Archive 87 -
August 2009
also see
main archive page
|
Around 1900, Link River,
between Upper Klamath Lake and Lake
Ewauna,
occasionally went dry before
the Klamath Project was built. There
was no hydropower, no hatcheries,
occasionally no fish (fish need
water), no artificially-raised river
flows or lake levels.
HERE for more
|
The status quo with dams won’t work,
by Glen Spain and Craig Tucker,
H&N Letter to the Editor 8/30/09.
KBC response, "First,
who is Craig Tucker? and
Glen Spain?"
Supervisors discuss
comments to Klamath TMDL plan, Siskiyou Daily News, posted
to KBC 8/30/09.
"Not
a single person present at the meeting spoke in favor of any
portion of the Draft TMDL analysis and action plan."
Klamath
River population and land ownership, excerpts from Calif.
North Coast Waterboard TMDL Draft, *
* More than
two thirds of the Klamath River watershed is in federal
ownership
* The Hoopa Valley Tribe owns land, 12 miles by 12 miles,
primarily in the Trinity River watershed
* The Yurok Reservation’s lands extend from 1 mile on each
side from the mouth of the Klamath River and upriver for a
distance of 44 miles.
* The Karuk Tribe owns 800 acres of tribal trust land along
the Klamath River between Orleans and Happy Camp, and in
Yreka, California."
Hoopa
Tribe, back at the table by Hoopa Tribe Chairman Leonard
Masten, posted to KBC 8/28/09
Oregon Senator
Doug Whitsett newsletter 8/28/09. "Throughout
that ever escalating spending binge, where the increase
averaged a compounded thirteen percent, our State has
consistently been a national leader in unemployment, poverty
and hunger. More than one out of every six Oregonians is now
using food stamps to feed their families..."
VIDEO
- "Rep.
Alan Grayson asks the Federal Reserve Inspector General
about the trillions of dollars lent or spent by the Federal
Reserve and where it went, and the trillions of off balance
sheet obligations. Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman
responds that the IG does not know and is not tracking where
this money is.
News Alert from Oregon Natural
Resource Report 8/28/09
Oregonians For Food and Shelter
8/28/09
Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife
Bulletin 8/28/09
Regulation, Column by Marcia Armstrong, Siskiyou County Supervisor 8/28/09
Agencies Do
Nothing As Scott and Shasta Rivers Go Dry, Indbay News,
comments by Siskiyou supervisor Marcia Armstrong 8/27/09
California Legislature
to Consider Anti-Gun Bills Very Soon, posted to KBC
8/27/09
Families
Protecting the Valley, Westlands, CA water shutoff:
Click here
to view Channel 30 Action News coverage
Click here
to view the TV ad featuring FPV Executive Director Alan Autry
August 2009 Family Farm Alliance Water Review 8/27/09
Klamath
Water and Power Agency public meeting 9/1/09
Benefits of the Klamath River Dams,
Guest Opinion by Harry Lake, Montague, Pioneer Press 8/26/09
National Research
Council: Basin-wide study needed to assess water flows in
Klamath, Siskiyou Daily News, posted to KBC 8/26/09
Feds starve people of water to "help" fish;
PLF fights back!
Video
Green Coalition Intervenes in Salmon Water Tug of War,
ENS, posted to KBC 8/26/09
Klamath water user group makes deceitful claims, H&N
letter by Brandon Criss, H&N
8/26/09 letter by Brandon Criss, rancher from Dorris. "We
were all united before the KWUA board started advocating the
arguments of radical environmentalists."
Public
Comment!
until
8/27/09 Ca.
Regional Water Board action mandates regarding
Draft Klamath River Total Maximum Daily Loads. This this is a
draft mandate to improve naturally warm and mineral-laden
water.
Klamath water report, August 17 - August 24,
2009
Shasta Nation takes stand on dam
removal, 2/1/08. "...the
aboriginal boundary between the Shasta and Karuk
Tribes was at Clear Creek approximately 10 miles
down river from Happy Camp, CA...The Karuk Tribal
leadership has gone to great lengths with ghastly
amounts of hard working tax payer dollars to create
the illusion that they have lived historically in
Happy Camp and Yreka CA, therefore giving them the
right to make decisions regarding the four
controversial dams that are within Shasta Nation
ancestral boundaries."
Siskiyou concerns
are being addressed,
H&N posted to KBC 8/25/09. "The
unknown liability of millions of cubic yards of
sediment behind the dams has kept Armstrong and
her constituents strongly opposed to dam removal."
Over 200,000 plants removed from Seiad Valley grow
operation, Siskiyou Daily News, posted to KBC
8/25/09
From the archives:
**44,000 pot plants seized in 2005, Last year, 27,000 marijuana plants were confiscated, followed by Billion dollar pot business takes hit, Liz Bowen, Pioneer Press posted to KBC 11/22/05
**25,151 marijuana plants confiscated in Siskiyou County, California, Pioneer Press 10/20/04. For more on local crops,
go HERE. (Anyone want to guess why Klamath Forest Alliance wants to shut down our forests to logging and the public?)
HERE for more on
crops
Reclamation to Temporarily Increase Releases from
Lewiston Dam; Trinity River Flows to Increase to
2,650 cfs, Bureau of Reclamation (for Hoopa Tribe
celebration), posted to KBC 8/25/09
Fish Habitat Benefits from Nearly $3 Million in
Funding Three projects in the Pacific Region will
help native trout species, FWS 8/25/09
HERE for more
$$$$$$$ spent on the Endangered Species Act/ESA
Don’t you just love Transparency?
Craig Chenoweth, posted to KBC 8/25/09
***August 18, 2009. Upper Basin Contestants' motion
for reconsideration
Case 282, and
Case 286
PRESS RELEASE: (Klamath)
Irrigators seek fairness in case to determine
tribal water claims, posted 8/21/09 by
Resource Conservancy which represents irrigators
from 125,000 off-project acres.
"This
order conditionally settled the Klamath Water
Users (KWU) contests of the Klamath Tribes
unsubstantiated claims to all of the water in the
Klamath Lake and the Klamath River."
The truth about the West Side farmers,
by Families
Protecting the Valley Newsletter, posted to KBC
8/24/09
Program pays voluntary water diverters on Scott
Valley streams, Siskiyou Daily News, posted to
KBC 8/24/09
***Doing the easy thing isn’t always right,
opinion by Greg Addington, KWUA director H&N,
posted to KBC 8/24/09. KBC responds
Addington accuses Klamath's three elected state
representatives of scheming and doing the wrong
thing; the reps polled Klamath County to find out
the will of their constituents regarding dam
removal and the Klamath Restoration Agreement.
KWUA has not polled the farmers and ranchers
they claim to represent. Said Addington: "I
believe ... the people in this county understand
that the issues at hand aren’t that simple...If
our legislators and others, on behalf of the
“Republican Party” are successful in their
opposition to this collaboration and the overall
settlement, the likely result will be perpetuation
of instability and damaging conflict...Does
the Republican Party not support this company’s
(PacifiCorp's) private property rights, and its
ability to make sound business decisions?"
KBC note: Does
KWUA not support their community's property rights
and ability to make sound decisions? Why are your
meetings secret? ....
County commissioners
criticized;
Charter proponent
Bill Kennedy fires back over what he says were
false accusations,
H&N, posted to KBC 8/24/09
Irrigators: KBRA
violates our rights;
Judge asked to toss
agreement,
H&N 8/21/09. "According
to filed legal documents, off-Project water users
said the Tribes haven’t shown evidence they are
entitled to any of the water in the lake or river,
as specified by an adjudication judge. The
document also claims the settlement leads the
adjudication to a specific outcome, preventing
outsiders from challenging it...The Resource
Conservancy requested on several occasions to join
the groups working on the restoration agreement,
but its requests were denied."
California unemployment: 11.9 percent,
Sacramento Bee 8/21/09. (KBC NOTE: Our governor
favors removing Klamath River Dam agreement
downsizing agriculture, voted to ban Calif.
suction dredge mining, put thousands of acres into
wilderness off limits to resource use, and Calif.
just made a marine preserve decimating the fishing
industry. Not to mention the 40% unemployment in
Central Calif. for shutting off irrigation water
to thousands of farms for a little fish.
Unemployment?)
For an interesting
website filled with news and videos of things like
Canadian Healthcare, environmental groups, see the
website of Toni
Thayer. She is a Christian and former
environmental activist.
California Farm
Bureau Federation Friday Review, legislative and governmental
update August 21, 2009
Statement from Thomas Birmingham Regarding "Water
Hoarding", Westlands Water District 8/21/09.
Purple
passion, new potato will be grown in Klamath basin,
H&N 8/20/09
Columbia Basin
Bulletin 8/21/09
* 2009 Summer Steelhead Run Approaching 400,000
Fish, Third Best Return In 70 Years
http://www.cbbulletin.com/351361.aspx
* Fall Chinook, Coho Returns Ahead Of 10-year
Average; Tribal Commercial Dates Set
http://www.cbbulletin.com/351357.aspx
* NOAA: July Showed Warmest Global Ocean Surface
Temperatures On Record
http://www.cbbulletin.com/351350.aspx
Klamath Tribes
to vote Aug. 29 (on Klamath Basin Restoration
Agreement),
Tribal leaders meeting with members now
H&N 8/21/09
Judge asked to throw out water deal:
"Irrigators
off the Klamath Reclamation Project say a water agreement
between the Klamath Tribes and on-Project irrigators violates
their rights to challenge the arrangement. Those irrigators,
represented primarily by the Resource Conservancy, are asking
the administrative law judge overseeing the Klamath Basin
water adjudication process to throw out the settlement, which
settled water claims from Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath
River. “They’ve circumvented the process of adjudication,”
said Garrett Roseberry, president of the Sprague River Water
Users." More Friday, H&N 8/20/09
Comments Klamath River Total Maximum Daily Loads and Action
Plan Addressing Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, Nutrient, and
Microcystin Impairments, by Marcia Armstrong posted to KBC
8/20/09
(Klamath)
Marsh’s future under
review; Plans look at water management in wildlife refuge,
8/20/09 H&N
*
Klamath Marsh
plan open for comment
Karuk
Tribal member James Waddell points out inconsistency of Gov
Schwarzenegger wanting to pay to rip out four Klamath river
dams while he demands money for building more dams, posted
8/20/09.
Uncle Sam wants your water,
Guest Opinion by Anthony Intiso,
Yreka, Pioneer Press posted to KC 8/20/09
Public
Comment for Oregon coho salmon, extended to
8/18/09
Calif.
lawmakers shift focus to water problems, Capital Press
8/16/09
Sean Hannity in Central California where 1/2 million acres of
farmland have been shut off from water over a little fish. 40%
unemployment.
HERE
for video from 8/12/09.
"My
rebuttal to Mr. Intiso is included in the following column:"
by Siskiyou
County Supervisor Marcia Armstrong 8/15/09
Tony Intiso addresses the Scott Valley town hall about water
rights and land use, the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement,
YouTube July 21, 2009.
State lawmakers stand for what is right; Only 'split' in local
GOP is a small group supporting dam removal, Tom Mallams,
H&N 8/14/09. "As far as being threatened, manipulated or
coerced into voting or agreeing in a certain way on dam
removal and the restoration agreement endorsement: I truly
believe that this is what is happening before our very eyes by
those forcing this agenda down our throats. Those groups being
some federal and state agencies, environmental groups, tribal
groups and those irrigators who have thrown in the towel and
given up on the principles that our founding fathers believed
in when this great nation was formed."
Wolves coming
to Oregon:
"Hunting in Idaho every year, we have seen firsthand the
effects of wolves on our hunting country. Although a couple of
biologists disagree with me, I believe the Clinton
administration's wolf reintroduction plan was on of the
stupidest things we could have ever done. The attached Adobe
PDF file contains a series of images and statistics elated to
the reintroduction of wolves in the lower forty-eight
states. Wolves have already entered Oregon and will remain
protected until we have four breeding pairs in eastern Oregon
for three consecutive years, and four breeding pairs in
western Oregon for three consecutive years."
Harvest Managers Predict Largest
Snake River Fall Chinook Run In Four Decades,
August 14, 2009
Fish and Wildlife Columbia Basin Bulletin. More Columbia Basin
fish news at:
http://www.cbbulletin.com/
Record-breaking Summer Steelhead Counts At Bonneville Dam;
CB Bulletin 8/14/09
Redford
joins call to conserve the West, Denver Post 8/14/09.
"Dams, all dams, should go away, the faster the better,"
County vows to
honor Williamson Act contracts, Siskiyou Daily News
8/14/09
**8/14/09
- Today's special feature in Who's Who at the 50-year Klamath
Basin Restoration Agreement settlement table:
Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen and Glen Spain
It
doesn’t make sense to demolish Klamath dams, by Cordy
Starr, H&N 8/12/09.
"A glaring lack of
common sense is seen in the plan to destroy the four dams on
the Klamath River. The secret meetings have excluded the
public....We, the people of the Klamath Basin, have the right
to have our voices heard in a vote or formal protest."
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 $2.3 million...an
estimated colony of 10,000 nesting pairs of Caspian terns on
Rice Island in the Columbia River were consuming approximately
6 million to 25 million salmonid smolts per year, according to
a 1999 USACE report." (KBC NOTE: lets get this straight;
the feds will plant endangered salmon into the Klamath Basin
in a billion dollar closed-door "agreement," lure terns into
the Klamath Basin which eat little salmon, and mandate the
farmers must create a thriving bunch of salmon in the warm
shallow water to keep getting farm water. Incidentally, the
rocks being used for this multimillion$ project are being
taken from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuge. If you
the public were to pick up these sacred rocks you'd be
imprisoned or dealt a heavy fine.)
Terminated,
Range Magazine by Tim Findley Fall, 2009, posted 8/12/09.
Water crisis in California's Central Valley: "...but most
of them know what happened in Klamath, ...environmental
activists succeeded in cutting off irrigation water by a
lawsuit claiming it threatened an endangered sucker fish..."
"Family Farm Alliance is filing a lawsuit demanding that
government authorities make use of the best available science
in actions to shut down irrigation supplies in California's
Central Valley." (KBC NOTE: will Family Farm Alliance file
a lawsuit demanding that gov't authorities use best available
science in the Klamath dam removal closed-door settlement
where the minutes state,
"...want
to avoid advocating for science instead of using a certain
approach."?)
Supervisors oppose Siskiyou Crest monument, Siskiyou Daily
News 8/12/09. "...there is a proposal being advanced to
create a 600,000-acre national monument along the crest of the
Siskiyou Mountains, with the southern border extending to the
Klamath River...”
Walking
wetlands program causes concerns; Public should be
frustrated about program’s relationship to restoration
agreement, by ANI
KAME’ENUI, guest writer from Oregon Wild/formerly ONRC, Herald
and News 8/9/09. This letter was written referring to KBC
News notes 7/19/09:
Walking Wetland Controversy, and Bureau
of Reclamation Issues. (KBC NOTE: For your information,
several stakeholders who wrote and support the KBRA/Klamath
Basin Restoration Agreement are in the
Klamath Coalition with Oregon
Wild/ONRC opposing government leaseland farming. Those groups
are American Rivers, Friends of the River, Klamath Forest
Alliance, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen, and Trout
Unlimited. Riverkeeper publicly opposes the KBRA, however at
the same time their board members Craig Tucker and Leaf Hilman
with the Karuk Tribe are at the table of the KBRA.
The following is a portion of the endorsed
Vision of many
KBRA stakeholders who are part of the Klamath Coalition:
Go
HERE
Tulelake Irritation District
Agenda 8/10/09
California assemblyman (Jim
Nielsen): Dams should stay,
Herald and News 8/9/09.
"
'We should not be taking out dams. We need to be building
dams,' said Nielsen, whose sprawling district includes Modoc
and Siskiyou counties. 'I’ve taken a stand solidly with the
county to retain the dams.'
Three of the four dams
proposed for removal as part of the proposed Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement are in Siskiyou County, where
supervisors and others have loudly opposed removal'.
A
supervisor's view of the Klamath dams,
8/9/09 by Michael N. Kobseff,
Siskiyou County Supervisor District 3, Mail Tribune
Hukill: Group threatens recall over restoration agreement, by
Klamath County Commissioner Cheryl Hukill, guest columnist,
posted to KBC 8/7/09. KBC Responds
Oregon GOP and dam removal, H&N 8/7/09. "...We
oppose the breaching of dams and support additional storage
sufficient to the needs of sound water management,
hydroelectric power and environmental policy based on
verifiable science..."
Rerun of interest:
***AUDIO
- Klamath Water User Association unadvertised 'public' meeting
with Klamath Falls County Commissioners Al Switzer and Cheryl
Hukill, explaining Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement to the
Commissioners. Attending were KWUA board members Steve
Kandra, Bob Gasser, executive director Greg Addington, and
president Luther Horsley. Invited also was
Becky Hyde, partner with Klamath Tribes and Sustainable
NW, who formed a new off-Project group. Some of the issues
discussed were Long Lake Storage, Klamath hydro dam removal,
water allocations, and
Klamath
Basin Alliance. KBC NOTE: this file takes awhile to
download. posted 3/21/09
How will Klamath County Commissioners vote? Will they
represent you?
"Commissioner
John Elliott said, "I supported the Agreement three years ago.
There is a KBRA meeting next week I want permission to
attend."
"Commissioner
Cheryl Hukill said,
'I am leaning
toward the agreement.'
"
"When push comes
to shove, I'll probably go the way you want me to go,"
(Commissioner) Switzer said (to Klamath Water Users
Association) regarding supporting the Agreement."
Klamath - GOP - Controversy grows over position on dam
removal, H&N 8/7/09. "Whitsett
said Tiernan wasn’t
familiar with the state party’s
platform and the fact that nearly every Republican in the
Oregon Legislature voted against the dam removal bill was
proof the party is united against it."
Commissioners hear recall rumors over agreement, H&N
8/7/09
$7 Million Klamath
BLACKMAIL by Reclamation: Did you know the the Bureau
of Reclamation has billed the Klamath Project Water Users
irrigation districts $7 million, for, something? There is no
account of where the Bureau spent the money but they claim the
irrigation districts owe them. Unless----the
districts lobby their representatives and change the purpose
of the Klamath Project. Presently the sole purpose is
irrigation. The former 30-foot-deep lake was rerouted into
canals, evaporation reservoirs, and the Klamath River to
provide fertile farmland; The feds and enviros want it
to include fish and wildlife. Coincidently, the KBRA/Klamath
Basin Restoration Agreement changes the purpose of the Project
to include fish and wildlife. And you and I, just peasant
farmers, have no vote and no voice at the elite KBRA
closed-door meetings bartering dams, land, water, water
rights, aquifer control, farms and communities.
California
panel adds new marine sanctuary zone, Sacramento Bee
8/7/09. "The new preserves cover 153 square miles of ocean
between Half Moon Bay and Mendocino. Starting Jan. 1, fishing
will be permanently banned or restricted in the zones...The
Department of Fish and Game estimates "adequate" law
enforcement in the statewide preserve network would cost $27
million in the first year and $17 million annually thereafter.
It has nowhere near that level of funding." A Comment:
"We are adding
sanctuary zones to protect fish, but we are releasing 40K
prisoners on the general population of California to prey on
them."
TOWN HALL Meeting 9:30 a.m. Thursday
at the Sr. Center by the fairgrounds with Senator Whitsett and
Oregon Representatives George Gilman and Bill Garrard.
*
PRESS RELEASE - Secretary of Interior Breach of good faith
by Siskiyou Board of Supervisors 8/6/09
* July 1
Dept. of Interior letter to Siskiyou County Board of
Commissioners Chairman regarding dam removal negotiations,
posted to KBC 8/6/09
RESOLUTION OF THE SISKIYOU COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
REGARDING NATIONAL MONUMENT PROPOSALS IN SISKIYOU COUNTY,
posted to KBC 8/6/09. "62%
of Siskiyou County’s 2.5 million acre land base is federal
land"
Klamath’s fall run of chinook promising; Numbers slightly up
from recent years, Triplicate, posted to KBC 8/6/09.
"...a report...estimated the number of
2-year-old Klamath-spawned chinook in the ocean at about
500,000. “We are predicting 131,000 to 139,000 3-year-olds in
the Klamath,” "... this is a slightly higher run than normal.”
“We have a record level allocation for this season on the
Klamath. The in-river sport fishery has been allocated 30,800
fish and the tribes have been allocated 30,900.”
Klamath
Water and Power Agency board meeting 8/4/09. KWAPA will
discuss becoming member of the closed-door KBRA/Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement.
Water talks almost done;
Meetings are planned in Klamath
Falls,
H&N, posted to KBC 8/2/09
Oregon Coho Salmon public comment extended to Aug 18, 2009 |