Waterfowl hunting hurt by low water

Hunters cannot access refuge by boat 

By LEE JUILLERAT 

H&N Regional Editor

October 19, 2010

     ROCKY POINT — For years, Dave Hummel eagerly anticipated retirement, planning long retreats to the cabin he bought in 1975 in the Rocky Point area of Upper Klamath Lake.

   Ever since 1957, when his parents, Don and Reba, built a cabin on Pelican Bay, he’s spent long stretches of time fishing and bird hunting on public lands at the Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.

   Hummel retired three years ago after a career as a biology teacher at Mazama High School.  

   “My dream of retiring and duck hunting has gone up in smoke,” says Hummel, 58, while guiding his small motorboat along Crystal Creek, which slices along the refuge’s western edge. “There are no birds because the refuge is dry. Basically, right now it’s a biological desert for ducks and geese.”

   He later motors to Harriman Creek, where he beaches his boat and walks across Harriman Marsh, which looks like a meadow.

   “The hunting I used to do in the marsh was a lot of fun,” says Hummel, telling how he paddled his canoe, set out duck decoys and usually returned home with at least a couple of birds.  

   A marshy refuge

   The Upper Klamath refuge spans about 15,000 acres of marsh on Upper Klamath Lake’s west side near Rocky Point. A small section of the refuge includes the Hank’s Marsh Unit on the lake’s east side.

   Bird hunting season opened earlier this month but Hummel has made only a single outing. When he passes the Rocky Point Resort and the nearby public boat launch, neither has any parked pickups with boat trailers, a signal that no one is hunting. There are no sounds of blasting shotguns.

   “It’s not a great (economic) impact,” he says, “but it’s some.”  

   Motoring along, he slows at a series of channels that used to provide access into the marsh. Some are totally dry. Others are impassable narrow, muddy seeps.

   The Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex website warns that water from Upper Klamath Lake is used for irrigation “and water levels may be very low by the fall hunt season. A surface elevation of 4,140-feet is necessary to access the marshes.”

   At his cabin, Hummel pulls up statistics showing lake level trends.

   No access, no food

   In the 1950s and ’60s, lake levels at Rocky Point varied about two feet a season, almost always staying above the magical 4,410-foot level. He calls up stats for 2000 to 2010. Until this year, the peaks stayed above the “full” level, but in all 11 years the lows have plunged four to five feet.

   As of Sunday, the reading was 4,138.7, too low for hunters to access the marshes.  

   At the Pelican Marina in Klamath Falls, owner Ron Hahn echoes Hummel’s concerns.

   “Anytime the water level drops it affects access to the hunters,” Hahn says, noting that lake levels have routinely varied four to five feet annually. “Any more, we’ve got much more drastic fluctuations. Low lake levels inhibit people from going out. That’s pretty much a no-brainer.”

   Hahn and Hummel also worry about migratory waterfowl. Hahn notes that the loss of farming means the absence of grain and barley, which used to attract the waterfowl.

   “It’s great fish habitat,” he says, “but it doesn’t do much for the birds.”

   “There’s no reason for a duck to sit in water that’s got no food,” Hummel says. “The quality of the hunt now is poor. The quality isn’t the way it should be. In this refuge there are no birds. It’s a shame.”  

Side Bars

Boating season short on Upper Klamath Lake   

   Low water levels made it a tough year for members of the Klamath Yacht Club.

   “For some of us with deeper hulls, the sailing season ended earlier than usual,” said Steve Campbell, the yacht club’s commodore.

   Campbell said dropping lake levels created some havoc in getting boats out of the water.

   “We’ve been dragging them through the mud,” he said, noting some boats had various degrees of damage. “This year was probably the worst we’ve   seen in trying to get them out.”

   Sailing usually runs through late October, but Campbell said the season ended weeks earlier.

   “A lot of people didn’t put their boats in because of the low water forecast,” Campbell said.

   The club’s racing season began in early April, but cold, blustery, stormy weather discouraged many would-be participants. The club, which has 110 family memberships, hosted its annual Firecracker Regatta over the Fourth   of July weekend, “But the water level dropped pretty quickly after that.”

   Club members usually plan overnight sailing trips to Rocky Point Resort, but this year the channel was too shallow to navigate by mid-June. Other overnight trips to various coves also ended by mid-July because of low water.

   “It seems like the last 10 years we’ve been lower,” Campbell said. “It’s been worse, but we’re learning to live with it.”

About the refuge   

   The Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1928 and comprises 15,000 acres of mostly freshwater marsh and open water. A marked canoe trail is among the most popular recreational activities.

   According to the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge Complex website, the area has excellent nesting and brood-rearing areas for waterfowl and birds including American white pelican and several   heron species. Bald eagle and osprey nest nearby and can sometimes be seen fishing in refuge waters.

   Significant species that use the refuge include bald eagles, white pelicans, osprey, Canada geese, such ducks as pintails, mallards, gadwalls and canvasback, western and eared grebes, black terns, great blue herons, great and snowy egrets and endangered Lost River and short nose suckers.