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Tribes, water users plan to host tours
Published September 22, 2003
By LEE JUILLERAT
Two tours aimed at bringing together the interests of the Klamath Tribes, upstream irrigators and Klamath Project water users are planned, beginning with a Thursday trip around the Klamath Project.
The Klamath Water Users Association is organizing and hosting Thursday's tour. Executive Director Dan Keppen said the trip will be similar to one the association hosted for coastal fishermen earlier this summer.
The tribes will host their own tour of the forests lands above Upper Klamath Lake on Oct. 17. The tours are associated with recent informal meetings between local farmers, ranchers and water managers, and leaders of the Klamath Tribes.
"Individual irrigators and association representatives have been meeting with the tribal leaders to assess if we can find common ground while we learn more about the problems that have divided us," Keppen said in a water user newsletter distributed recently.
"We have been talking about the possibility that all of us may be better off trying to encourage a settlement that would do more for all of us than what we can expect from continued legal conflict," said Jeff Mitchell, of the Klamath Tribes, in the newsletter.
The tours are intended to foster that cooperative philosophy. Keppen said Thursday's Project tour is intended to outline the proactive efforts undertaken by local irrigators to help meet Endangered Species Act regulations intended to protect endangered sucker fish and threatened coho salmon.
The tour is also intended to provide a "reality check" regarding the limitations of Upper Basin water supplies and the rigid regulatory scheme that results in great uncertainty for local irrigators.
The tribal tour will provide a glimpse of Upper Basin conditions and actions the Tribes believe will help the ecosystem and the economy.
The meetings between tribal interests and irrigators have been informal, and have focused primarily on trying to identify common areas of concern.
"We are not negotiating agreements or settlements, and none of the irrigators have held themselves out as representing the agricultural community," Keppen said.
"This is simply another opportunity to investigate. We will keep talking with the tribes and upstream interests as we try to learn more about each other's needs. However, we will also continue our work with state and federal agencies and elected officials at all levels to advocate for Klamath Project water supply certainty."
If any sort of conceptual settlement can be agreed upon, it would require Congressional action to be implemented, which Keppen said will require a great degree of local and regional support.
Meanwhile, all parties await news on the efforts undertaken by President Bush's federal Klamath Working Group, which is studying how federal agencies operate in the Basin.
Thursday's tour of the Klamath Project will start at the recently constructed $14 million A Canal headgates and fish screen, and move through the Project as the water flows. Tour participants will observe the effects of idled land, pumped groundwater, and the relationship between farming and refuge waterfowl.
Regional Editor Lee Juillerat covers Lake, Siskiyou, Modoc and northern Klamath counties. He can be reached at 885-4421, (800) 275-0982, or by e-mail at lee@heraldandnews.com.
By LEE JUILLERAT
Two tours aimed at bringing together the interests of the Klamath Tribes, upstream irrigators and Klamath Project water users are planned, beginning with a Thursday trip around the Klamath Project.
The Klamath Water Users Association is organizing and hosting Thursday's tour. Executive Director Dan Keppen said the trip will be similar to one the association hosted for coastal fishermen earlier this summer.
The tribes will host their own tour of the forests lands above Upper Klamath Lake on Oct. 17. The tours are associated with recent informal meetings between local farmers, ranchers and water managers, and leaders of the Klamath Tribes.
"Individual irrigators and association representatives have been meeting with the tribal leaders to assess if we can find common ground while we learn more about the problems that have divided us," Keppen said in a water user newsletter distributed recently.
"We have been talking about the possibility that all of us may be better off trying to encourage a settlement that would do more for all of us than what we can expect from continued legal conflict," said Jeff Mitchell, of the Klamath Tribes, in the newsletter.
The tours are intended to foster that cooperative philosophy. Keppen said Thursday's Project tour is intended to outline the proactive efforts undertaken by local irrigators to help meet Endangered Species Act regulations intended to protect endangered sucker fish and threatened coho salmon.
The tour is also intended to provide a "reality check" regarding the limitations of Upper Basin water supplies and the rigid regulatory scheme that results in great uncertainty for local irrigators.
The tribal tour will provide a glimpse of Upper Basin conditions and actions the Tribes believe will help the ecosystem and the economy.
The meetings between tribal interests and irrigators have been informal, and have focused primarily on trying to identify common areas of concern.
"We are not negotiating agreements or settlements, and none of the irrigators have held themselves out as representing the agricultural community," Keppen said.
"This is simply another opportunity to investigate. We will keep talking with the tribes and upstream interests as we try to learn more about each other's needs. However, we will also continue our work with state and federal agencies and elected officials at all levels to advocate for Klamath Project water supply certainty."
If any sort of conceptual settlement can be agreed upon, it would require Congressional action to be implemented, which Keppen said will require a great degree of local and regional support.
Meanwhile, all parties await news on the efforts undertaken by President Bush's federal Klamath Working Group, which is studying how federal agencies operate in the Basin.
Thursday's tour of the Klamath Project will start at the recently constructed $14 million A Canal headgates and fish screen, and move through the Project as the water flows. Tour participants will observe the effects of idled land, pumped groundwater, and the relationship between farming and refuge waterfowl.
Regional Editor Lee Juillerat covers Lake, Siskiyou, Modoc and northern Klamath counties. He can be reached at 885-4421, (800) 275-0982, or by e-mail at lee@heraldandnews.com.
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