2004 Klamath Watershed Conference

Building a Common Vision for the Klamath

Will Harling
 


    The fifth Klamath Watershed Conference was held in Klamath Falls, Oregon, from February 24-26, 2004. This conference, like those preceding, was designed to encourage education and dialogue between stakeholders throughout the Klamath Basin. Presentations balanced scientific and socio-economic perspectives, and stressed the need for collaboration and compromise between stakeholders that rely upon the Basin’s water. The past few years have seen Klamath water issues elevated to a national issue. It became apparent at this conference that if solutions are to be found, we must not look to Washington, but to the people that live and work and depend upon this watershed for their livelihood.

     To open, there was a pre-conference on the 24th that focused on a series of technical presentations and discussions about current projects and issues in the basin. Of note was a discussion of “The Science of Evapotranspiration”. This has become a contentious issue in the Upper Basin where wetland restoration and water storage are being considered as methods of solving the current water crisis. These projects could potentially displace agricultural lands created when the Klamath Irrigation Project drained the Lower Klamath Lake and Tule Lake in the early 1900’s for farming.

     The discussion focused on water loss in wetlands and lakes versus irrigated ag lands. The historic role that wetlands like those found in the Lower Klamath Lake and Tule Lake was poorly addressed in this discussion, replaced instead by arguments about whether wetland vegetation or ag crops transpired more water. For the Lower Klamath Basin, these wetlands were a filter that improved water quality through uptake of nitrates, and a sponge that soaked up winter and spring precipitation and delivered it slowly over the dry summer and fall months. It is a poor use of science to focus merely on evapotranspirational differences between wetlands and ag lands, taken out of the larger context both these valuable uses have in our watershed.

     The second day of the conference began with a general physical and biological overview of the basin. We then heard from Supervisors from all counties that share the watershed, including Klamath County in Oregon, and Siskiyou, Humboldt and Del Norte in California. The keynote address was given by Betsy Ann Reike, the Area Manager for the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) for the Lahontan Basin, who offered advice from a career of solving complex water resource issues throughout the west. To end the day, participants reviewed poster boards in the lobby. The underwater fish video put together by Salm Stroich from footage taken by Mid Klamath Watershed Council, Karuk DNR and Salmon River Restoration Council archives was a big hit.

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