[env-trinity] Recent news clips of interest, mostly Klamath Dams

[Tom Stokely]

Below are some recent news clips of interest.  I have also included a very interesting letter to the Editor from yesterday's Trinity Journal from a Mr. Frank Galusha.  I'm sure that there will be plenty of responses to it!

Tom Stokely
Water Policy Analyst/Media Contact
California Water Impact Network
V/FAX 530-926-9727
Cell 530-524-0315
tstokely at att.net
http://www.c-win.org

CalTrout's Curtis Knight's op-ed for the Klamath Settlement Agreements -
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x1461799589/Guest-opinion-Klamath-agreement-implications-are-big-for-Siskiyou-County

Siskiyou Supes ask McClintock for legislation stopping Klamath dam removal -
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/news/x1742683788/Board-votes-to-send-dam-letter

allegation that Klamath dam removal threatens Yreka's water supply -
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/news/x1581993850/Report-Dam-removal-could-jeopardize-Yreka-s-water-supply

Siskiyou County to stay in 5 county salmon conservation program -
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/news/x1611322363/-Five-Counties-Supervisors-decide-to-stay-part-of-salmonid-conservation-program

Humboldt Supes get a Klamath dam removal update -
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_19044359

dueling studies on the Scott River -
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/news/x1461794032/Karuk-Tribe-North-Coast-Regional-Water-Quality-Control-Board-conduct-parallel-studies

Before leaving Judge Wanger rejects the lawsuit seeking to shut down commercial salmon fishing -
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/09/commercial-salmon-fishing-pacific-coast.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

WaterWatch of Oregon's view of the Klamath Restoration Agreement -
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/02/3951717/klamath-pact-doesnt-protect-the.html

comments on Klamath dam removal EIR/EIS -
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/news/x1214498537/Dam-reports-Public-weighs-in

Fox "News" on Klamath Dam removal -
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/24/study-shows-klamath-dam-removal-will-help-farmers-fish-but-skepticism-remains/

Sac Bee editorializes for Klamath dam removal -
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/26/3938083/klamath-deal-needs-a-boost-from.html



http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/2011-10-12/Opinion/Dam_removal_junkies_are_ecoterrorists.html 

Dam removal junkies are eco-terrorists

From Frank Galusha | Shingletown
Despite current reports to the contrary, removing the Klamath dams is not going to help the salmon, particularly our fall run chinook. What you have been hearing and reading is nothing more than a pack of lies from eco-terrorists.
There is no scientific evidence dam removal will help salmon or even steelhead. Anyone who claims otherwise, including our Secretary of the Interior, Kenneth Salazar, our various resource agencies, some tribal reps and environmental extremists, are telling a big lie. They have been repeating it over and over for decades in the fashion of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propagandist. This propaganda has turned the truth on its head. Most other media and reporters have bought into this hoax and give it credence but it is still a lie.
The Klamath gets more water now. Prior to the building of the dams there was less water in the Klamath River than there is today. This fact was reported by early explorers, verified by early settlers and is understandable. In late summer and early fall in most years the Upper Klamath was a putrid, algae-ridden green-pea soup. This was so because this volcanic region was (and still is) heavily laden with phosphorous, which is what green algae needs to exist. Most fall run chinook, which have always been our cash-cow-salmon crop, had spawned and died before they reached Oregon, which contributed to the upper river’s unhealthy late summer condition. Look at those salmon that arrive at Iron Gate Dam today. Are they not are dark, dead meat unfit for human consumption?
Lots of water never reached the sea. Prior to reclamation, which began in the early 1900s, much of the water from the Upper Klamath Basin flowed into Tule Lake and Lower Klamath Lake. These were sinks. The water either evaporated or percolated into the soil. It never reached the sea. That’s why the area is called a basin. Those lakes were so huge and so deep they accommodated commercial traffic, especially ferry boats which ran from points in California to Klamath Falls and Malin, Ore.
This is why the Klamath ran dry many years in the fall. It didn’t get the water that went to these lakes. Coupled with natural barriers below Keno, this is also why the fall chinook did not make it much further than they do today because even then the Klamath was upside down. This is a key point! Most rivers are cold at the top and hot at the bottom. The Klamath is hot at the top and colder at its mouth. This is because it was (and still is) cooled by its cold Trinity Alps tributaries in California and the snow-melt fed Trinity River.
Of course, there were more salmon before the dams were built. There was also no commercial fishing, no gill netting or recreational fishing, and the river’s main-stem habitat was relatively unspoiled, which was more than enough to maintain the high population levels.
It’s also interesting to note the Klamath Tribe of Oregon did not eat or revere salmon. They ate suckerfish because suckerfish were plentiful in the warm water of the Upper Klamath Basin. Conversely, at the river’s colder mouth and near the confluence with the Trinity, and along the Trinity, the tribes ate ocean-fresh salmon, smoked them and probably traded them to tribes further up the river.
Dam removal won’t increase habitat for chinook! The resource agencies are lying when they tell you taking out the dams will open up hundreds of miles of new and former habitat for salmon. They have no clear proof the salmon, particularly fall-run Chinook, ever made it up into those Oregon rivers. What’s more, if the dams are removed it’s likely few if any salmon would be able to traverse the now even-warmer, almost swamp-like upper portions of Upper Klamath Lake. And there are (and were) natural barriers as well as noted above — barriers so high the salmon of prior years could not have leapt over them. The junkies are trying to do impossible. This is the largest dam removal project that’s ever been considered. It is simply a gamble, an experiment that could fail and cost billions in lost agriculture, property rights and the fishery it’s supposed to save.
Farming is not the cause of salmon declines. The dam removal junkies are also lying to you when they blame the farmers for taking all the Upper Klamath Basin water for irrigation and polluting what’s left with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers and then putting it back into the river. That is not happening. It is the natural phosphorous in the region that causes the lakes behind the dams to become algae laden. The truth is the water coming out of Iron Gate Dam is cleaner than the water that enters the reservoir. While the green algae water is ugly and uninviting to swimmers, lakes such as Copco and Iron Gate are actually healthy. Many species of fish thrive in these lakes, including yellow perch, crappie and bass, and they are great eating. Fish can’t survive, let alone flourish, in unhealthy water.
These environmental nuts want to “re-wild” this entire region. Going back to the wild means destroying civilization, which is exactly what terrorists do. Dams are monuments to what man has done to conquer nature. Destroying them is eco-terrorism!
 

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