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April 28, 2006
By STEVE KADEL
H&N Staff Writer
Removing four Klamath River dams would do the most to restore salmon populations
to their traditional numbers, a California tribal official said Thursday.
Leaf Hillman, vice chairman of the Karuk
Tribal Council, added that fish hatcheries also have hurt salmon.
“They provide lots of competition with wild fish,” he said.
Hillman spoke during a discussion televised live from the Oregon Institute of
Technology library's KCTV studio via public access channel 7. Sponsored by the
nonprofit Educational Solutions of Klamath Falls and the OIT library, it was the
first session in a public affairs series on water issues in the Klamath Basin.
Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association,
appeared with Hillman. The two agreed on many issues related to boosting salmon
numbers on the Klamath River - a departure from more adversarial stances taken
by irrigators and Native Americans in the past.
Addington said the Klamath Water Users Association could support dam removal if
irrigators were promised three things in return.
He said farmers need a dependable supply of water each year, they need
affordable electrical power to run irrigation pumps, and they need to be
protected from harmful sanctions if another endangered species - salmon - was
reintroduced to the Upper Klamath Basin.
The discussion was televised live and also will be released in DVD format. The public affairs series forms the basis of Educational Solutions' high school project to explore how the Klamath watershed can be shared.
Ten audience members sat in the studio Thursday evening as
moderator Judith Jensen prepared Addington and Hillman for the event. “We're
four minutes out from show time,” called out Bill Stine, interim director for
OIT's Klamath Community Television.
Water wars
Once cameras began rolling, Addington and Hillman showed how far different
water-user groups have come in their quest for collaboration.
“There has been a lot of fighting,”
Addington said. “People call it the Water Wars. It may give us winners and
losers, but it's not going to give us solutions.
“We want to work with other stakeholders in the Basin. That's where the
solutions are.”
Hillman, former director of the Karuks'
Department of Natural Resources, said the fall Chinook harvests “are certainly
not sustainable” for the tribe's 3,400 members. They harvested fewer than 200
salmon last year, he said.
Hillman added that tribe members' longevity has declined in past decades.
“It can be attributed directly to the
lack of healthy food,” he said. “It does not bode well for the survival of
our people.
“Indian people in this basin haven't been salmon people for 100 years. There
are no fish. The Klamath stocks are in dire condition.”
While saying the Klamath Reclamation
Project plays a part in declining salmon numbers, Hillman said agriculture must
continue its key role in the Basin's economy.
“We want farmers to be farmers,” he said. “We believe agriculture and a
fishery can exist together.”
The Karuk have supported Reclamation Project members in seeking continued low
power rates for irrigators, Hillman said. They filed motions urging the
traditional rates be maintained as part of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission's relicensing of PacifiCorp, which provides electricity for the
Reclamation Project.
“We took some heat in our community for that, but we have a lot in common with
irrigators,” he said. “We are looking to survive and create stable
communities. We understand this (low power rate) is something your community
needs.”
Addington described the Reclamation Project's efficient water use, which returns
a high percentage of water to the Klamath River. There's no evaporation as in
pre-Project years, he said, because the water is constantly moving.
Putting more Project land out of cultivation wouldn't help the river, Addington
said, because idling thousands of acres wouldn't return more water to the
Klamath. That shows how efficiently the system operates, he said.
‘No silver bullet'
Addington believes the Project makes an easy target for those seeking to boost
salmon numbers because it's operated by just one agency - the federal Bureau of
Reclamation. It will take a watershed-wide approach to solve the Klamath River's
problems, Addington said.
“There is no silver bullet. Solutions will come from people who live here,
from one end of the system to the other, not from people outside.”
Addington expressed optimism that solutions to the salmon question will be found
because competing interests are developing trust in one another.
“Trust is face-to-face time, talking about issues together,” he said.
