Reversal on habitat a missed opportunity for spotted owls, people, by Nick Smith American Forest Resource Council, 11/23/21. "...between 1994 and 2013, over 80 percent of owl habitat loss during this period was due to severe wildfire and forest disease, not timber harvest. Spotted owl populations continue to reach all-time lows, largely due to competition from the barred owl...1.7 million acres of spotted owl critical habitat is not even suitable habitat for the species. One economic study found the designation of uninhabited lands has resulted in economic losses of up to $1.2 billion to our rural economies. A unanimous 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision found the Endangered Species Act does not authorize the government to designate lands as critical habitat unless it is in fact habitat for the species..."

Reclamation nets $2.7 million to help Klamath River coho, H&N 11/15/21

Who is LAS13, the wolf killing at least 6 cattle in Bly? H&N 11/19/21. See our WOLF PAGE for more on wolves decimating livestock

Beating botulism (in Tule Lake refuge), H&N 11/16/21. "Tule Lake Sump 1A is mostly dry after most of its water was drained to Sump 1B to try and prevent the spread of botulism..." (KBC NOTE: because The Bureau of Reclamation denied water to the farms and refuges) Eventually, refuge managers will try to refill Sump 1A and create a better environment for waterfowl."

Reclamation announces $2.7 million for Klamath River coho salmon, Bureau of Reclamation News Release 11/15/21. "Project types that will be given the highest priority include riparian and instream habitat restoration and improvements, barrier modification and fish passage improvement, fish screens, and water conservation. Program efforts will be focused on the mainstem of the Klamath River and tributaries between Klamath River mile 190 to the Klamath River estuary."

KILLING SUCKERS: The following comment was on our Klamath Basin Crisis Facebook page: November 2022 - From Matt Brimmer 4 days ago in a discussion in this fb group regarding suckers, hatchery, and draining Sump 1A : "Michael this has been attempted on a couple different instances since 2001 and has failed. I sat in on one of the original meetings regarding a Sucker Hatchery. It was set up on Lower Klamath Wildlife refuge towards the Sterns Unit. It was working well until the Birds found it and ate most of them! I also had the opportunity to be part of the Team that assisted with Sucker fish capture on the Caldona (Running Y) marsh when the dike broke. This made for what the ESA and the Tribes called the perfect Sucker Habitat. However, I believe we only captured around 30-40 Suckers. Then let’s fast forward to this year when TID with the assistance of Ducks Unlimited and the Tulelake Basin Farmers drained Sump 1A (again supposed perfect sucker habitat). Multiple Large Adult Breeding suckers were trapped however were not allowed to be moved from 1A to Klamath Lake. They were moved to Sump 1B where most were found floating a few weeks later."

11/15/21 - Order No. 3403 Subject: Joint Secretarial Order on Fulfilling the Trust Responsibility to Indian Tribes in the Stewardship of Federal Lands and Waters. Today, the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture issued a joint secretarial order directed toward strengthen the role of tribes in management of land and water.  It also commits to support of return of tribal lands and taking federal land into trust. 

11/15/21 - KBC Note: In 2005 FWS received dozens of letters opposing the sale of Barnes Ranch for supposed water storage, including by Klamath County Commissioners, Klamath Water Users Association, Oregon state senator, Dr William Lewis Jr., University of Colorado, Chairman of the National Research Council, Oregon state representative,  Oregon State University professor and superintendant of Klamath Experiment Station. USFWS obviously did not consider the vast amount of science or input and went ahead and bought the property. So do we expect anything different this time when it will delay Project deliveries and lower our Klamath Lake level?

Klamath Drainage District opposition to Barnes Agency Restoration Project 11/13/21. "By our best assessment, the initial fill of the project area will take approximately 50,000 acre-feet and impact lake elevation of just under 0.5 feet across the entire surface of UKL. Additionally, adding an additional 14,000 acres to the surface area of UKL will extend the time it takes to fill the lake in general. This will have serious impacts on certain years to every species and every water user that utilizes UKL as its resource...recent modeling by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation suggests that UKL will not fill to management levels identified in the 2013 Biological Opinion for Suckers on certain years whereas it would have otherwise (see 2010). This would result in delayed or zero irrigation for Klamath Reclamation Project water users as well..."

Klamath Water Users Association's concerns with Barnes Agency Project 11/12/21. "...there would be reductions in water availability for irrigation (and by extension NWRs) and Klamath River flows as a result of the proposed project.

Klamath Irrigation District opposition to Barnes Agency Project 11/11/21. "...the analysis indicates the Klamath River below Keno will loose on average 37,000 acre-feet of water per year (with a range of loss between 4,000 and 75,000 acre feet....  more than 50% of the increased storage created by this project will be lost to ET, with 27,000 to 46,000 acre-feet of water loss. This amount of loss is more than the water-right holders within the Klamath Project received in 2021; this amount is more than the full-water right and combined need of Shasta View Irrigation District, Malin Irrigation District, Enterprise Irrigation District, Sunnyside Irrigation District, Poe Valley Improvement District, and Pine Grove Irrigation District to which we are contractually obligated to deliver irrigation water from Upper Klamath Lake..."

Counting Every Drop, H&N 11/13/21. "The Herald and News is launching monthly hydrologic updates for the Klamath Basin. Around the middle of each month, we'll compile on-the-ground data to inform stakeholders about how the current water year is shaping up."  KBC NOTE: this link includes graphs and charts and helpful information

Modoc Nation adds local resource and development director, H&N 11/11/21. "The tribes’ top priority is to revive the overgrazed ranchlands recently purchased by the tribe near Tulelake, with the goal of establishing a new branch of the Modoc Nation’s bison herd."

When the Water Stopped: An Oregon town at its breaking point
WATCH THE VIDEO, by Aljazerra/Faultlines 11/10/21
KBC Note: Featuring a film and article of hate, racism, lies, zero science, directed toward "racist/white supremacist" Klamath Farmers and "racist" Klamath hydroelectric dams.
The players: Joey Gentry, Joey's brother Klamath Tribal Chairman Don Gentry, Craig Tucker (Friends of the River activist/community organizer/dam removal activist/Black Lives Matter supporter/KarukTribe spokesman, and ‘Coalition of the Willing’ co-chair. (The other co-chair not is the film is Dan Keppen, former Bureau of Reclamation, former Klamath Water Users Association Executive Director, Family Farm Alliance Executive Director), narrator, Presbyterian Church attendees, Klamath farmer Rodney Cheyne, Dan Neilson.

How Biden's infrastructure package invests in farming, rural communities, Capital Press 11/9/21. "...$8.3 billion in water projects including irrigation modernization, improved water storage and conveyance, aquifer recharge and repairs...Klamath habitat: Some $162 million will go toward Klamath habitat restoration work by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service..." KBC NOTE: "improved water storage" ? We HAVE excellent water storage which the Bureau of Reclamation, against a court order, did not allow irrigators to use this summer. How can we recharge our aquifer, after we must pump our aquifer to farm because the Bureau stole our stored water, if the Bureau won't allow us water to recharge it? $162M to FWS for Klamath for habitat restoration? That usually means land and water rights acquisitions. What a deal.

USFWS overturns spotted owl habitat rollbacks, H&N 11/9/21. "The American Forest Resource Council, a group that represents wood products manufacturers and forestland owners, argues the ruling illegally designates more than 1 million acres of federal land that is not currently spotted owl habitat. Travis Joseph, AFRC president, said the designation further restricts timber harvest and tree thinning projects designed to help mitigate large wildfires that threaten the very habitat officials are trying to protect.

Biden administration leaves ESA 'habitat' undefined, Capital Press 11/5/21. "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it plans to repeal a definition that limited “habitat” to land that could support the species."

Capital Press Editorial: 21 senators show their wolf management expertise, 11/4/21. "...We propose the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deliver 200 wolves to each of the states those senators represent. Send 200 each to New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, California, Ohio, Illinois, Nevada, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Maryland...and Hawaii..."

Bill to track foreign ownership of farmland introduced into U.S. Senate, Capital Press 11/1/21. "...foreign investors have bought more than 35 million acres of U.S. farmland worth $62 billion — about 2.7% of all privately held land nationwide..."

Klamath Irrigation District October Newsletter pdf, posted to KBC 11/1/21. Water situation, KID litigation, and Interior opinion.
Go to http://klamathirrigation.com for Klamath Irrigation District website for meetings, updates, litigation, farm aid.