Upper Klamath Water Users and Sustainable Northwest—What’s the relationship?

Becky Hyde

October 21, 2009

Good Morning Friends and Neighbors in the Klamath Basin,

I’m pleased to have this chance to explain the relationship between the organization I work with, Upper Klamath Water Users Association (UKWUA), and the non-profit Sustainable Northwest (SNW), which is based in Portland but works in rural natural resource communities across the West.

Many of you have seen SNW in this basin for years now, mostly in the form of James Honey. James has worked tirelessly with us to try to create a basin wide settlement of our complex natural resource issues. He has put in extra time working on agricultural stability for the off project.

Here’s a little background about our relationship:

My parents, founders of Country Natural Beef, were on the founding board of Sustainable Northwest over 15 years ago. Their goal was to help create an organization that would work with rural timber and ranching business’ stability, while at the same time grapple with the environmental issues that face theses communities. (And after watching them for the last thirty years—don’t seem to be going away.)

When I joined the SNW board after my parents, I watched SNW’s work in places like Lake County—helping to keep the mill open and develop bio-mass projects, and developing small diameter timber markets in Wallowa County.

I realized that SNW was the kind of organization that could offer some help to our bitterly divided Klamath Basin community.

When SNW began working in the basin I resigned from their board of directors. They worked with our family on our ranch in Beatty, to look at ways to both make necessary changes on the river to deal with fish issues, while at the same time continuing to ranch, and not turn the land into ranchettes or some sort of wilderness preserves. It was a time in the Sprague River valley when the US Fish and Wildlife Service was promoting the Wetland Reserve Program, a program which had taken good grazing land out of production forever. Our unique easement supports both ranching and conservation needs. It is not for everyone—and we know that.

In the meantime (and without the assistance of Sustainable Northwest) my husband’s family on the Upper Williamson settled our complex water adjudication issues with the Klamath Tribes. Our family is proud of this settlement, and the end of a divisiveness that has been around for a long time.

After our ranch work and the water settlement with the Klamath Tribes, I felt that there were opportunities to come to agreements among our communities that would keep ranching and farming strong, while settling fisheries disputes, and ending divides with the tribal community. I volunteered significant time with Sustainable Northwest to advance conversation between tribal and agricultural leaders that, in part, led to the current settlement effort.

By 2006 it became clear that promoting a settlement would require very heavy time investment, and also that my family could not afford full-time volunteer work. I entered into a contract with Sustainable Northwest to develop solutions to Basin and off project issues that would protect the agricultural community while also meeting ecological needs. The contract has provided some financial support that I use
mostly to cover the childcare associated with constant meetings, and also the cost of travel. I am grateful to SNW for the opportunity.

I am not under SNW’s “direction” like an employee would be. We agree there are some solutions that make sense for area ranchers, and they make it possible for me to work on those. If we came to a place where I did not agree with their direction, we would split ways. Ranching has always been a part of my life—and family going back to the 1840’s in this state, and assuring a future for ranching and farming in the Klamath and in the West is important to me.

Sustainable Northwest works closely with our new non-profit, Upper Klamath Water Users Association, which was formed to bring solutions for water, power, regulatory assurances, and an end to bitter and expensive litigation to off project irrigators. They have helped us with technical capacity to address our issues—primarily with legal counsel (our attorney Greg Corbin, of Stoel Rives).

SNW provides assistance in funding the work of Greg Corbin on water rights and other settlement related issues. Upper Klamath Water Users believe that the approach taken to settle these issues over the last many years—has yielded no good solutions. The board of UKWUA makes decisions about how Greg Corbin represents our settlement issues.

Those funds have either been paid to Stoel through me (when the attorney-client relationships was with me exclusively), or directly to Stoel now that they represent UKWUA as an organization. Greg Corbin’s contributions have been critical: he brings a clear understanding of the legal consequences of continuing to fight over water in this place. He recently joined the board of SNW, but does not vote on matters in relation to Klamath. The board of Upper Klamath Water Users has been aware of these arrangements from the start, as have many community leaders.

I’m proud to work with Sustainable Northwest. This work is already bringing dollars and solutions to the community—instead of passing the tin can to spend money on litigation and fighting that I believe has no track record of success in the off project. Years of not getting along—with any other community in this basin—is not a result. Other communities in this basin have moved on—and found solutions. The off project has shown that it is capable of that as well. We are confident about the work being done to achieve settlement and security for the off projects irrigators. We also believe that individual ranchers and farmers at the end of the day choose for themselves what they want to participate in or not. This is one of the freedoms of the off project.

I will continue to work with good partners to help assure stability for agriculture where I live. Please feel free to talk to me any time about the people we partner with.

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