Environment | Opinion

Hoopa Chairman: Fish key to Klamath River

Monday, February 11, 2008

"As chairman of the Hoopa Valley Reservation, which has the Klamath and Trinity rivers running through it, I want to clarify my tribe's position regarding the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.

The Bee's editorial noted disparate parties have finally agreed to "quell decades of bitter dispute" about the removal of four aging hydropower dams blocking 350 miles of Klamath River fish habitat. The editorial criticized the Hoopa tribe for not endorsing the agreement because we want "guaranteed flows in the Klamath."

After more than two years of negotiating with other tribes, farmers, government agencies, fishermen and environmentalists, the Hoopa Valley Tribe cannot accept the draft agreement because it does nothing to remove dams from the Klamath River. And it uses the dam-removal dialogue and politicized science to support more water for Oregon irrigators at the expense of the fish.

Without water guarantees, the agreement will set the stage for another 68,000-fish kill like the Klamath disaster in 2002, after the Bush administration used politicized science to bend environmental policy.

Water rights are upside down in the agreement. The agreement guarantees water for Bureau of Reclamation project irrigators and refuge users, while Hoopa and Yurok senior fishing rights, dating back to 1855 and 1864, are not guaranteed.

The agreement puts all the drought-year risks on the fish."

Get the Story:
Clifford Lyle Marshall: Fish are key to deal on Klamath (The Sacramento Bee 2/10)
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Relevant Links:
Hoopa Valley Tribe - http://www.hoopa-nsn.gov
Karuk Tribe - http://karuk.us
Klamath Tribes - http://www.klamathtribes.org
PacifiCorp - http://www.pacificorp.com