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Jamie Holt, lead fisheries technician for the Yurok Tribe, maneuvers a boat near a fish trap in the lower Klamath River on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Weitchpec, Calif. A historic drought and low water levels are threatening the existence of fish species along the 257-mile long river. When I first started this job 23 years ago, extinction was never a part of the conversation, she said of the salmon. If we have another year like we re seeing now, extinction is what we re talking about.
Nathan Howard
Toxic algae are seen in a sample of Upper Klamath Lake water on Thursday, June 10, 2021, near Klamath Falls, Ore. Toxic algae blooming in the lake threatens the vital habitat for the endangered suckerfish.
Nobody s winning as drought upends life in US West basin
GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press
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1of45Jamie Holt, lead fisheries technician for the Yurok Tribe, maneuvers a boat near a fish trap in the lower Klamath River on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Weitchpec, Calif. A historic drought and low water levels are threatening the existence of fish species along the 257-mile long river. When I first started this job 23 years ago, extinction was never a part of the conversation, she said of the salmon. If we have another year like we re seeing now, extinction is what we re talking about. Nathan Howard/APShow MoreShow Less
TULE LAKE, Calif.
Ben DuVal knelt in a barren field near the California-Oregon border and scooped up a handful of parched soil as dust devils whirled around him and birds flitted between empty irrigation pipes.
DuVal’s family has farmed this land for three generations, and this summer, for the first time, he and hundreds of others who rely on a federally managed lake to quench their fields aren’t getting any water from it at all.
As the farmland goes fallow, Native American tribes along the 257-mile-long (407-kilometer) river that flows from the lake to the Pacific watch helplessly as fish that are inextricable from their culture hover closer to extinction.
Ben DuVal stands in a field of triticale, one of the few crops his family was able to plant this year due to the water shortage, on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in Tulelake, Calif. DuVal s family has farmed the land near the California-Oregon border for three generations, and this summer for the first time ever, he and hundreds of others who rely on irrigation from a depleted, federally managed lake aren t getting any water from it at all. Competition over the water in the Klamath Basin has always been intense, but this summer, because of a historic drought there is not enough water for the needs of farmers, Native American tribes and wildlife refuges.
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