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Salmon, Science, and subsidies
Fein, Ian
Fein, Ian
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Abstract
The Klamath Basin contains all the characters and conflict required for a captivating story. In 2001, thousands of protesting farmers formed a bucket brigade to carry water past a closed-off dam.1 The following year, frustrated fishermen, Indians, and environmentalists delivered dead salmon to the steps of the Department of Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C. Add to the mix embattled agency scientists, congressional attempts to gut the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and allegations of improper political interference by top Bush administration officials, and what you get is one epic water saga. Unfortunately, the Klamath conflict is likely a harbinger of things to come. How to manage working landscapes in water-stressed ecosystems will become an increasingly imperative inquiry as the warming climate disrupts hydrological patterns and threatens the survival of more aquatic species.135 One need not look very far from the Klamath to find a similar train wreck coming down the tracks. The authors sprinkle Water War with references to the San Francisco Bay Delta—a water system that is actually connected to the Klamath system through the diversion of the Trinity River, a major Klamath tributary. The Bay Delta faces crashing salmon fisheries, a $31 billion agricultural industry, an obscure, federally-listed indigenous aquatic species, and some 24 million state residents who rely on the system for at least some of their drinking water. With Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proclaiming a state of emergency for California’s third year of consecutive drought, a conflict much larger than the Klamath’s is likely in the making. The authors hope that lessons from the Klamath—both positive and negative—may prove instructive." (p. 1, 12)
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2009
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With permission of the license/copyright holder