Learning from the Past: Can the Klamath be Restored?

hese themes, confirmed by the conference agenda indicate that the emphasis will be positive and future oriented. You can bet there will be heaps of praise for cooperative and collaborative restoration. In fact, the Conference is likely to be a love fest. That's because almost everyone present will represent an organization or agency that has been the recipient of taxpayer financed restoration funding and hopes to secure a stream of that funding on into the future.

That all sounds good--who can argue with working together for sustainable communities! But something is missing from the Conference Agenda. Even though the 20-year federal-state-local restoration partnership which began with passage of the Klamath Act in 2006 is ending, a hard-nosed, scientific assessment of what has been accomplished will not be presented.

Whether the measure used is the size of salmon runs, the state of the Basin's water quality or the amount of water flowing in Klamath River Basin streams and rivers, the 20-year effort to restore the Klamath River and its fisheries has failed. Salmon runs now are at greater risk of extinction, fishing is more restricted and water quality is more degraded than when "restoration" began in earnest 20 years ago. Most importantly, the dewatering of major Klamath tributaries--including the Scott and Shasta Rivers--has continued unabated during those 20-years.

What should be going on in Redding this week is an honest, practical and hard nosed assessment of failures as well as successes and a probing analysis of why so much taxpayer money has been spent with so little positive impact. Such an analysis by those responsible for future restoration could result in positive changes in how restoration is planned and restoration projects are selected. Those insights could then be incorporated into federal legislation under development for a new 20-year round of restoration. Lessons learned could also be incorporated into California Department of Fish and Game restoration rules and priority projects lists.

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http://counterpunch.org/pace11092006.html