KID / Klamath Irrigation District March NOTICE: Request for Water Conservation Program Support March 2022.

Tulelake Irrigation District March 15 agenda

! Sustainable Groundwater Management Plan, and March 16 agenda. This mandatory plan will evaluate our groundwater and control your ability to pump it to irrigate your field.

< Eleanor Bolesta, former WWII Wave, Tulelake Homesteader

75 years ago, March 13, 1947 - War Veterans Win Tulelake Homesteads 
"Eighty-five veterans of the last war, some still wearing a jacket, shirt or a pair of trousers issued to them while in the service, stepped to the platform in the Bureau of Reclamation hall this morning, laid a finger on a big map and as winners in the big Tulelake homestead drawing, became land owners."  H&N 3/13/22

Buried Klamath Treasure and Chia Pets, by Rudy Hiley, Tulelake 3/12/22. "Findings indicate contributions from agricultural land adjacent to Klamath Lake have been overestimated, and the Klamath Irrigation Project is probably a net sink for nutrients diverted out of Klamath Lake and Klamath River. Data to support these assertions are presented.”

Klamath Ukraine by Rudy Hiley, Klamath Basin 3/6/22.  "...it is alarming to see any population or group try to punitively reclaim land or resources or both just because it was once theirs, no matter how long ago. Incursion is part of the process of attempting to occupy, control, or re-occupying a geographic area that an aggressor really wants, or used to have, or has strong feelings about, yet no longer commands legal ownership of..."

Mt. States Legal Foundation: "Shoot Owls to Save Owls? That's The ESA in Action (Reuters) Big Green and Bill Clinton used northern spotted owl "protections" as a pretext for throwing lumber producers off U.S. forests. But loggers weren't the bird's biggest problem, as it turns out. Now the feds are shooting barred owls in order to "save" spotted owls, all with the blessing of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in another Endangered Species Act absurdity: Government can kill invasive owls to study effect on threatened ones – 9th Circuit, Reuters 3/5/22. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service legally authorized the killing of thousands of barred owls in Oregon’s old-growth forests to see if it would help the threatened northern spotted owl make a comeback in the area, a federal appeals court affirmed Friday."

Reclamation officials talk dams, Klamath Basin, hydropower, drought. What's up with water in the West? Q&A with western water officials, Capital Press 3/4/22.
 <  Ernest Conant, Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director
Capital Press: "What’s the game plan for the Klamath Basin? I’m looking for specific ideas or plans that are under consideration to alleviate the crisis there."   "...Ernest Conant, Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director, "...We don’t have any specific plans right now. We’re looking at a lot of different options to take a more strategic long-term approach. It’s just a very difficult situation because we have all these competing interests over endangered species, the interests of various tribes and farmers....I can’t be much more specific at this point....The bipartisan infrastructure law has $162 million that goes to projects in the Klamath Basin the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be handling. There are a number of things that could be done to improve the fishery, for example, thereby taking off some pressure...There’s a process being set up for people to apply for the bipartisan infrastructure money, so different districts in Klamath could apply for conservation or infrastructure grants like you’re referring to.I’m sorry I can’t give you more specifics about grand plans. There is no grand plan at this point..."

CALIFORNIA - Agencies working to sustain groundwater, AgAlert, CFBF 2/23/22. "...The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, if you haven't heard about it, it's knocking on your door... East Kaweah added emergency restrictions on groundwater pumping last October and set a maximum allocation and a fine of $500 per acre-foot for those who exceed the pumping restriction..."

Yellowstone starts bison cull as animals migrate to Montana, Intermountain Farm and Ranch 3/4/22. "...annual program to cull the animals to prevent them from spreading disease to cattle.."
Modoc Nation purchases ranches near Sheepy Ridge 1/7/22. "...bison may be headed to the Klamath Basin — along with, tribal leadership hopes, cultural healing..."

< 2/28/22 For Reclamations's in-depth monthly updates visit http://usbr.gov/mp/kbao

KBC NOTE: This photo was taken February 9, 2022 of thousands of acres of the world famous Tule Lake Refuge, the most important stop in the Pacific Flyway for migrating waterfowl.  According to U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service, "For more than 10,000 years, Native Americans camped along the lakeshore to hunt, fish and harvest a variety of marsh plants..." In 2021 the Bureau of Reclamation for the first time in history denied our stored water to our refuges and farms, against a court order, for an entire year.
   With the pretext of protecting Endangered suckers to throw farmers off their land, the Bureau of Reclamation kept our stored irrigation water in the full Upper Klamath Lake to supposedly help 2 species of suckers, threatening 433 species of wildlife and our farms. Hundreds of domestic wells went dry. The Bureau is succeeding in eliminating farmers and ranchers like the government agencies destroyed hundreds of lumber mills. In the past 2 years alone California and Oregon have lost millions of acres of forests, millions of animals and spotted owls, many towns and lives due to wildfires from overgrown and many diseased trees in the guise of protecting the endangered owl from loggers. The Bureau plans to withhold our water again in 2022, keeping Klamath Lake higher than historically possible, for the two suckers which continue to decline with this extreme Klamath Lake level, against advice from the peer-reviewed National Resources Committee.

Hay industry leader David King succumbs to cancer at age 62, Capital Press 2/7/22.