{"id":14648,"date":"2021-08-10T15:14:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T19:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=14648"},"modified":"2021-09-08T11:03:56","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T15:03:56","slug":"underscore-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/08\/10\/underscore-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Underscore.news: Tribes along Klamath River face another water ‘catastrophe’"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Klamath<\/a>
Juvenile salmon after a die off in the Klamath River earlier this year near Weichpec, Calif. Stormy Staats \/ Klamath Salmon Media Collaborative<\/figcaption>\r\n
Who has a right to the Klamath River?<\/div>\r\n
The Klamath River flows through two states and the lands of several tribal nations. It\u2019s home to First Foods and provides irrigation. And there\u2019s not enough water to meet everyone\u2019s needs.<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, August 10, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Lucy Sherriff<\/div>\r\n
Underscore.news<\/a><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWhen Bureau of Reclamation water managers decided not to perform a surface flush of the Klamath River this year, they knew there might be an explosion of a parasite that could all but wipe out salmon populations. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nThat\u2019s exactly what happened in northern California, where the Yurok Tribe<\/a> depends on fishing for income and food. Salmon are also an important part of their culture.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nOn the first Friday in June, an early summer day that would later be ingrained many Yurok citizens\u2019 memories, Barry McCovey, director of the Yurok Tribe\u2019s fisheries department, and his colleagues, fished 361 dead juvenile Chinook salmon out of a monitoring trap on the Klamath River. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nIt was by far the single highest daily count of dead young salmon since the river\u2019s catastrophic fish kill began at the beginning of May, a dieoff that will create economic shortfalls for years to come\r\n

<\/p>\r\nDuring drought years, the Bureau of Reclamation releases tens of thousands of acre feet of water from the Upper Klamath Lake. The surface flush improves water quality and reduces parasites in the Klamath River. This year, amidst calls by water users upstream to cancel the surface flush, they didn\u2019t.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nSince May, more than 70% of the juvenile salmon population in California\u2019s second-largest river has been found dead.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\"Jamie<\/a>

Jamie Holt, Yurok Tribe Fisheries biologist, counts and documents dead fish during this year\u2019s salmon die off in the Klamath River. Photo: Stormy Staats \/ Klamath Salmon Media Collaborative<\/figcaption>\r\nThe Klamath River flows 257 miles from its headwaters in Oregon to empty into the Pacific Ocean on California\u2019s coast. The river provides a vital First Food source for the Yurok Tribe. Thousands of Klamath River Chinook salmon, a central part of both the culture and the economy of the Tribe, return to breed. The Tribe fishes around 11,000 salmon from the river annually, essential nutrition for a community whose average income is around $14,000. \r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cOur very existence depends on this healthy river,\u201d McCovey said. \u201cWe\u2019re not getting our food. Salmon is one of the most healthy protein sources on the planet. And we need it because what\u2019s the alternative? People are struggling on the reservation. There\u2019s not a lot of jobs, and to be able to access the one of the highest quality food sources in the world right in your backyard is incredible.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe fish that died this year would be expected to return to the river and spawn in two to four years.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cWe anticipate very low returns,\u201d McCovey said. \u201cSo this catastrophe will impact us for many years to come.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThere are no grocery stores on the Yurok Reservation. For those living on the eastern edge, the nearest store is a three-hour round trip.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cWe live in a food desert here,\u201d McCovey continued, \u201cso those alternative options aren\u2019t healthy; it\u2019s a lot of carbohydrates, hamburgers, fried chicken, things that aren\u2019t good for people.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nFor the past few years, the Tribe has been devastated by low salmon stocks, leading to what its leaders have termed a crisis.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Yurok Reservation borders the Klamath River\u2019s final 44 miles. Before it gets there, the river flows over state lines and through the lands of other tribal nations. Many of those upstream also have a stake in the water.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nFarmers upstream and the Klamath Tribes in Oregon, who want the water retained to protect habitat for endangered and culturally important suckerfish species, had pressed the Bureau of Reclamation not to go through with the downstream flush.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nIt\u2019s a fraught issue that has been exacerbated by a worsening drought that shows no signs of subsiding in the coming years. There is simply not enough water in the Klamath Basin to meet everyone\u2019s needs. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nEven after canceling the flush, the Bureau of Reclamation closed an important irrigation canal, leaving 400,000 acres of farmland without water. Each year, gates are lifted to allow water to gush from the lake into a complex canal system, which irrigates farmland. A group of protesters have already set up camp by the gates, saying they are ready to take the water needed to quench the land by force if necessary.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n \"Ashley<\/a>

Yurok fisher Ashley Bowers walks with an empty net next to the Klamath River. Courtesy Photo \/ Yurok Tribe<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Proposal to Improve Habitat<\/div>\r\nSome believe the planned removal of several dams along the Klamath<\/a> could create a regular flow of water that would improve quality and reduce disease \u2014 and ease the claims on the water in the Upper Klamath Lake.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Klamath dam removal is slated to be completed by 2024 but has not yet begun. California Water Board experts believe removing the four dams will have significant benefits for wildlife, including salmon populations.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cWater that is not flushed down the river to address fish disease and poor water quality is potentially more water left in Upper Klamath Lake to be used for other purposes,\u201d explains Dave Meurer, community liaison for the Klamath River Renewal Corporation<\/a>, a nonprofit overseeing the dam removal project. \r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u2028The surface flush uses 50,000 acre-feet of water, not an insignificant percentage of the 400,000 acre-feet amount used by farmers.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cWater in the west is often a source of conflict and litigation. While KRRC does not determine who gets water, our project leads to better water quality, reduced disease, and more robust populations of fish,\u201d Meurer said of the dam removal project. \u201cWe believe that improved water quality and recovering fish species can potentially help alleviate regulatory pressure on agriculture, while degraded water quality and fewer fish tends to increase regulatory burdens on farmers and ranchers.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nFarmers, however, are worried dam removal could come with stringent regulations further limiting their water rights. There is a fear the irrigators in the Klamath Project, the Bureau of Reclamation\u2019s name for its regional farming program, could be required to take on costs of operation and maintenance of the two dams not being removed that are currently operated by PacifiCorp, says Paul Simmons, executive director, Klamath Water Users Association<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe very outcome Yurok Tribe resource managers are hoping for, improved habitat for salmon, could have a negative outcome for farmers, Simmons said. If salmon move into areas along the California-Oregon state line, where farmers divert water, \u201cthere is a risk of new regulatory burdens,\u201d he said.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWater in the region has been mismanaged for decades, say farmers and tribal nations alike. But the irrigators are relying on water to which two tribal nations have a longstanding claim. Since the 1970s, courts have directed the federal government to prioritize the rights of tribal nations and endangered species.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nIn 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Yurok Tribe\u2019s treaty rights to fish, a ruling that was compounded by a landmark court ruling in 1974, which asserted tribes\u2019 right to co-manage their fisheries and reaffirmed their treaty rights to harvest fish. The ruling followed a spate of arrests of Indigenous fishermen for violating state regulations that didn\u2019t apply to tribal nations.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nIn 2021, yet another decision, this time by an Oregon court, affirmed the Klamath Tribes\u2019 water rights. That ruling upheld an 1864 treaty between the Klamath Tribes and the U.S. that pledged to keep sufficient water in the Tribes\u2019 fisheries and other aquatic resources to protect Indigenous cultural traditions and natural resources. The Klamath County Circuit Court judge issued an order asserting the Klamath Tribes\u2019 \u201csenior\u201d water rights<\/a>, which extend to Upper Klamath Lake. Irrigators contested the ruling<\/a>, and the case is still rumbling on in court.\r\n

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