“It was mutually assured
destruction,” says Marshall Staunton.
Keeping the water shut off in
2001, damaging though it was, was probably a blessing in
disguise, the Tulelake farmer explains, because water
users probably would have torn each other apart over a
trickle.
The Basin was like a Dust Bowl.
Some of the little planting that summer was done simply to
keep the ground from flying away. But dust flew anyway.
So did tempers. Farmers and
ranchers squared off with everyone, even each other. In
prior years, Staunton developed a reputation as a
moderate, working with groups like the Hatfield Upper
Basin Working Group to slake the Basin-wide thirst.
Staunton says the region was a
madhouse of hardliners. At one point, various groups had
claimed volumes of water that didn’t even exist in the
Klamath Project.
Staunton Farms, managed by him
and his two brothers, trudged through relatively
unscathed. Smaller crops of onions, potatoes, alfalfa,
barley and peppermint were planted on 50 percent of their
acreage.
“We were just adamant about
taking massive risks,” he said. “Our strategy was: We’re
not going to let it put us under.”
Their fields suffered little to
no permanent damage and none of their workers were laid
off, but he says their operation had the size and
resources that many others didn’t, especially the younger
farmers who leased land and weren’t entitled to the
government relief paid to property owners.
For a bigger operation, Staunton
said, it was worthwhile to drive pipes, equipment and
crews 20, even 40 miles, away. The 100 acres they leased
in Butte Valley for potatoes, Staunton called an
adventure.
“We had something to do,” he
said. “A lot of other people had nothing to do but
protest.”
In a mad dash to get groundwater,
something Basin dwellers previously had practically no use
for before, there came a constant drone of drilling. The
Stauntons’ efforts paid off in a very shallow well. Others
drilled thousands of feet and hit dust.
Drainage water piped in, wells
dug, crop insurance bought and water shipped in were all
part of the Staunton management plan.
“We did anything and everything
to stay on the land,” Staunton said. “That’s what 2001 was
for me.”
