Roger Smith: Reintroducing fish

By STEVE KADEL

H&N Staff Writer

March 14, 2008

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Roger Smith is interested in what impact the water settlement will have on the fish in the Klamath Basin .

   During the summer of 2001, those who worked for the government — any branch of government — weren’t the most popular people in the Klamath Basin . 

   Roger Smith of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife remembers what it was like when water was cut off to Klamath Reclamation Project irrigators. 

   He recalls at least one business posting a sign saying government employees weren’t welcome. The water shutoff was that dramatic, even though anger was misdirected at ODFW and other agencies. 

   “Many people didn’t understand that a federal judge made the decision,” Smith says. 

   But Smith, ODFW’s supervising fish and wildlife biologist in Klamath Falls , persevered and is at work these days on a plan to reintroduce anadromous fish (coho, Chinook, steelhead and Pacific lamprey) to upstream sections of the Klamath River . He’s tentatively scheduled to present the plan to the ODFW Commission in May. 

   Smith says the fish will return with or without the water settlement agreement because the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided in September 2007 to do so. 

   It would be a milestone in Smith’s career, which has spanned more than 18 years of managing fisheries in the Klamath Basin for his current agency. 

   Prior to that he was project manager for steelhead restoration on Fifteen Mile Creek in Wasco County , also working for Fish and Wildlife. Before that, Smith did hydrology research involving dams on the Columbia and North Umpqua rivers. 

   He says it’s ironic that late in his career he’s once again immersed in issues surrounding dams, this time those on the Klamath River . 

   “ODFW has been an active participant in the settlement process,” Smith says. “Settlement is contingent on dam removal.” 

   He noted that there are two discussions going on: One is the water settlement debate, and the other involves PacifiCorp’s application for relicensing from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to continue operating the Klamath River dams. 

   On the personal side, he supports anything that furthers fisheries in the area.  He has enjoyed his favorite hobby - fishing - throughout the Pacific Northwest , including Alaska , and says there's no better place than the Klamath Basin .

   "This is paradise," he says.  "This is as good as it gets."

Side Bar

Roger Smith on the agreement:
   
What he likes:

   It puts decision-making about lake levels and river flow rates into the hands of stakeholders. 

   Also, the plan calls for removal of four dams on the Klamath River . “Our studies into fish passage and fish protection demonstrate that fish passage upstream and fish protection downstream has failed miserably at the hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River ,” he says.

What he doesn’t like about the plan:

   Nothing. Smith says he and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife believe there are no losers in the settlement agreement. “All parties have something to gain,” he says.
area. He has enjoyed his favorite hobby — fishing — throughout the Pacific Northwest, including Alaska, and says there’s no better place than the Klamath Basin. “This is paradise,” he says. “This is as good as it gets.”

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