Free Republic

A 29-mile convoy through southern Oregon, followed by a rally, followed by a direct appeal to the White House, and a decision by the Department of the Interior. That’s what it took to open up irrigation water for farmers in southern Oregon last week. It all started with one of the biggest protests you probably didn’t even notice. In a June 9 press release, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that it had restored the 140,000-acre-feet of water originally promised to farmers in the Klamath Basin at the beginning of the season: Today, the Bureau of Reclamation confirmed the 2020 water...

Klamath Basin Agreement proponents have lost not only their grip on reality, but also their traditional American common sense neighborly values Klamath Basin groups claiming to represent the majority of Klamath Basin residents, such as the Klamath Water Users Association (“KWUA”) and the Family Farm Alliance (“FFA”), have long perpetuated the lie that the Klamath Basin Agreements will benefit ALL Basin residents. The first two of these agreements had been initially proposed during the Bush administration in an effort assist Klamath irrigators resolve longstanding science and water delivery disputes with environmentalists and tribal communities. Now, these and several additional new...

California, Oregon and the federal government are working on a way around congressional barriers to the removal of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. The states, the U.S. Interior Department and the owner of the dams, PacifiCorp, announced Tuesday that they have agreed in principle to pursue removal through the federal dam relicensing process. The move comes after a complex deal to decommission four hydroelectric dams and restore portions of the historic salmon river fell apart when Congress failed to act on a crucial piece of the pact by a Dec. 31 deadline. Republican members of Congress and local elected...

The agreement never sold well either in solidly Republican Klamath County or on the California side of the border, where the idea of removing dams and tilting the scale toward environmental and tribal purposes was regarded suspiciously. "They try to say the community is for it, and it's not true at all," said Klamath County Chairman Tom Mallams, noting that almost all successful candidates in the area run against the agreement. ... Among western Republicans, the idea of removing the dams has been viewed with great suspicion, even though the aged structures are relatively small hydroelectric producers, aren't used for...

It all started with the sucker fish. The con, that is. I can see it all now. A group of robber barons and their flunkies sitting down at a table and deciding just what ruse they will use to grab all of the water and land in the country, and for Oregon, it’s the sucker. Yes, the infamous Klamath Basin Sucker Fish. The fish that evidently, needs both high and low water levels, murky and clear water, and an overdose of federal government interference to survive, even though attempts to eradicate it have failed time and time again. It has...

Agenda 21 is alive and well in Klamath County, Oregon. Klamath Basin farmers are feeling the wrath of the Klamath Tribes in collusion with the Federal and Oregon state governments. Water is now basically off limits to ranchers unless they get approval from the tribes, and approvals are few and far between. ... The success of this plan spells disaster for not only the Klamath Basin family farmers, but for all family farmers, as it will be a precedent. Without locally grown produce and animal feed, we will be even more dependent on imported food at a much higher price....

With a House Republican loading political ammunition in a national fight over government science, Interior Department officials said Friday they would stand by the work of two scientists whose integrity was attacked recently by a federal judge overseeing the Delta water wars. U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger, in a lengthy and strongly worded assault Sept. 16, said the two scientists deliberately misled him when they urged him not to weaken new rules meant to help imperiled Delta smelt in wet years like this one. He called one scientist, Jennifer Norris of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a "zealot" who...

Dear All: The local enviro-nazis in the Klamath Basin (southern OR, northern CA) are attempting to tear down 4 perfectly good dams on the Klamath River and have the power generation replaced with solar, simply because dams are displeasing to these folks. The local news is running a poll at http://www.localnewscomesfirst.com (lower right-hand corner of the screen) and the enviro side is winning. PLEASE PLEASE help turn the numbers our direction. Please vote against dam removal. It will destroy this region. Thanks.

WASHINGTON - The Interior Department's inspector general didn't find political interference by Vice President Dick Cheney on a key environmental policy in part because investigators weren't looking for it, an Interior official said Tuesday. A 2004 report by the inspector general found no basis for a claim by then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry that White House political advisers interfered in developing water policy in the Klamath River Basin in California and Oregon. But investigators did not ask about Cheney — and no Interior employee volunteered information about him, said Mary Kendall, deputy Interior inspector general. A former high-ranking Interior official,...

Part of the problem is that the people who decide national policy are headquartered in Washington, D.C., where large plots of private property are rare. Those of us who live in urban or suburban areas imagine endangered species protection to be as simple as being kind to blue whales, grizzly bears and bald eagles. We don’t stop to consider the dilemmas facing people thousands of miles away from us. Bill Snape, Chairman of the Endangered Species Coalition, is an example of one who lives in either ignorance or denial. “There just aren’t private landowners that I can identify where the...

I am very close to finishing my book regarding The Stand at Klamath Falls and the crisis of 2001. Here is the cover art: (Note: In this post I am including the Introduction, the Acknowledgements, and the Epilogue for review and comment.. The book should be completed and to the printers by the 1st of February.) INTRODUCTION It has been almost five years since the memorable and pivotal events surrounding the struggle by farmers in the Klamath Basin of Oregon and California took place. Much has occurred since then that has overshadowed those events…but nothing can erase the importance of...

A Tribute to my friend Jeff Head, Free Republic’s Eagle Award-FREEPER OF THE YEAR It had only been a few minutes earlier that I hugged blackie, Barb, GrandmaC, redrock and his precious family and headed north out of the narrow canyon, glancing in the rear view mirror at the tiny community of Jarbidge, Nevada. The sun was low in the west, bouncing glistening sparks off the tips of junipers and the winding creek that the narrow dirt road followed. It had been a long three days, my car, gear and my body was covered with a quarter inch of Nevada...

At the end of a tumultuous week in the Klamath Reclamation Project, irrigation managers from the federal government and water users are focusing on what to do now. The week's events included a dramatic drop of inflows into Upper Klamath Lake and the announced shutdown of the project, a decision reversed within hours. The events focused attention on water use and the status of springs upstream of Upper Klamath Lake, which is the main reservoir for the project. "There is a whole list of things that could be hurting inflows, and ground water is one of them," he said, Jim...

No law has wreaked as much havoc on private property rights as the Endangered Species Act. Radical environmental organizations have driven Congressional intent to new heights of absurdity: a tractor was arrested in California for murdering a kangaroo rat, and the tractor's owner driven out of business. In Klamath Basin, 1,400 farmers were deprived of their own water for more than a year, to ensure that an "endangered" sucker fish didn't scrape bottom while swimming. The horror stories are endless, and each is another trophy in the showcases of the radical environmentalists. Now, they want more power. It's not enough...

Water flows through one of the six new headgates on the A Canal this morning. Contractors opened the headgates today to begin priming the system, meeting a deadline set by the Bureau of Reclamation in order to allow irrigation to begin on schedule in the Klamath Project. Headgates open on schedule published April 1, 2003 By DYLAN DARLING Water began pouring through a new set of headgates on the A Canal today, marking a milestone in a complex construction project and the beginning of an uncertain irrigation season. Also entering service today is a high-tech fish screen to keep...

San Francisco - On Friday, a report by the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) on the September Klamath River fish die-off was released to agencies. The CDFG report aims to assess why 33,000 Chinook salmon and other fish died of two diseases early this fall. Both sides are expected in an Oakland, California court Thursday, setting the stage for yet another battle of water rights for the Klamath Basin Farmers against the environmentalists. The CDFG report found that restricted fish passage and increased fish density are the likely triggers for the demise of part of this year's...

<p>The dramatic die-off of 33,000 salmon last fall along the Klamath River in Northern California was directly caused by the Bush administration's decision to pump extra water from the river to farmers, biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game have concluded.</p>

EMail from the Script writer: In an upcoming TV movie on CBS to be aired this Sunday, Rob Lowe plays an attorney who learns the real meaning of Christmas. He also represents a group of farmers who need protection from the "environmental junta" who wants to take their water rights away over the sucker fish. It is extremely RARE for a pro-rural point of view (no matter how small) to make it to the networks ... and I ought to know, because I wrote the script for the movie. We need to get as many people as possible not only...

One by one, the pieces of the puzzle that was this fall's massive salmon kill on the Klamath River are falling into place, and the picture that is emerging is not a flattering one for the Bush administration. In September, more than 33,000 endangered salmon perished in the shallow, warm waters of the 180-mile Klamath River. Government scientists said the fish succumbed to disease but were reluctant to agree with local tribes, fishermen and environmentalists who blamed the federal government's federal water-allocation plan - a plan that places an overwhelming priority on satisfying the irrigation needs of Klamath Basin farmers....

Whistleblower Points to Illegal Klamath Water Decision WASHINGTON, DC, October 28, 2002 (ENS) - Documents filed by a federal whistleblower charge that the scientific determination of water levels needed to support threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River was changed without any biological analysis. That change would violate the Endangered Species Act, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a group that has posted the documents on its website. The documents were part of a whistleblower disclosure filed today by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) fisheries biologist Michael Kelly with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. The conclusion...