Conservationists and farmers present a proposal to provide financial aid for waterless farms

Saturday, June 16, 2001

Conservationists and a group of Klamath Basin landowners Friday unveiled a proposal that would provide financial relief to farmers and more water for fish and wildlife.

Under the plan, the federal government would buy land and water rights in the Klamath Irrigation Project and Upper Klamath River Watershed. Willing sellers within the Klamath Irrigation Project would be paid $4,000 an acre to cover the market value of the land and to help them make the transition to a new livelihood. An additional $100 million would be set aside to buy land and water rights outside the Klamath Project but within the basin.

"This proposal was crafted by people who know and care about the land in the Klamath Basin," said Regna Merritt, executive director of the Oregon Natural Resources Council.

Conservationists said they would present the proposal to the U.S. House Committee on Resources, which is holding a field hearing beginning at 9 a.m. today at the Klamath County Fairgrounds. The hearing, requested by U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., is expected to draw several thousand people.

More than 1,000 farms that normally draw their water from Upper Klamath Lake will get none this summer because federal officials are allocating what little water there is to help threatened coho salmon and sucker fish. The drought also has imperiled about 950 bald eagles that depend on the area's wildlife refuges.

The farm families who have lost their irrigation water also have been hurt. On Friday, the Oregon Grocery Industry Association and the Oregon Food Bank sent a convoy of eight truckloads of food and supplies from Portland to the Klamath region.

For many, the water crisis boils down to farmers vs. fish. The federal government's decision has led to angry protests and calls to revamp the federal Endangered Species Act.

"Landowners should not have to pay any more for the recovery of endangered species than anyone else," said John Anderson, who runs cattle on his 3,000-acre ranch in Oregon and grows mint, barley, alfalfa and sugar beets on 1,000 acres in Northern California. Anderson said Friday that's why he got involved in discussions with conservationists about a federal buyout.

About two dozen landowners have agreed to sell land or water rights should federal money become available, Anderson said.

They are older people such as his father, who is over 80, and others who are ready to sell land that is losing value because of the decision to hold back water for wildlife, he said. "They shouldn't have to forfeit their retirement for that water."