UC Davis Panel Discussion on Impact of Salmon Losses on Karuk Tribe

Excellent speakers at today's event. Many logical points were made that support the decommissioning and removal of the dams on the Klamath River. There is very little (>1%) net energy gained from the hydroelectric dams and their blocking of salmon spawning grounds is causing a massive reduction of salmon numbers. It was demonstrated that the decreased salmon available for the Klamath river peoples traditional diet contributed to an increase in diabetes and heart disease as people replaced salmon with refined flour and sugar products. Depriving the Klamath people of their cultural and spiritual food is a form of genocide similar to the slaughter of the bison. Scottish Power (Pacificorp's parent company) shareholders at the Edinborough meeting were unaware of the crisis on the Klamath and many support the salmon recovery effort. Settlement is a likely option, yet public opinion is still needed in favor of decommissioning the dams..

Please email Scottish Power and ask them to settle and remove the Pacificorp dams on the Klamath. This act will greatly improve their reputation as a green energy corporation..

http://www.scottishpower.com/pages/


Salmon, sturgeon, lamprey and other riparian species can recover when the dams are removed and the Klamath River is restored..

As always there wasn't enough time to talk about everything connected with the Klamath Basin/River ecosystem..

Wanted to mention the importance of Tule Lake in regulating the availability of fresh water into the Klamath Rio throughout the summer. Tule Lake is now mostly overgrown from fertilizer runoff eutrophication and potatoe refuge plantation monoculture was once a thriving wetlands 5 X as large called the Everglades of the west..

Last year an article about the Klamath River Salmon festival also includes info on restoration of the Tule Lake ecosystem that once supported millions of migratory waterfowl and also edible plants like wocus lily..

This year there will be another Salmon Festival on the Klamath Delta..

"8/20-21 – Klamath Salmon Festival
It’s free to attend, but there is a fee for the BBQ. Call 707-482-1350 for more information. The Festival features traditional salmon BBQ cooked over an alder fire, pancake breakfast each morning, a downtown parade, a logging show, arts and crafts fair and much more."

above from;

http://www.campercorral.net/events.html





from portland IMC;

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/08/294843.shtml

Salmon Festival, Klamath River restoration

author: green sturgeon

Spawning salmon's survival requires the removal of Pacificorp's dams on the Klamath River. Let Scottish Power show true greeness by providing homes with solar panels instead of hydroblocking energy waste. Organic farmers with crop diversity could use less river water in the Klamath Basin than current agribusiness monoculture.

This weekend the Yurok, Hupa, Karuk tribes and their friends celebrated the 42nd annual Klamath Salmon festival near the Klamath River estuary. The Yurok tribe hosted the event and talked about salmon life cycle in the Klamath River.

Information was provided about the effects of the Pacificorp dams (Iron Gate, Copco #1 & 2) that are since pre-WW2 permanant migration barriers to the salmon's search for spawning grounds. The 2002 fish kill when over 30,000 salmon died along the Klamath after GW Bush/Norton ordered the water diversion to agribusiness also was a topic..

Salmon need the cold water of the Klamath River for survival, below 22 degrees Centigrade. Without this cold water the salmon overcrowd limited cold spots such as Blue Hole. With many salmon clustered together and warmer temps of surrounding water, less flow and lower dissolved oxygen due to diversion of water and stagnation (eutrophication) behind dams, gill rot diseases like "Ich" are easily transmitted amongst the salmon..

Both dams and lower water flow on the Klamath are proven responsible for the decreasing salmon populatiuon and fish kills. We need to look at other options so the salmon can survive and thrive once again in their Klamath River home..

Pacificorp dams only supply minimal energy needs, this unsustainable hydroblocking energy can be replaced by providing homes with solar panels and windmills. By harnessing wind and solar energy, people will become more independent from the utility giants like Pacificorp..

Agribusiness that grows monoculture crops with spray sprinklers are not the "family farmers" used by GW Bush supported commercial propaganda. Most of the high water uptake agribusiness have actually taken over many smaller family farms. Demand of high yield monoculture paved the way for agribusiness, while small time farmers were driven out of business..

The organic farm uses different heights of crops, retaining moisture and preventing the soil from drying. Per acre, more mass and variety can be grown on a biodiverse organic farm than agribusiness monoculture..

Alfalfa and potatoes are mostly grown by agribusiness in the Klamath Basin. Neither of these crops are well adapted to the naturally desert like conditions of the Klamath Basin. Other drought tolerant crops like jojoba and tepary bean (both native to hot/dry Sonoran desert) could be grown without the excessive water requirements of alfalfa and potatoe. Greenhouses may be needed in winter to protect these southern desert plants from frost..

Mt. Shasta, Medicine Lake volcanoe, Mt. Mazama and Mt. Scoott all added volcanic geomaterial to the region. The volcanic soil of the Klamath Basin percolates minerals into the headwaters of the Klamath River. The phosphate content is already higher than most rivers that originate on other mountain tops. The extra mineral content makes the Klamath closer to the point where additional fertilizer run-off from agribusiness can push the waters towards eutrophication (algae growth and death depletes oxygen) and stagnation (accumulated algae and plant mass slows water flows), suffocating the salmon and slowing their migration..

The original wetlands of the Klamath Basin (Upper and Lower Klamath and Tule Lake) supported wild edible plants like the yellow water lily, or wocus. This wetland ecosystem would attract millions of migratory birds on the Pacific flyway to rest and feast on Earth's abundance..

from "Modoc Indians" by Cheewa James;

http://www.cheewa.com/modoc.html

"The seeds of the wocus, a pond lily, were ground in mortar stones make of lava, and the resulting food was one of their primary staples. Another water plant, the tule, provided material for the skillful hands of the Modoc basket weavers. "

Less than two decades after the Modocs were driven from their home by US military and settlers to Oklahoma the dams and diversions of the Klamath began. The Modoc war represented the most recent attack of the European settlers on the California tribes. After the war against the Modocs the war against nature started as dams blocked the Klamath's water flow and wetlands were diverted..

Restoring the Klamath River and Basin to support salmon, sturgeon, lamprey, steelhead and other riparian life would take all people working together. Agribusiness monoculture and a utility corporation (Pacificorp) are the only two obstacles in the way of the people working together to restore the Klamath River. We need the US government to stop funding corporate agribusiness and instead support small organic farms by providing education (Klamath community college) and materials (drip irrigation system, solar panels, rainwater catchment, greenhouses, etc.) as requested. By learning drought tolerant native plants and low water use irrigation systems people can farm fertile soil and salmon can swim all the way up the Klamath to spawn..

Klamath Basin and Tule Lake National "potatoe refuge" info;

http://www.onrc.org/programs/klamath/KBNWRSlides.html

Salmon Coalition;

http://www.pelicannetwork.net/salmon.htm

Waterwatch;

http://www.waterwatch.org/Campaigns/Klamath/klamath.htm

X-tra Klamath info;

http://nativenewsonline.org/history/hist0818b.html

http://magazine.audubon.org/features0306/awakening_wonder.html

North Coast Environmental Center;

http://www.necandeconews.to/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index&catid=&topic=33