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| Monday,
June 25, 2001 |
| by
David Rothbard and Craig Rucker |
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Does
the Endangered Species Act need to be revised?
That
question is a no-brainer for the folks living in the
drought-parched Klamath Basin region of Southern Oregon. Indeed,
well over a thousand gathered last week - many sporting buttons
which read "Reform ESA Now!" - to hear 6 Republican
congressman hammer environmental groups and federal wildlife
agencies for misusing what they call questionable science to
shut off irrigation water to farmers living near the federal
Klamath Basin.
The
Klamath River Basin Dam Project, you see, provides necessary
water for the over 1,400 farms on the Oregon/California boarder.
But because of a federal judge's opinion last April that
lower-than-normal water levels could impact the Lost River and
Shortnose Suckers in the area - the spigots will have to be
turned off for the summer
This, of course, spells bad times ahead
for the crops which gulp up this water.
And
while many Greens may well champion this decision as an apparent
"victory" for fish over people - it appears, in a
strange bit of irony, that fish may be the ones to suffer most
of all.
And
why?
Because
new research has revealed that lower water levels may actually
provide more suitable habitat for sucker fish. The reason,
according to biologists, is because higher lake levels produce
heavy algae blooms which reduce oxygen levels at the bottom of
the lake where suckers like to hang out. This makes their
breathing more difficult. In addition, higher lake levels
prevent winds and currents from "turning over" lake
water and thus, in fact, endanger the fish's habitat.
To
substantiate this, research also reveals that "fish
kills" are the greatest in years where lake levels are
high, and least when the water level falls.
With
the economic toll from the judge's ruling expected to topple
$200 million, and federal aid only trickling in from Washington,
it seems ESA. reform may be the only thing left to save the
Klamath Basin farmers themselves from extinction.
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