[env-trinity] Times Standard Guest Opinion- Restoration pact offers Klama...

[FISH1IFR at aol.com]

Colleagues...
 
Mr. Bergren is, of course, correct.  The very best way to avoid  massive 
bird deaths in the future is to provide a guaranteed minimum water  supply, 
which those two refuges do not now have.  At present they  are the most junior 
water right holder, which makes that right more or  less meaningless since 
they are at the tail end of a long legal and physical  pipeline, and are 
frequently shorted of water or dried out all together, causing  massive bird 
losses by loss of wetlands habitat and overcrowding.
 
Among many other environmental benefits, the Klamath Settlement Agreement's 
 Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) would benefit these two 
National  Wildlife Refuges by moving the refuges from what is currently the most 
junior  water right to the same senior legal position as the Klamath 
Irrigation  Project itself, finally make "wildlife and refuge" needs a co-equal legal 
 purpose for which the Klamath Irrigation Project must be managed (now it 
is  only for irrigation), and guarantee at least 48,000 acre-feet of water  
for the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges even in very 
dry  years, moving up to at least 60,000 acre-feet as rainfall increases (see 
KBRA  Sec. 15.1.2).  This is a lot more than the refuges frequently got in 
past  years, or can expect in many future years under the current status  quo.
 
There are also several other major environmental benefits to the Refuges  
from the KBRA of a more indirect nature, but nonetheless of great benefit  to 
its wildlife.
 
But don't take my word for it..... Attached is a 2010 Memo  from Refuge 
Manger Ron Cole summarizing the many benefits to the Tule Lake and  Lower 
Klamath National Wildlife Refuges from the KBRA.   These  are benefits negotiated 
by USFWS refuge managers themselves, and why they  strongly support the 
Klamath Settlement Agreement as a whole as good for those  national wildlife 
refuges and their wildlife.
 
 
======================================
Glen H. Spain, Northwest  Regional Director
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations  (PCFFA)
PO Box 11170, Eugene, OR 97440-3370
Office: (541)689-2000 Fax:  (541)689-2500
Web Home Page: _www.pcffa.org_ (http://www.pcffa.org/) 
Email:  fish1ifr at aol.com

 
==========================================================
 
 
In a message dated 4/12/2012 12:18:24 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
tstokely at att.net writes:

 
     
_http://www.times-standard.com/guest_opinion/ci_20379287/restoration-pact-of
fers-klamath-basin-hope_ 
(http://www.times-standard.com/guest_opinion/ci_20379287/restoration-pact-offers-klamath-basin-hope)  
 
Restoration pact offers  Klamath Basin hope
Erik Bergren/For the  Times-Standard Eureka Times Standard
Posted:
_Times-Standard.com_ (http://times-standard.com/) 

Over 10,000  waterfowl have died in the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake 
National Wildlife  Refuges in the last couple of weeks due to an avian cholera 
outbreak  exacerbated by low water conditions. This is one of the largest  
drought-related die-offs the refuges have seen in their 100-year  history.  
During years of low precipitation, water  allocations in the Klamath Basin 
are stretched. The refuges are dependent on  water deliveries from the 
Bureau of Reclamation's Klamath Project and it can  be difficult to balance water 
needs among fisheries, wildlife refuges, tribes  and irrigators. 
While not a perfect solution,  implementation of the Klamath Basin 
Restoration Agreement would help Klamath  basin wildlife refuges by allowing refuge 
managers flexibility in allocating a  set amount of water to support spring 
and fall waterfowl migrations. Refuges  would be on equal footing with 
irrigation deliveries for the first time. 
The agreement  represents local, community derived solutions to the Klamath 
Basin's water  needs. If the agreement had been implemented, the magnitude 
of disease  outbreak on the refuges would have been lessened because more 
flooded habitat  would have been present. Currently, it is the only viable 
option to ensuring  more reliable water deliveries to the refuge over the long 
term. 
With the struggle to balance water between  farms and fish, the refuges are 
often overlooked. Of all the wetlands within  the Pacific Flyway, no area 
provides more important staging habitats, both in  the fall and spring, for 
migratory waterfowl than the marshes and lakes of the  Klamath Basin. This 
spring, the refuge has been one of the driest on record.  According to refuge 
managers, only 50 percent of the wetlands on the refuge  contain water. That 
is 15,000 acres of wetlands flooded out of about 31,000  acres on the Lower 
Klamath refuge. 
Legislation authorizing the Klamath Basin  Restoration Agreement is now 
before Congress and is an example of a locally  developed plan that would solve 
many of the water-balancing issues that these  communities face after dry 
winters like the one we just experienced. It is  time for Congress to act. 
Erik Bergren is a communications  administrator with California Waterfowl. 
Find more information online at _www.calwaterfowl.org_ 
(http://www.calwaterfowl.org/) .

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