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Award recognizes irrigators' efforts
June 20, 2004, Herald and News
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Recently, the Klamath Water Users Association got an award for not using
water, which is not a contradiction in terms at all. It's a matter of doing
what has to be done to keep farming and ranching alive in the Klamath Basin.
The award was from the state of Oregon and recognized the water users'
efforts in behalf of the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds. It was
presented to the group in a ceremony on the steps of the Capitol, with
leaders such as Gov. Ted Kulongoski and the Democratic and Republican
leaders of the Legislature participating.
The award recognizes a welter of actions in the Basin, some using federal
and state dollars and some not, many aimed at making agricultural operations
more efficient water users. Some have given agriculture interests heartache,
such as the conversion of farmlands to wetlands - the water users cite
24,000 acres in the past decade, equal to more than a tenth of the Klamath
Reclamation Project.
Nevertheless, it's clear that farmers and ranchers have recognized their
predicament given the pressure of the Endangered Species Act and competition
for water from Indian tribes upstream and down. Agriculture is in the midst
of a struggle that could take decades yet to play out, and its defenders are
determined that they will survive.
This is a longer-term version of the creativity they showed in 2001, when,
faced with imminent ruin, they responded with skill and imagination in a
political protest that brought national attention and saved Basin
agriculture to fight another day.
The vision of the Klamath Basin as a place for human habitation must include
agriculture, and an agricultural sector of sufficient size to be
economically viable. This place ought to have an urban center and a
scattering of pleasant small towns - and in between green fields with
dancing water from irrigation works.
Whatever alternate vision exists involves blowing away towns such as
Merrill, Malin and Tulelake and shriveling the city of Klamath Falls. It
involves throwing lots of people off the land, and it's not acceptable.
This is not the first such award, and won't be the last. It is a signal of a
widening recognition in Oregon and the nation that farmers and ranchers will
do good things here to make sure that they can continue in their necessary
and honorable work.
The "H&N view" represents the opinion of the newspaper's editorial board.
Klamath Water Users Association
2455 Patterson Street, Suite 3
Klamath Falls, Oregon 97603
Phone (541) 883-6100
FAX (541) 883-8893
kwua@cvcwireless.net |