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Bird hunters flock to
Basin;
Farms offer critical food
source for migrating waterfowl
Capital
Press by
Jacqui Krizo 11/9/07
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Home
| Fifteen-year-old Ethan and his dad, Ron Cole, were hunting on
Lower Klamath Lake when the teen shot a duck and his dog Pepper chose
not to fetch it. About that time Ethan's concerned mom called on her
cell phone and Cole affirmed that "yes, Ethan is still clean." A
moment later Ron saw Ethan lying in a foot of mud trying to fetch his
bird. "He shot well," Cole boasted, "Ethan got six birds with 11 shots!" It was another fine day of hunting for the elder Cole, manager of the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex on the California-Oregon border. He said the Klamath Basin is the most important stop for waterfowl on the Pacific Flyway. Approximately 2 million waterfowl fly down from Canada every year and spend several weeks in the Basin at the peak of the season in mid-November. They then migrate south to Central Valley and Mexico. Between 80 and 90 percent rest in the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath Refuges. Hunters harvest 6,000 to 12,000 of the birds. The Klamath Basin sports the
largest hunting program in wildlife refuges in the United States. Of
4,000 applicants, 300 hunters were on Lower Klamath Lake and another
500 in Tule Lake Refuge this year on the opening weekend. There were
between 1,000 and 1,500 hunters the Monday after opening as there is
no limit on hunters midweek. |
 Hunters navigate the river as they scout for a location. Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Manager Ron Cole said Klamath Basin is great for hunters who want to roam free. Klamath Basin
Refuges hunting information and recent waterfowl surveys:
www.fws.gov/klamathbasinrefuges/hunt.html |
"There are over a million birds here now," Cole said. "I've been told by
some it's the best hunt in 20 years."
Klamath Basin hunting is different from other places - hunters don't have to
get a blind and number and stand. Cole said hunters can get a boat, roam
free; people aren't totally controlled.
Cole works closely with area farmers, conservation groups and volunteers to
manage wildlife refuges and private land for productive habitat and farms.
The Klamath Basin has become a showcase, attracting visitors from around the
world to observe the Walking Wetlands program, which rotates farmland with
wetlands. Cole said, "We can't do without ag for many of these species."
His philosophy is to take care of all the species as well as agriculture and
not just selectively focus on one species.
But Endangered Species Act decisions can make that difficult.
"There are 489 species of wildlife in the Klamath Basin and the biological
opinion deals with three," California Waterfowl Association President Robert
McLandress said. "Every duck has to eat a fifth to a quarter of a pound, and
every goose and swan eats pound or better per day. There are 200 million
waterfowl use days that have to be fed in the Klamath Basin; that's about 70
million pounds of food. We couldn't even cover half that out of the natural
systems; the other half has to come out of the farms."
He added the Klamath farmers are crucial to waterfowl. If farms are healthy,
the waterfowl can serve people up and down the Pacific Flyway. Klamath Basin
has the largest concentration of waterfowl in North America.
CWA, unlike many groups and agencies, focuses on restoring and managing
habitat rather than acquiring it. McLandress compares managing birds to
managing farms; an unmanaged crops has poor yield. When habitat and hunting
are well managed, wildlife is abundant.
CWA writes grants and lobbies for funding for local habitat projects,
hunting opportunities, training for disease control, and conservation
education for youth. Every dollar contributed to CWA results in $10 for
local projects in California.
McLandress said that some environmentalists think humans aren't part of
nature and must leave nature alone.
"That's why the Endangered Species Act is an impractical way of caring for
species and that's why more species are becoming endangered," he said. "Bird
numbers in the Klamath Basin are good this year and we expect an excellent
fall flight. The total number of waterfowl coming to California today is
roughly the same as 50 years ago."
Harvesting birds, like harvesting crops, is good for the species, McLandress
said. Nature takes some birds every year and "what we take, nature does not
get." Studies show that regardless of hunters, the same percentage of birds
die annually. Managers look at the bird population to determine how many can
be taken without hurting the bird population.
"Hunting brings people to watch the sunrise as birds are coming, feel the
cold air, and hear life," Cole said. "The real connection begins with kids
as they clean the bird, cook it, then it's on his plate. Kids have a greater
connection to wild things, and hunting and fishing helps seal between people
and outdoors their connection to food."
Jacqui Krizo is a freelance writer.
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Klamath Water Users Association
2455 Patterson Street, Suite 3
Klamath Falls, Oregon 97603
Phone (541) 883-6100
FAX (541) 883-8893
kwua@cvcwireless.net