Craig Tucker: Manage for the ecosystem

By LEE JUILLERAT

H&N Regional Editor

March 14, 2008

Craig Tucker, the Karuk Tribe’s Klamath Campaign coordinator, was the tribe’s lead negotiator in Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement talks.

    ORLEANS , Calif. — Craig Tucker hopes to see the day when he and others from cities, towns and villages along the Klamath River in California attend a Klamath Basin Potato and Salmon Festival. 

   Tucker, the Karuk Tribe’s Klamath Campaign coordinator, says the alliance built between his and other tribes and Klamath Basin farmers resulted in a relationship that respects business and cultural considerations. While Tucker wants to see changes that benefit the Karuks, a tribe based in Happy Camp with 4,200 enrolled members, he also believes that can’t be achieved without ensuring the future of farming in the Klamath Basin . 

   “If the end goal is to end farming,” he says of efforts by some groups to leave upper Basin irrigators without water, “we’re not going there. The farmers do what they do because they are farmers and because they’re devoted to the land. It isn’t to get rich.” 

   Every environmental issue 

   Tucker, 37, is a non-Indian who earned a doctorate in biochemistry from Vanderbilt University . He became the Karuk’s lead negotiator in the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement talks after working with the Sacramento-based Friends of the River. 

   “Every environmental issue in America is represented on the Klamath,” he says of challenges involving conflicting water demands by farmers, tribes and commercial fishermen. “It’s not just about raising more salmon. It’s about religion, it’s about putting food on the table.” 

   Often overlooked, Tucker believes, is the spiritual value of the Klamath to different tribes, including the Karuks, who hold a “fix the world” ceremony each late summer. The rituals include bathing in the river, but in recent years the timing has coincided with algae blooms that turn the water “icky green.” 

   “You can see plumes of green going into the ocean.” 

   Chinook salmon 

   Misunderstood, too, he believes, are tribal needs for Chinook salmon, not just the listed coho. 

   “Culturally and economically, the most important fish are Chinook. A flow plan for coho doesn’t necessarily help the other species. We need to manage for the ecosystem, not just the Endangered Species Act. We should have an Endangered Ecosystem Act.” 

   The solution, he insists, is removing the four Klamath River hydroelectric dams. 

   “What we want to do is the biggest dam removal in the world,” Tucker says. “We didn’t feel like we could do that if we weren’t working together (with farmers). 

   “There’s a long, bitter history. They’re seeing the guys who, in their minds, were involved in the genocide of their ancestors. It wasn’t easy. We spent a lot of time together. We drank a lot of beer together. That was key. Those relationships had to be built first. Since then the relationship has really improved. We’re not arguing over getting a bigger piece of the pie, but getting a bigger pie.”

Side Bar

Craig Tucker on the water agreement:

   What he likes: Removing the Klamath River dams is what he likes best. 

   “I think dam removal is fundamental. I like the technical people from the tribes being involved,” he says, noting tribal biologists helped create models that provide water flows for farming, tribes and commercial fishermen. 

   He says dam removal is necessary for significant water projects that will improve fisheries and water quality, and believes that requires a coordinated effort. 

   “We weren’t picking on the farmers, we weren’t picking on the Bush administration,” Tucker says of a high-profile campaign that included attending a meeting of PacifiCorp’s parent company in Scotland . “These dams extract the wealth of the Klamath Basin .”
   
   What he dislikes:  He is disappointed that the Hoopa Tribe and the Shasta Nation oppose the proposal, but he believes the disagreement reflects the different tribes’ cultures. 

   “Everybody is geographically in a different place,” he says of Klamaths, Karuks, Yuroks, Hoopas and Shastas. “Everybody has a different perspective. They’re really different, culturally distinct.”

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