Some time ago, NOAA Fisheries
issued a “reasonable and prudent alternative” (RPA) to the Bureau of Reclamation’s
(BOR) proposed operation of the Klamath Project. NOAA recognized that achieving target Klamath
River flows would require more contributions to flow than could be provided by the BOR
alone. As a result, the Incidental Take Permit for the Klamath Project required
Reclamation to do the following in the Scott and Shasta Rivers: (1) Study the feasibility
of developing groundwater to replace surface water use; (2) Fund flow studies to assist in
the development of minimum instream flows; and (3) Work with the State and
non-governmental organizations to develop management plans to coordinate irrigation
diversion to minimize reductions of flows.
It was decided that a “basin-wide approach” to management
planning for the recovery of salmon and ecosystems in the Klamath/Trinity system should be
taken. As a result, the Conservation Implementation Program (CIP) was born. http://www.usbr.gov/mp/kbao/
When the concept was presented to the Siskiyou County Board of
Supervisors in August of 2003, it was not supported. Besides questions of federal
jurisdiction and authority on private lands in the Scott and Shasta Valleys, the CIP
proposed a top-down planning and decision-making structure of federal, state and tribal
entities that was exclusionary and unacceptable. It ignored County planning authority, the
work of the Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs,) watershed councils and the Shasta and
Scott Coho Recovery Team (SSRT.)
The CIP was subsequently re-drafted and presented in the fall of
2004. Although the new version broaden opportunities for participation through committees,
it concentrated decision-making authority with the tribes, federal and State agencies and
selected special interest groups. It, too, was unsatisfactory.
In early October of this year, the Governors of California and Oregon,
U.S. Departments of Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and the Environmental; Protection
Agency signed the Klamath River Watershed Coordination Agreement. They agreed to: (1) Form
a Federal Klamath Basin Coordination Group (FKBCG;) (2) Work to resolve water quantity,
water quality, fish, wildlife and endangered species problems; and (3) Develop and
implement the CIP as a vehicle for integrated planning and a long term management
approach. With this agreement, the CIP seems inevitable.
In response to all of these developments, a coalition of groups,
individuals and County Supervisors/Commissioners met to come to agreement upon a set of
principles to guide some sort of acceptable development of the CIP. They included:
1.
Use a “bottom-up”
approach to developing plans and recovery strategies;
2.
Recognize the value of incentives to private
landowners, respect and protect private property rights and the privacy of individual
landowners;
3.
Provide for periodic, independent and
objective scientific review;
4.
Encourage the aggressive pursuit of adaptive
management principles by resource managers;
5.
Provide for maximizing the efficiency of
dollars spent on the ground;
6.
Make sure that plans and actions will respect
local planning authorities;
7.
Provide assurances that federal agencies will
not attempt to extend their reach beyond the scope of their lawful jurisdiction and
authority;
8.
Indemnify voluntarily landowner participants
from adverse regulatory consequences as the result of their participation; and
9.
Support water storage projects.
Recently, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors joined individuals
and organizations in sending a comment letter to the BoR about the latest CIP proposal
which supported these guiding principles. |
