CONVOYS TO KLAMATH FALLS ADD TO
THE
PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION.
Klamath Tribes urge focus on matching water supplies
to water needs, restoration
of watersheds.
Chiloquin, Oregon - August 14,
2001
Convoys coming to Klamath Falls to protest against the Endangered Species
Act (ESA) are not really going to help farmers in the Klamath Basin. Even
if the ESA did not exist, there would still be a water crisis in the Basin.
The real problem is the federal government promised people more water than
the rivers and lakes can supply, while at the same time encouraging so much
habitat loss and pollution in the forests, streams and marshes that the watershed
itself has been damaged.
Convoys, sponsored by the Blue Ribbon Coalition, the Shovel Brigade and Idaho anti-government leaders, are now headed to the Klamath Basin. These convoys are misguided when they try to link their anti-ESA message with the Klamath crisis. "We respectfully ask the convoys to turn around and go home." says Allen Foreman, Tribal Chairman for the Klamath tribes. " Their message will actually hurt farmers and ranchers in the basin, by raising false hopes and discouraging people from coming together to focus on the search for workable answers. The problem in the Klamath Basin is real. Fisheries, guaranteed to our people by treaty, have been made meaningless because the fish have been brought to the brink of extinction. The government gave away water it did not own, then ruined the riparian area and marshes throughout the basin that sustained our fisheries. This years drought has farmers suffering too. But harvesting fish is our heritage and our legal right. The fish are as much a crop as potatoes are to the farmers."
"The solution to the Klamath crisis must be comprehensive and long term. To be successful the solution should include:
- Stabilizing the agricultural water supply at sustainable levels.
- Restoring damaged floodplains, wetlands, riparian habitats, and marshes throughout the basin to improve water quality and to increase the basin's storage capacity.
- Providing substantial transition payments to landowners who choose to sell their lands, and
- Assuring that forests damaged by the federal government are healed by returning portions of the Klamath Tribes' former Reservation Lands to Tribal ownership.
The Basin will not regain it's health by treating the symptoms while avoiding the causes of our water shortage. We want what is best for all Klamath Basin residents: a healthy ecosystem with stable and prosperous economies for all."