|
Become a friend of the Klamath Bucket Brigade All donations are tax deductible |
|
This Website is Dedicated to Alvin Alexander Cheyne January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005 |
GovTrack.us is an independent tool to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress, promoting government transparency and civic education through novel uses of technology.
Klamath River featured in magazine
‘Reuniting
a River’
in
National
Geographic’s
December
issue
Now the world can learn about the struggle to allocate Klamath River water among various stakeholders, and efforts to bring the river back to health.
The Klamath is featured in a 21-page spread in the December issue of National Geographic, titled “Reuniting a River.”
The story by Russ Rymer begins with a vignette of Yurok tribe member Thomas Willson fishing with a gill net for chinook salmon in the lower reaches of the Klamath River. Then it shifts 250 river miles north for a thumbnail sketch of Klamath Basin farmer Steve Kandra baling alfalfa on the family farm in the 2 a.m. darkness.
The story points out that Kandra works “a field irrigated by the same Klamath waters that Thomas Willson fishes.”
The article recounts the federal government’s 2001 water shutoff to about 1,400 Klamath Reclamation Project farmers, and the resulting conflicts. It also describes the massive fish die-off in 2002, when an estimated 30,000 chinook salmon died in the lower 40 miles of the river.
Four dams
There’s a historical account of the Klamath Reclamation Project, which drained former lake and marshland in the early 1900s to claim more than 100,000 acres of prime farmland. The piece also touches on creation of four dams on the river, beginning in 1918 when the California Oregon Power Co. — known as Copco — built its first hydroelectric dam.
Concluding with the final dam, Iron Gate built in 1962, the article raises questions about the facilities’ effects on water quality and other impacts while reporting on their energy generation to meet the need of an estimated 70,000 homes.
“The dams have long been a focus of local pride for the upriver communities, emblems of autonomy for a region that had always held itself self-consciously apart,” the story says.
Restoration agreement
It notes the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement was released last January amid a new spirit of cooperation among user groups. Two well-known Basin residents are quoted about the change from days before irrigators, fishermen, tribal members, environmentalists and government representatives could sit down together.
“We’ve all got to let go of hard feelings and try to find a common way ahead,” farmer Scott Seus is quoted as saying.
The story ends with Ron Cole, refuge manager for the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges, talking about the same ethic.
“What I think has evolved is that people are looking out for the other guy’s back, not just their own anymore,” he is quoted as saying. “The families up here, they never felt connected with this river. Now they do. They feel they’re river people too.”
National
Geographic
A 21-page feature on the Klamath River is featured in National Geographic’s December issue.
A 21-page feature on the Klamath River is featured in National Geographic’s December issue.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml