Klamath Basin anti farming groups banned 061307

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Anti farming groups banned from participating in Pacific Power negotiations

* Group wasn't invited to join in the settlement talks

By Lance Waldren, Pioneer Press June 13, 2007

KLAMATH BASIN - For almost two years now, 28 separate and diverse groups have been negotiating on what will become of the dams on the Klamath River. Well now that number has been pared down to 26 as two extreme environmental groups have been "disinvited" from the talks.

Oregon Wild and Water Watch will no longer be invited to participate. According to several members of the negotiations, there are still nine other nationally recognized conservation groups prepared to keep moving forward. It became clear to the group that Oregon Wild and Water Watch were not interested in coming up with solutions. Their only interest was in making sure the negotiations failed.

The Pioneer Press contacted Oregon Wild spokesman Steve Pedery. Pedery said "the group of 28 had disbanded and reassembled without inviting them to join in the new and diminished settlement talks, we were voted off of the island."

"They didn't like how things were going so they just took their ball, went home and started a new game," said Pedery "This is just the same old same old, from the Bush Administration. "

Pedery said his group objected when the negotiations went from dam removal to farming on national refuges. He said the group used the confidentiality agreement to hide behind sweetheart deals.

The Pioneer Press asked Pedery if they would be willing to rejoin the talks if the opportunity arose.

"We would love to get back into talks about dam removal but we are not interested in being used to give legitimacy to a course which is wrong," he said.

Pedery said he felt they had been negotiating in good faith and had made compromises with Klamath and income can't reach.

He went on to say, Oregon Wild has posted an action alert to congress urging activists to oppose the settlement framework developed by tribes and others. For those of us that actually live and die in the Klamath Basin, this is viewed as the best chance to save our fish, our water quality and our rural economies. For the "environistas" at Oregon Wild, they'd rather see Indians driven deeper into poverty than compromise with farmers

The statement from Tucker went on to say the fact of the matter is we are very close to the largest river restoration in world history in large part due to the political pressure our protests and actions have put on the company and elected officials and because we have been willing to work with the farm communities in the basin.

Our Klamath settlement framework specifies dam removal, river flows that would allow salmon to recover, incentives for farmers to develop more wetlands, expands the size of upper Klamath lake and more.

Because Oregon Wild has failed to achieve their organizational mission to drive farmers out of the basin, they'd rather see the deal go down in flames than compromise.