a former Humboldt County commissioner who now lives in Lake Shastina, said there needs to be dialogue among the groups at the beginning and end of the Klamath River to understand each other's situations.
"The reason we wanted to do it is to look to solutions other than litigation and government involvement," he said.
In the courts, Basin water users, along with the federal government, have fought over flows on the Klamath River with the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents groups of salmon fishermen in California.
The federation, joined by a number of environmental groups, coastal communities and downstream tribes, led a lawsuit in federal district court in an attempt to get more flows downstream.
Klamath Basin water users have questioned how much influence the PCFFA has among fishing interests.
On July 17, a federal judge ruled that irrigation deliveries will continue this year, but part of the plan for flows downriver will need to be amended by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service.
Kirk said the differences can be resolved outside the courtroom. He said fishermen and farmers both depend on resources to make their livings and can build a bond from that.
"That is the common denominator - we are all small businessmen," he said.
Kirk is the California representative of the Klamath Management Zone Fisheries Coalition, which started over a decade ago to work through issues on the coast above and below where the Klamath River enters the Pacific Ocean.
He said both groups know what it is like to wait in line for the government to dole out what they need to stay in business - the fishermen for salmon and the farmers for water.
All three of the Klamath County commissioners went on the tour. Commissioner Steve West said people from the Basin and from the coast started identifying things in common.
"They are producers, and we are producers," he said. "Our folks make our living off the land and they make theirs off the ocean."
Both fishermen and farmers have been inundated with government regulations, said Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association. If the two groups could work together, they could work at cutting some of the governmental red tape.
"I think politically there are a lot of things we can do," he said.
By DYLAN DARLING
Some coastal county commissioners got to see what the Klamath water issue looks like at the start of the Klamath River.
Commissioners from Coos and Curry counties, and representatives of the fishing industry on Oregon's south and California's north coast, toured the Klamath Reclamation Project Friday at the invitation of Klamath Basin water users and Klamath County commissioners.
In September the favor will be returned with a tour of coastal communities based on fishing.
"There is a lot more to this project than most of us understood from the coast," said Ralph Brown, a Curry County commissioner.
Brown, who owns two commercial fishing boats that go after groundfish, said salmon fishermen have been hurting for more than a decade. He said he has seen the number of Oregon boats drop from about 11,000 to about 1,100.
The Basin farmers showed their guests what they are doing to try to avoid becoming scarce themselves.
The project tour started at the new $15 million headgates and wound its way to the Olene gap, Malin and Tulelake before ending at the Klamath Straits, a canal and pump operation that regulates water southeast of Highway 97.
The two groups shared sack lunches at Mike and Wanda's restaurant in Tulelake, where black and white photographs of homesteaders adorn one of the walls.
Paul Kirk, a former Humboldt County commissioner who now lives in Lake Shastina, said there needs to be dialogue among the groups at the beginning and end of the Klamath River to understand each other's situations.
"The reason we wanted to do it is to look to solutions other than litigation and government involvement," he said.
In the courts, Basin water users, along with the federal government, have fought over flows on the Klamath River with the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents groups of salmon fishermen in California.
The federation, joined by a number of environmental groups, coastal communities and downstream tribes, led a lawsuit in federal district court in an attempt to get more flows downstream.
Klamath Basin water users have questioned how much influence the PCFFA has among fishing interests.
On July 17, a federal judge ruled that irrigation deliveries will continue this year, but part of the plan for flows downriver will need to be amended by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service.
Kirk said the differences can be resolved outside the courtroom. He said fishermen and farmers both depend on resources to make their livings and can build a bond from that.
"That is the common denominator - we are all small businessmen," he said.
Kirk is the California representative of the Klamath Management Zone Fisheries Coalition, which started over a decade ago to work through issues on the coast above and below where the Klamath River enters the Pacific Ocean.
He said both groups know what it is like to wait in line for the government to dole out what they need to stay in business - the fishermen for salmon and the farmers for water.
All three of the Klamath County commissioners went on the tour. Commissioner Steve West said people from the Basin and from the coast started identifying things in common.
"They are producers, and we are producers," he said. "Our folks make our living off the land and they make theirs off the ocean."
Both fishermen and farmers have been inundated with government regulations, said Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association. If the two groups could work together, they could work at cutting some of the governmental red tape.
"I think politically there are a lot of things we can do," he said.
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| Body found in A Canal | Corrections |
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