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One side of Langell Valley is
lush, the other is dryDrying out
Cindy and Jim Camozzi
rent out their pasture land to a
neighboring cattle rancher. They live on
the western side of Langell Valley,
which stopped receiving irrigation water
on July 7. H&N photo by Jill Aho
By
JILL AHO
H&N Staff Writer
The Bureau of Reclamation shut off water deliveries
from Clear Lake on July 7, which affects the western
side of the valley. The eastern side, which gets
water deliveries from Gerber Reservoir, is still
receiving irrigation water.
About 40 of the 113 irrigators in the Langell Valley
Irrigation District are impacted by the
shutoff.
The majority of landowners in Langell Valley rely on
cattle and alfalfa crops for income. Many rent their
pastures to ranchers. Those on the west side say
they are likely to lose some of that rental income
when their pastures die and ranchers are forced to
move their herds to greener land.
Others, who grow alfalfa crops, will get one good
cutting, a second if they’re lucky, and the alfalfa
market is poor. Hay prices reached record highs last
year, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports
that demand for most grades of hay is light while
the supply remains moderate to heavy in Oregon
markets.
“Right now, the entire hay market is pretty soft,”
said Willie Riggs, director of the Oregon State
University Klamath Basin Research and Extension
Center. “What we’re seeing in the forage market is
it’s half what it was last year.”
Kim and Spud Hammerich have about 650 head of cattle
on their ranch. Kim Hammerich said they are among
those fortunate landowners who have access to well
water. A few of their neighbors will have to watch
as the cattle are shipped off, either to new grazing
grounds or to slaughter.
Meanwhile, the Hammeriches will contend with high
power bills as a result of pumping from wells.
“Hay prices are low. With cattle prices being low,
it’s going to hurt everybody,” Kim Hammerich said.
Riggs said livestock makes up $108 million of the
$300 million that agriculture pumps into the Klamath
County economy.
“If a farmer or rancher in the valley loses a dollar
in the livestock sector, somewhere else in Klamath
County, someone else loses another dollar,” Riggs
said. “Every time you don’t produce a pound of beef,
you’re having a negative impact on that $300
million.”
Langell Valley Irrigation District charges $19.50 an
acre for irrigation water. There are no refunds in
the future for any of the landowners within the
district, Kim Hammerich said.
“They already paid for the water and now they have
to come up with money for hay,” Kim Hammerich said.
“Either that or sell their cows because there’s no
pasture.”
Attempts to reach Frank Hammerich, director of the
Langell Valley Irrigation District, were
unsuccessful. Several phone messages over five days
left at the district office, Frank Hammerich’s home,
and his cell phone went unreturned.
A trip to the office near Bonanza Thursday found
Frank Hammerich out somewhere in the valley with
Bureau of Reclamation representatives.
Ranchers’
income threatened
BONANZA — Cindy and Jim Camozzi bought their
240-acre property in Langell Valley 19 years ago and
have restored all the buildings and the home where
they now live. They rent their pasture to a
neighboring cattle rancher, and it constitutes their
main source of income throughout the year.
But after the Bureau of Reclamation shutoff water
deliveries July 7 to irrigators on the western half
of Langell Valley, the Camozzis say that income is
threatened.
“The difference is we’re not going to be able to
keep them here as long,” Cindy Camozzi said.
Rather than keep the cattle until November, the
Camozzis anticipate the herd will be moved when
their pastures die.
The Camozzis took steps to maximize the life of
their grazing land.
They knew water deliveries would be short, so they
used aeration equipment on their pastures, which
alleviates both compaction from the cattle and
creates space for water to soak into the ground.
They flood-irrigated right before the water was cut
off.
“You see other people watering (on the other side)
and we’re drying up. It’s a hard thing to watch,”
Jim Camozzi said.
Jim Camozzi also installed a working windmill from
1925 that pulls water from deep under ground. With
just a little wind, the mill fills a 500-gallon drum
that the cattle congregate around on hot days.
Cindy Camozzi said the couple can’t plan for how
much the shutoff will affect income this year.
“You don’t know how long the grass is going to last.
It’s hard enough to plan because of the weather.
Rain would help,” she said. “Once that grass dies,
once it turns brown, that’ll be it for the season.”
The Camozzis want to see the sucker fish delisted as
much as anyone in the Klamath Basin.
“If we don’t get this sucker fish off the endangered
list, we’re the ones endangered,” Cindy Camozzi
said.
“They put them above us. Above our livelihood,” Jim
Camozzi added. “I think the whole way of life in
this valley’s in danger. We feel blessed to live
here, but I don’t have a good feeling at all.”
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