Archive 11 

August 2002

Farmers Asked To Bail Out the Environment - Again. Kehn Gibson, Aug 30, 2002.  After using record high levels of water in a dry year on the refuges, Fish and Wildlife is asking farmers to conserve and donate more water to the refuges. This comes one year after F&W shut off all irrigation water to the farmers. Click on photo for story.

Pat Ratliff, Aug. 26, 2002
Thanks to farmers, the Lower Klamath refuge
 has had historically high water input this year.
 

Farmland Conversion – Will it Solve the Klamath Crisis?
                      Klamath Water Users Association posted 8/30/02
 "Federal agencies or non-profit conservation groups have acquired over 25,000 acres of farmland in the Upper Klamath Basin for habitat purposes. Each time the agencies sought additional land they promised that each acquisition would provide environmental benefits, reducing pressure on the Klamath Project’s family farmers and ranchers….. Can the Service demonstrate improved water quality in Upper Klamath Lake? Have sucker populations increased? Is there more certainty for Project water users… So if the benefits of these actual conversions can’t be identified, why would the U.S. support new conversions?.....The practical effect of shifting farmland to habitat will lead to a net increase in water use, threaten a valuable source of food for waterfowl and bald eagles, and decrease the Project’s overall water efficiency.......Local water users and agricultural producers are working to develop conceptual draft principles and an implementation framework regarding a voluntary Project environmental water bank." SEE RELEASE

ONRC has two faces - and neither is very pretty, H&N Editorial, 8/29/02. View.

Why the ONRC usually doesn’t do advisory groups, Reprinted from
March 15, 1999 Herald and News, Wendall Wood. "Individuals drawn to ONRC -be they staff, board members, and/or volunteers -are attracted by its aggressive, no-compromise style." Link.
 

   photo by Corinne Byrne

FOREST FIRES IN OREGON, 555,000 Acres and Counting
INFORMATION IS BEGINNING TO SURFACE
By Rosalyn, Medford KBC news team. Aug 2, 2002, with Aug 15 update. Article.
"Where are the environmentalists??? Nowhere to be seen! They remain at their
headquarters instead of helping save the wildlife, spotted owls, Lynxes etc.
they once protected."

Klamath Basin farmers donate hay, time to drought-stricken
farmers in Trinidad, Colo. Matt Hall, H&N, Aug 8, 02. Article.

Word is that Lars Larson will be doing his show from the Potato Festival, Friday, October 18. Sponsored by Klamath First Federal and KFLS.

Governor Kitzhaber has just fired the Eastern Oregon representative to the Northwest Power Planning Council, John Brogiotti, for telling the truth.  "There are no dumb farmers because if a farmer employed unwise farming practices that depleted his land he paid the ultimate price. He lost the farm. The present day American farmer is the ultimate environmentalist and he has the resume to prove it, generation after generation living in harmony with the land."  See letter.

Colorado Hay Delivered, Kehn Gibson, August 7, 2002. Article.  
Barron, who turned 81 on July 4, is no stranger to tough jobs. A celebrated pilot of the heavy bombers of the Eighth Air Force in World War II, Barron came home after 30 missions when two of his younger brothers were killed in action. “I didn’t have a choice,” he says.
But, Barron says, this job is his hardest yet. Barron sits on an eight-member committee formed by the Las Animas County Farm Bureau that decides who will – or will not – get desperately needed hay for their livestock. Klamath Basin farmers have donated the hay, nearly 350 tons worth, after they heard of the severe drought affecting this Colorado ranching community.
                                          

Water Users Investigate Klamath River Flows: Biologist Warns "Increased Summer Flows Could Harm Salmon", KWUA Release, August 7, 2002. Release

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!! Farmers Helping Farmers
By Kehn Gibson, Lost River Star, August 6, 2002.  Article.
"Local community leaders are seeking tractor-trailers and drivers to get sorely needed hay to farmers and ranchers beset by drought and the loss of federal grazing lands in Trinidad, Colo."

Klamath Basin on 20/20, Aug. 2, 2002. ABC at 10:00. See release.

"Sawgrass Rebellion"- Klamath Basin joins convoy to Florida.
"Damage to crops has exceeded $100 million...".
"'Scientists reportedly have made recordings in which they can hear the (sparrow)', he said, 'but I'm not real sure they've ever actually seen one.'".
"The science used to determine the listing has never been peer-reviewed..."  Article.

       July  2002

Klamath Basin is a Watershed Event, Mark Edward Vande Pol.                    
Free market environmental management could turn a lose-lose situation
into a win-win. Thanks to Free Republic forum for the lead.  Article.

Klamath Basin Farmers and Businesses send Stock Feed
to Drought & Fire Stricken Colorado Ranchers, 07/02. Article.

Klamath Basin sends hay convoy to Colorado ranchers.
KBC News Team. 7/20/02. Report.

House Backs Walden, Defeats Plan to Limit Crops on Klamath Refuges.
  Blumenauer would have done no good, great harm to refuges and wildlife. Article.

Effort to limit Klamath Basin farming fails, Jim Barnett, Oregonian, 7/18. Article.

Farmer-bashing all the new rage, Washington Times, 7/18/02. See story.

Congressman Blumenauer is expected to introduce an amendment to the Appropriations Bill on Tuesday, July 16,2002.  This amendment is an attempt to eliminate the Lease Land Farm Program as established by the 1964 Kuchel Act.  These farmlands are essential to the local economy and provide tremendous wildlife benefits.  Especially food and habitat for migrating waterfowl.  Please send the Congressman a message that his amendment is anti-agriculture and is not only unnecessary but will be extremely detrimental to the Klamath Basin. Contact Blumenauer.
    Please read the reality on this: From the forum.

Big Sky country nation's largest gated community, by Mike Aastrom,
who came with the Montana convoy to support the Klamath Basin last year.
"The public no longer has access to 90 percent of the public lands in Flathead County."
"How are we going too fight the fires to come if all the roads are locked or blocked off? A little
 bit of common sense explains that: We can't!" Is this reality coming soon to our Basin?
See article.

"Phil Norton, the manager of the Basin’s wildlife refuges, said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has monitored the use of agricultural chemicals on the refuges and has seen no harmful effect on wildlife. "
ONRC, environmental groups threaten the Bureau of Reclamation with lawsuit,
Ryan Harper, H&N, 7/10/02. Article.

Don’t expect the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to back off , Ryan Harper,
H&N, 7/07/02. See report.

Bill Challenges Environmental Extremism, Wes Vernon, NewsMax,
July 9, 02. Klamath Basin "straw that broke the camel's back". Article.

Wendall Wood Makes the news. See article

Ultimatum Given to Klamath Basin Irrigators
Irrigators Forced to Pump Groundwater to Avoid Shutoff
National Academy of Science Findings Disregarded
Letters to Tulelake Irrigation District from Bureau of Reclamation
KBC News Report and commentary, July 8, 2002  See article.

Say ‘no’ to federal buyouts for Basin farms, Editorial, H&N,
     July 5, 02. See article.

Water letter gives signers misgivings, Ryan Harper, H&N, 7/03/02. See story.