Leonard Masten: Klamath plan damages fish and tribal rights

Friday, November 30, 2012  

"The Hoopa Valley Tribe wants to clear up misrepresentation of our position on the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. Hoopa's concerns with the KBRA are that it compromises tribal water rights and flows for salmon. Both are needed to keep salmon alive.

This year the Klamath had the best run of salmon in recent memory. This should have been good news; however, the Klamath Bureau of Reclamation gave full water allocations to farmers and released no extra water for salmon. This created a crisis in both Klamath Lake and in the river.

Hoopa leveraged tribal rights to secure flows beyond what was mandated in the Trinity Record of Decision to provide water for Klamath salmon. Unlike the KBRA, the Trinity ROD was a scientific process that upheld tribal rights and secured flows for salmon. This ROD allowed tribal and government scientists to obtain emergency flows to aid the Klamath."

Get the Story:
Leonard Masten: KBRA damages fish, tribal rights (The Eureka Times-Standard 11/30)

Hayley Hutt: Water bill terminates Hoopa Valley Tribe's rights (11/14)