Published May 13, 2021 at 10:02 AM PDT
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The word crisis can certainly be overused especially on cable TV news but its use is warranted in discussing water in the Klamath Basin this year.
The area around Upper Klamath Lake, headwaters for the river system, got very little snowpack or rain over the winter. So there s almost no water for irrigators, and precious little for the survival of fish species in the lake, and downstream in the Klamath River.
The
Klamath Tribes hold the senior water right in the Upper Basin, and the
Yurok Tribe on the Lower Klamath is working to avoid a major fish kill this year. Klamath Chairman Don Gentry and Yurok Vice Chairman Frankie Myers talk to us about the limited options, none of them seemingly much good.
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Despite the frigid conditions during much of the winter, large bodies of water such as Upper Klamath Lake often remain unfrozen, and large flocks of ducks help prevent some of the smaller ponds from freezing over as they paddle about.
David Menke, staff member at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Klamath Refuge headquarters, guided us across miles of intersecting roadways that checkerboard the Lower Klamath Refuge.
Menke suddenly stopped, brought his binoculars up and gazed across an otherwise flat, drab-brown grain field (wheat harvest had occurred months earlier) with scores of black dots with white heads on the distant horizon.
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In Oregon, the Klamath Basin wildlife refuges have fallen into their winter silence now. The huge, clamorous flocks of geese that fill the sky during migration have moved south.
This summer, a different silence gripped the basin. A dead silence.
The 90,000 acres of marshes and open water that make up the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges are a small remnant of vast wetlands that once filled this region on the Oregon-California border.
In Oregon, the Klamath Basin wildlife refuges have fallen into their winter silence now. The huge, clamorous flocks of geese that fill the sky during migration have moved south.
This summer, a different silence gripped the Basin. A dead silence. The 90,000 acres of marshes and open water that make up the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges are a small remnant of vast wetlands that once filled this region on the Oregon-California border.
With over 75% of those wetlands now converted to agriculture, the refuges are a last precious oasis for nesting waterfowl and other marsh birds. For this oasis to burst with life, it simply needs water. Sadly, nothing is simple about water in the Klamath Basin. And this summer, that led to tragedy.