In the middle of the hot, tense summer of 2001, angry Klamath Basin farmers broke open an irrigation canal headgate that regulators had locked shut to protect endangered fish. After images of the protests made national news, Interior Secretary Gale Norton flew out to Oregon and ordered the release of more water.
"We hope that this will be viewed by everyone as taking care of the situation," she said during a stop in Portland.
Her action eased tensions, of course, but did nothing in the way of "taking care of the situation." It simply thrust the Klamath crisis downriver, where low water, warm temperatures and disease resulted in a massive fish kill in 2002.
Flash forward to today. As predicted, the die-off has had disastrous impact on Klamath River salmon runs. And now it's commercial fishermen and their coastal communities feeling the pain.
It's too bad they don't have something like an irrigation headgate they could smash open to get themselves on CBS Evening News. Instead, to protest imminent federal closure of commercial salmon fishing off much of the West Coast, they've got Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., threatening to dump dead fish at federal offices in Seattle.
Somehow, we can't picture that arousing national sympathy the way the farmers managed to do it. There's far more hope for the beleaguered fishing industry in developments that occurred this week in Salem and Oakland, Calif.
In the Oregon capital, Gov. Ted Kulongoski pulled together an "emergency summit" Tuesday to mobilize state and federal agencies to provide relief for fishermen and their communities. He vowed to press U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who will soon replace Norton as interior secretary, to come to Oregon to discuss, among other things, how federal management decisions in the Klamath Basin affect salmon harvests off the West Coast.
Kulongoski also ordered his staff to report by April 14 on steps the state can take in response to the economic hardship heading for Oregon's commercial fleet and coastal towns. This was appropriate, much-needed leadership, but the more far-reaching development was Monday's related ruling by a federal judge in Oakland.
U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong told the federal government it must act immediately, instead of waiting five more years, to institute a Klamath River management plan. This is a major legal victory for fishing industry groups and bad news, at least on its face, for Klamath farmers. It means they could be deprived of irrigation if water levels plunge low enough to threaten coho salmon survival.
Farmers probably wouldn't agree, but the court order -- seen by many as a legal inevitability -- couldn't have come at a more favorable time. As this newspaper reported on Tuesday's front page, Oregon's snowpack is enormous this year. So is California's. The Klamath Basin appears likely to have enough water this summer for both farms and fish.
What better year for a calm, reasoned discussion? Resolving competing needs once and for all in the drought-stricken basin will be extremely difficult, but as Monday's ruling makes clear, it's a job that must begin now.
The survival of Klamath River salmon -- not to mention an entire industry that depends on them -- can't wait.