A Few Quick Klamath River Stories Hit the Wires

First, Good News.

The Fall Chinook run on the Klamath has recovered nicely from last year’s disastrous levels.

This was likely due to a lot of factors, but the tight (and economically damaging) restrictions on commercial fishing couldn’t have hurt.

From the Ft. Bragg Advocate-News:

“What this means is that local recreational fishermen will have a full season, which began in February and will run through Nov. 11, with no closures in the best fishing months of the summertime,” said Jim Martin, West Coast regional director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.

“Commercial fishermen along the coast will have a much better season this year but limited fishing opportunities off Fort Bragg due to continuing concerns about Klamath fall chinook runs,” Martin said.

Another quote runs down the numbers:

Thanks in part to fishing cutbacks, as many as 65,000 chinook returned to the Klamath River during the fall run, nearly double the minimum required by state and federal fisheries regulators who monitor the declining population, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The commercial fishing cuts helped; about 30,400 natural spawners returned to the Klamath River last fall, well above the 21,000 predicted initially — which is what triggered the drastic season cuts. This year, 65,300 spawners are predicted.

It’s likely commercial fishing regulations will be eased, though now the extremely low return rates on Sacramento River salmon are causing a lot of concern.

The anadramous fishies just can’t seem to catch a break.

Second, Legal News.

Klamath Basin Irrigator claims against water non-deliveries were disallowed by the US Court of Federal Claims.

This means irrigators can’t sue for breach of contract when water deliveries are denied for species protection reasons.

The irrigators also alleged that non deliveries constituted a “taking” of their property, a relatively extreme stance that was rejected by the courts in 2005.

Finally, Opinion.

The Battle for the Klamath is still in progress, but it’s not as if the cause of the problem remains unclear. The Feds overpromised water to the Klamath Basin irrigators, who are now feeling the pinch caused by endangered salmon stocks.

Then, of course, there are the four Klamath dams (cutting off access to 300+ miles of prime salmon spawning habitat) which return very little power to the area but have helped lay waste to what was once was the third most productive salmon river on the West Coast.

One government study (suppressed by the Feds) suggests leaving water in the river returns an economic benefit to the area 30 times higher than using that same water for irrigation.

The irrigation gig is messy, but I wonder if the Feds won’t buy back some of the irrigator’s water rights (it’s not good farmland–many irrigators grow potatoes) and force PacifiCorp to take out its dams.

The benefits to the area (I live here) would multiply far beyond a few root vegetables and limited power generation.

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