THE KLAMATH TRIBAL
COUNCIL
P.O. Box 436
Chiloquin, OR 97624
1-800-524-9789 or (541) 783-2219
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
June 6, 2002 Allen Foreman, Tribal Chairman, 541-783-2219
Doug Barber, The Ulum Group, 541-434-7023
Klamath Biological Opinion does not restore Tribes' fishery.
Chiloquin, Ore. - The new Biological Opinion for the Klamath Basin shows that the Bureau of Reclamation's management plan for the Klamath Project does not even attempt to restore the Klamath Tribes' treaty-protected fishery. At best, the Reclamation plan might keep the Lost River and shortnose suckers on the edge of extinction. The Interior Secretary's trust responsibility to the Klamath Tribes requires better performance by every agency in the Department, including the Bureau of Reclamation.
"When many of our Tribal members were children, we helped our parents and grandparents harvest up to 50 tons a year of these delicious fish," says , Klamath Tribes' chairman. "Local farmers joined in the harvest, calling the fish 'mullet,' and saying they were even more tasty than salmon. Now that fishery has been destroyed by a combination of agricultural pollution and the draining of Upper Klamath Lake to unnaturally low levels."
"The Secretary of Interior
has pledged to restore the fishery, so all our children and grandchildren
can grow up to share in the harvests again. But how can the Secretary follow
through on that pledge if the Bureau of Reclamation is showing contempt for
our efforts, and those of U.S. Fish and Wildlife, to protect the fish?"