Posted on 09/30/2009 7:54:18 AM PDT by SmithL
In what is being touted as the world's biggest dam-removal project, an agreement was reached Tuesday to remove four dams on the Klamath River and restore a 300-mile migratory route for California's beleaguered salmon.
The tentative agreement was reached after a decade of negotiations among 28 parties, including American Indian tribes, farmers, fishermen and the hydroelectric company that operates the dams and distributes the water. The plan would set in motion one of the most ambitious efforts in U.S. history to restore the habitat of a federally protected species if it receives final approval by the parties in December, as expected.
The dams - Iron Gate, Copco 1, Copco 2 and J.C. Boyle - have blocked salmon migration for a century along the California-Oregon border and have been blamed for much of the historic decline of chinook and coho salmon and steelhead trout in the Klamath. Under the plan, the dams operated by the utility, PacificCorp, would be dismantled beginning in 2020.
The ultimate goal of the so-called Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement is to restore what has historically been the third-largest source of salmon in the lower 48 states, behind the Columbia and Sacramento rivers. Chinook once swam all the way up to Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon, providing crucial sustenance to American Indians, including the Yurok, Karuk, Klamath and Hoopa Valley tribes.
"This is the deal that we have all been working on for 10 years," said Steve Rothert, the California director of American Rivers, a national nonprofit river conservation group. "There were a lot of people who didn't think we could do this, and some groups that worked actively to prevent it. It's fantastic that we've reached this spot."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Just Dam!
Turn out the lights.
FISH more important then humans ping.
How are we suppose to charge our electric cars?
Do fish ladders not work?
Every day I get happier I left California. I used to miss the redwoods and mountains (as if there weren’t any others anywhere else). I only wish I could get my extended family to leave. Sad days for the west.
I guess they don’t want the water and the electricity. Who knew SF was self sufficient?
Each salmon will be caught as it enters the river and an empty rechargeable batter and a generator will be attached to it. As it swims upstream it will charge the battery. Then the batteries will be retrieved when they reach their mating ground and sent to San Francisco to run their city lights.
SF has the megawatt mouth of Nancy Pelosi.
Well other than a small piece of Oregon there are no Redwoods anywhere else. I miss them too. It is sad that California has seemingly been lost.
We are sheep. If we were real men like our forefathers we would form up into units, march down there, are reclaim it from the invaders, traitors and idiots who have taken it over. So we post, we whine, we collaborate, we move, we talk, we lament.
We are all like old women now.
Yeah, who knew? In some ways, I would really like it if CA simply rebelled and said they were going their own way. Thing is, despite how looney they like to appear, they are rock-hard clear on exactly how important it is to have the rest of us as a backstop.
Say what??
What about global warming? Hydro power is carbon free and renewable. Doesn’t that count for something?
I wonder how the people of Yreka feel about drowning?
Last year, the Chinese fishing fleet took more than 17 MILLION TONS OF FISH from the Pacific. I suppose they had nothing to do with this "decline"..............
JeffHead ping
My Dad worked in the Klamath area when he worked in the CCC camps during the Depression. It wouldn’t surprise me if he worked on these dams. One liberal project destroying another.
ECC 2: 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
“Do fish ladders not work?
No, they have lost feet, hands and opposable thumbs through evolution...
As I see it, there's only one problem with your analysis. Hundreds of seals, sea lions and otters will die due to ingesting those batteries when they eat those salmon.
Or with our "policies" governing streams and "endangered species"? Central Valley is now a dustbowl to the double benefit of China.
I think that’s a great idea, provided that they open up a nuclear power plant to replace the energy that we would stop producing. Oh, they’re not planning on building a new nuclear power plant? Well, I guess they can all go to sleep when the sun goes down and not have any electrical appliances. But they’ll have plenty of fish to cook over the fire.
It is my understanding that there is a stand of redwoods in New Mexico that has trees that best many in California. It's not well publicized because the folks there don't want the traffic to the area.
If I can find something on it, I'll post a link.
Reason 1A why global warming is BS.
This doesn’t really bode well for the 4 dams on the lower Snake here in Idaho that have also been targeted to save a stupid (and tasty might I add) fish.
If you wrote this as the plot of a book in 1950, people would say you were off your rocker....................
If the fish is so tasty, why isn’t it farmed?................
Apparently they work very well.
I wonder which hut Nancy will pick? The bike reminds of Pee Wees Great Adventure.
I do not agree with this foolishness, because the deal (which was talked about by the government some time ago) talks about finding other renewable sources for the energy.
The cheapest, most efficient, renewable energy is already in place with those dams and they now intend to take it out, eroding electircal production in that area on the unspecified, liberal promise of "something" in the future.
So, from an energy standpoint, it is very bad policy.
From an irigation standpoint, it will probably put more pressure on Klamath Lake to provide what is deemed the water necessary to meet the environmental/salmon needs. But the farmers in the Klamath Basin have been involved in the negotiations to try and ensure their needs are met and committed to.
In 2001 they did not have that capability, and those events dealt directly with their water in their lake Lake. These dams are all well below them and much more directed at electrical production.
We can replace them with coal-fired plants.
A little over eight years ago there was talk of Klamath Falls being Lexington Green West.
9/11 made the farmers and their supporters back off out of concern for our Republic. Meanwhile enviro wacko rabble continued on destroying 100 years of farm families and not caring one whit about the Republic?
Near Yreka the rive is in a very deep canyon. If it floods Noah has returned.
ping
Thanks, that is a good response.
See my post 32.
I don’t know about fish ladders, but there is a dam on the Columbia River, Bonneville Dam I believe, that has a very effective system for allowing salmon to get upstream. I don’t know why that could not be added to the dams in question.
Better fire up that dirty Coal plant. Morons.
The project estimated at $450 million will likely go way over budget.
No hydo power for eco- electric cars.
“The effects on Agriculture of this Dam Razing will be horrific.”
The above line is the real, unspoken goal of GangGreen.
Have they studied the impact this will have on the local bigfoot population?
California’s big Valley has/is becoming a desert due to the envirowhacko’s shutting off the water needed by farmers and ranchers.
Now this will happen to the farmers/ranchers trying to make a living along the Klamath River.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1697967/posts
Speaking of ‘Nuts’: Agenda 21, in a nutshell
Klamath Bucket Brigade ^ | September 2, 2006 | Jim Kirwan
Posted on Friday, September 08, 2006 11:55:01 AM by Issaquahking
While this new world of corporate governance/ lobbyists/ privatization of the commons etc; seems difficult to understand (disguised as it is with buzz words – and meaningless jibberish), it’s really not as complex as one might think. After you learn how to ignore the superficial banalities, and get to the meat (if there is any) of the message being given. Most times you’ll hear just fluff and nutter talk – sounds important but isn’t.
While we naturally focus upon local issues and concerns such as community development, roads, tons of garbage, forest access, tourism, sportsmen’s rights, lack of snow, no color in foliage etc, one does need to understand the “whys” of local political decisions, and the decisions of local commissions, boards, councils, etc. There is rhyme and reason to our loss of rights, land, privacy, and public opinion.
Every American citizen, no matter where you live, must buy your county’s Plat Book. Plat Books are maps that identify the owners of each and every parcel of land in your counties. You cannot know what is going on behind the scenes unless you buy your county Plat Book.
You will then discover that most of the land in your counties is now owned by 1) state or federal government, 2) land development companies, 3) land ‘trusts’ or ‘land funds, 4) environmental organizations, and 5) large corporations.
If you are lucky enough to have several Plat Books covering a 2, 3, 5, or 10 year period (Plat Books are published annually), you will see a connection between land trusts, land development companies, land funds, and corporations. You will discover that they buy and sell to each other, and that they change the names of their organizations, and also create spin – off organizations, on a regular basis.
Then, if you go to the websites of these organizations, you will discover that they are ‘partnered” with 1) each other, 2) with larger global corporations, and 3) with environmental organizations.
In other words, you will find that the buying and selling of land in your counties is a highly organized business bureaucracy that circulates perpetuates “profit and control” between revolving door “partnerships.”
But what are “partnerships?” In a word, “business” has changed in the United States. On TV commercials, I’m sure you’ve heard the term “partners’ – and certainly in your communities you’ve heard the lofty terminology of “public – private partnerships”. It sounds nice – like cooperative business ventures for the GOOD of the public. However – this is a lie, sorry.
Partnerships, stakeholding, and NGOs (non – governmental organizations) are America’s ( and the world’s) new governmental bureaucracy system. This system is the brainstorm of the United Nations and was defined in a document called Agenda 21, which means Agenda for the 21st Century.
Agenda 21, in a nutshell, mandated that all countries that were U.N. members implement Agenda 21 requirements into their nations and governmental structures. The U.S. is a member of the U.N. and therefore we were required to implement Agenda 21.
People – mostly because they never do any research on their own, but buy everything they hear, (because it sounds good), get confused over the different language – or mostly they, shrug, and don’t care. In the U.S. (to confuse people) Agenda 21 is called by different names. We call it ‘sustainable development’, ‘sustainable communities’ (New Orleans and Mississippi have this planned now that the po’ folks are gone), ‘Local 21’, ‘Smart Growth’ and a whole bevy of other names. However all of these governmentally imposed programs and changes that we now see in our communities (world wide if you read) are upon the insistence of the U.N. as outlined in the Agenda 21 document.
First and foremost, Agenda 21 mandated there is to be NO ownership of private property (exceptions for elites) – worldwide. Maurice Strong of U.N. fame owns a whole valley sitting on a huge aquifer – Ted Turner owns the most land west of the Mississippi – you won’t, ha, see them sharing!!! The U.N. believes that all land, watershed systems, and natural resources (water) must be owned and administered by ‘government’. To American people (remember duck and cover) this is what we consider to be Communism. We believe (or did) that ownership of property is directly tied to freedom.
As the United Stats set up and is the primary financial supporter of the U.N., the U.N. had to come up with a plan to make palatable their right to confiscate our privately owned land. But how did they accomplish that plan? Masterfully, the UN, with their partners ( the World Bank, the World Trade Organizations, and the International Monetary Fund, and global corporations and groups), began funding ‘environmental’ science organizations and universities with grant dollars. By doing so, they also formed “partnerships” with eco –organizations and scientists, and a master plan evolved.
Under the direction of Agenda 21, a massive funding web of partnerships, stakeholders, and NGOs, a ‘grant – hired’ eco-doomsday scenario was created ( sounds like Iron Mountain report, huh), and served to manipulate American people into 1) giving up their privately owned properties for the good of ‘sustainable’ nature and 2) to lay the groundwork for the ‘partnership – stakeholding – NGO bureaucracy. It worked (is working) like a charm. Anyone who questions this, giving up of one’s land, is called an ‘extremist’ et al, and since nobody wants to be thought goofy, loony, crazy, or against protecting creeks, birds, turtles, frogs etc; they learn to stay quiet (or they’ll have no friends and a forever empty dance card)! You have to be a good cow.
Once you buy your county Plat Books, you will clearly see that there is next to no property left to buy in the United States. It has already been purchased by state and federal government, land development companies, large corporations, land trusts like The Nature Conservancy, and land fund organizations – all of which are ‘partnered’ together in the greatest land and natural resource confiscation scheme in the history of the world. Watch and see – don’t take my word or thousands of pages of documents as proof!
In a nutshell, we are witnessing bureaucratic nation conquering. Rather than using warfare to collect new countries and landmasses, the partnership bureaucracy is collecting world territory (check it out – indigenous people being put off their land – for nature preserves etc) via land grabbing initiatives under the United Nations and its global partners.
These initiatives are operating in every town, village, rural and wilderness area in the U.S. Most people, including politicians/officials elected and appointed, vote yes on all this stuff, never looking beneath the surface. If you asked to discuss Agenda 21 with them, you’d get a blank stare. They hear all the lofty idealism, of protecting the land for generations to come – and BELIEVE it! It’s being protected alright – but not for the kids!
Equally, the professional sciences of ‘ecology’ and ‘conservation’ were bought by the Agenda 21 system, and are now solely funded by Agenda 21 ‘partners’ in land confiscation. Not discussed by our politicians (local or otherwise) is that treaties, Memorandums of Understanding, etc trump Constitutional Laws of the U.S. Treaties trump national (local – state) law. At the state level of government, our state governors, who hope to retain the financial support of the federal government, have also agreed to implement Agenda 21 into each and every one of our 50 states.
And now we come to our local levels of government, our local colleges and universities, and our local movers and shakers, which we well know are the affluent people who are our county commissioners, councilmen (well not affluent here) and businessmen. All the affluent locals (true), in efforts to gain dollars from their state governments, and to be privy to the endless money via international, federal, and state grants for “land” ventures, have signed onto the new “partnership – stakeholding – NGO” system of business, because that new bureaucracy is how wealth, power, and money works in our New Greedy World. In truth and fact, if you aren’t part of this new governmental bureaucracy, which includes grant money and non – profit status, you are 1) NOT going to succeed financially, and 2) you are never going to gain any political or local power ( good luck).
We are losing not only our private property, but our access rights to our wilderness areas, as well. It’s all dressed up in “love of nature and/or sustainability” language, but the facts remain the same. Private property is to end, and this is why, via your county Plat Books, you will see that there is literally next to no land left for us to buy in our country. This is why you are seeing “access restrictions” being imposed daily and all across our nation. This is why we are being herded into ‘planned communities’ where we do not own the land. Agenda 21 originally defined these planned communities as “human settlements”. How many land development companies are in your areas” How many deed – restricted communities have been erected?
Today’s ‘government’ is a combination corporate – financial system, with human beings as highly controlled servants to profit. We are highly ‘managed’ (and will be more so) creatures – much like chipped and reintroduced wolves and ‘invasive’ species. Consider why anyone in their right mind, much less entire governmental departments, would agree to implement programs like large carnivore reintroduction – thereby decimating deer and other ungulates and cattle populations, nationwide. Why? To force farmers/ranchers out of business and to sell their land, and to effectively end hunting (any thought of being self sustaining) and other outdoor wilderness sports. It’s called getting the people off the land – plain and simple.
Shasta Tribal Chairman, Roy Hall, says that coho salmon are not native to the Klamath River system.
http://www.klamathbucketbrigade.org/HALLShastaTribalSaysCohoNotNative090104.htm
Shasta Tribal Chairman, Roy Hall, says that coho salmon are not native to the Klamath River system.
“Coho have been used for political purposes,” he said.
The Pioneer Press grants permission for this article to be copied and forwarded.
Pioneer Press, Fort Jones , California
Wednesday, September 1, 2004
Vol. 32, No. 42
Page 1, column 2
Shasta Tribal Chairman, Roy Hall,
rolls with the punches
— Native American uses horses to help youth.
Shasta Tribal Chairman Roy Hall with “Kamisha” (Photo Credit Liz Bowen)
By Liz Bowen, assistant editor, Pioneer Press, Fort Jones, California
(At the very top of the state.)
QUARTZ VALLEY , CALIFORNIA - “The spotted owl was used for political purposes,” said Roy Hall, a man who ranched as a teen, logged for 25 years and now works as a horseman providing counseling to children through the horses.
Roy Hall Jr. is also chairman of the Shasta Nation, a California recognized Native American Tribe, which has been fighting for U.S. federal government recognition the last 150 years.
A treaty was signed by the Shasta on Nov. 4, 1851 , but was never ratified. Soon after the signing of the treaty, a barbecue was held by the soldiers based in Fort Jones . The meat was poisoned and hundreds of Shasta braves died, but two chiefs of the 13 chiefs in attendance did not eat and survived. Present-day Shastas can trace their genealogy back to these chiefs and the surviving women.
During the last 22 years, council officers of the Shasta Nation and members have traveled to Washington D.C. carrying 1000s of historical documents – to no avail.
“Same as the coho salmon,” continues Chairman Hall. “The coho is being used for political purposes.”
(Last month, the California Fish and Game Commission listed the coho salmon with the California Endangered Species Act, citing low numbers in population, despite California Farm Bureau Federation, Cattlemen, and Siskiyou County groups to name a few, that presented scientific data that the coho numbers have actually improved.
The state Department of Fish and Game officials refused to include information from the last four years on coho numbers. Only the study by Brown and Moyles numbers were used and that study was done more than 20 years ago.)
But it is the next sentence that drops the bomb.
“Coho are not native fish. They have been planted here numerous times. The water is too warm,” comes the soft-spoken short sentences. “Steelhead and chinook are native fish.”
When asked, Fish and Game officials say they have no records of plantings, except for the plant of 200 adult coho in the French Creek in the early 1970s.
Yet, the shocking statements still do not stop.
“Spotted owls are not natural birds here either, so why are they being used for politics?” questions Hall.
It is his knowledge of timber and logging, along with the information passed down from generations of those who lived in this mountain forestland, which provides Roy with his facts.
“Logging and roads in the forest raised the number of the spotted owls. It gives them places to fly and hunt,” he explains. “Miles of heavy forest is difficult habitat to live in.”
For a Native American Tribe that called the area of Siskiyou County and several other counties in Northern California and Southern Oregon its homeland, the Shasta Nation knows the frustration of political schemes and governmental red tape.
But while the current Shasta Tribal Council and members still work towards federal status, this member of the Shasta Nation has learned to roll with the punches.
Roy followed an uncle into the logging business nearly 30 years ago after graduating from Etna High School in 1973. Logging made more money than ranching, even back then. He drove truck hauling logs, skidded logs down mountains, loaded logs onto trucks and even fell trees.
In 1991, one of the trees he was cutting fell on him. Injuries kept him out of work for over a year. His shoulder still doesn’t work right, but he was able to go back to logging. Yet, because of the stringent regulations involved with the federal listing of the spotted owl to the Endangered Species Act, work was taking him farther and farther from home.
Roy and his wife, Monica, have five children. A dad needs to be home. They were living the economic shutdown in Siskiyou County , which was a result of the loss of the timber industry. But they do not want to move. This is their home in more ways than one.
By this time, the Halls were in the thick of studying the Parelli Horse Training methods. Roy and Monica liked the “natural” way of training, especially the results. His mare “Kamisha” works so well, Roy can actually ride her without a bridle or halter. Her head and mouth are free, but she listens to the rider as he shifts his body and slightly moves his hands.
Then “The Horse Program” began hiring. It was October of 2002 and Roy was ready to change careers. The tractor that he had most recently drove pulling a belly dump trailer is now hooked up to a long horse trailer. There isn’t a problem pulling the steep mountain grades, Roy mentions with a smile.
“The Horse Program” is a private business that works to improve behavioral health, a problem facing many youth and families in today’s society. The program works closely with the Siskiyou County Behavioral Health Department. Most of the clients are children and teens.
“Kids love the horses and respond well,” Roy explains. “Horses teach respect, boundaries. Instead of an adult telling them what to do, we let the horse teach them.”
Part II to follow next week: How Roy Hall took up the Shasta Tribal cause, following in his grandfather’s footsteps.
You know what? I think that might even be the point. If the subject class will not voluntarily bend the knee and bow, then they must be forced to do so or eliminated. Any culture class that can endorse mass abortion as a convenience finds it no difficult move to take a Kulak-style approach to achieving political dominance over the working classes.
A nuclear plant will not replace irrigation water for the farms.
Some of those water rights date back to 1852.
It is hard enough to farm with irrigation water instead of rain. Who will support these people?
California will have higher prices for milk-cheese-ice cream-yogurt, etc. There are thousands of tons of hay raised in that area for dairy cattle.
Thank you for the clarification.
I didn’t see anything about the Carbon Footprint to accomplish this fiasco. It also doesn’t report on the fact that Salmon thrived for 30 or 40 years after these 4 dams were completed and have disappeared only since fleets of large foreign fishing vessels with modern electronic fish finders catching every fish in a school all processed by Mother Ships standing by. The electric rate payers of Oregon will get stiffed for a Calif River and the voters of Ca will give them a blank via bond issue after bond issue. And what happens to all the sediment built up behind the dams when they are removed plus there is no mention of more flooding below the dam sites...
And people wonder why I'm so down on GovernMental EnvironMentalists, along with CONservancies like Schwartzenegger's Sierra-Nevada CONservancy!!!
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