Klamath Courier: County discusses water, dams, birds

KLAMATH FALLS - The Klamath County Commissioners Natural Resource
Advisory Council met Thursday evening with 11 members present. Dick
Nichols, Manager of the Bend Office of the Department of
Environmental Quality and Lee Sukraw, a basin farmer addressed the
council.

Nichols gave the group updates on the Lost River and Klamath River
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies, and explained that TMDLs
are a big part of how the Federal Clean Water Act works.

Nichols stated that his office must have a relationship with
California concerning both rivers as they cross state boundaries.

"The idea of TMDLs is to protect the beneficial uses of the water,"
Nichols said. "Fish and drinking water drive the act, and require
the highest standards."

There are three ways for nutrients to enter a waterway, points
source, non point source and naturally. The loading capacity of the
water, which is defined by law, is a mixture of all three sources.

"The capacity is never constant. Nichols told the group, It changes
by temperature, season, and other factors," Nichols told the group.
"By nature, it is also hard to differentiate non point source and
natural sources of nutrients."

The DEQ hopes to reduce Lost River nutrients by about 50 percent of
nitrogen and 50 percent of organic material after determining the
responsible sources.

Dr. Ken Rykbost asked Nichols whether the DEQ considers the Klamath
Straights Drain a point source.

Speaking of river water temperatures, Nichols told the group, "The
temperature of upper Klamath River is the temperature of Upper
Klamath Lake, and not even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
can do anything about that."

"If dams are removed and salmon are reintroduced, will the standards
change?" Craig Ditman asked.

"You write the standards to protect the beneficial fish," Nichols
replied, "so yes, the standards could change."

Lee Sukraw, a basin alfalfa grower, spoke to the group about the
growing problem of damage from geese to crops early in the season,
particularly new seeding alfalfa and winter grains.

Over time, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife has planted natural seedings of
grasses on the wildlife refuges, replacing grains and alfalfa. Part
of the problem is that the geese prefer the new seeding alfalfa and
winter grains over the natural grasses, resulting in flocks of birds
spending less time in the refuge and more time in farmer's fields.

The USF&W February waterfowl survey shows a total of 1,831,020 ducks
and geese in the basin, with only 1,177,510 actually on the refuges.
There were 143,721 Ross/Snow geese and 145,700 white fronted geese,
for a total of 289,421 geese off the refuges during the survey.

According to Sukraw, using a calculation of the metabolic weight of
the birds, geese consume feed equivalent to 5,644 one thousand pound
cows per day. At 60 cents per day (cattle feed prices), that's
$3,386 dollars of feed per day, or getting close to a quarter of a
million dollars per year during the birds' annual visit here.

But there's more. Sukraw told the group the figures do not take into account:

1. The long term damage to the plant that is eaten off at the ground
level or pulled up entirely'

2. The diseases that are spread by the birds, to and between private
lands and livestock in the area;

3. The weed seeds that are carried to and between fields by the birds;

4. In sandy soils, the birds eat the foliage and the wind causes an
erosion problem, especially in winter grains;

5. Last, and probably most overlooked, is the waterfowl manure that
is deposited in the water and on the ground. The irrigator could
then be blamed for the water quality, bacteria, nitrates and
phosphorous levels in the waters of Upper Klamath Lake, Klamath River
and the Lower Straights Drain among others.

1. Change the date of the hunting season to include February through
March 10, not increasing the total number of hunting days over the
107 treaty trust days, and making the season species specific;

2. Current National Wildlife Reserve (NWR) approximate acreages are:
Lower Klamath NWR 44,300, Tulelake NWR 39,100 and Miller Island 2,500
acres. Plant or share-crop some of the existing NWR ground to crops
that the spring migrating waterfowl like and will eat;

3. In the past, the NWR had 800 acres planted in grass and purchased
2,800 acres of pasture grass from adjoining private land owners.

They currently choose to manage the areas as weeds instead of pasture
grass for spring migrating birds.

A future meeting is planned with officials from agencies affected by
and affecting the geese problem.