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What Does the Bureau of Reclamation Actually Operate in the Klamath Project?
What Does the Bureau of Reclamation Actually Operate in the Klamath Project?
Moss Driscoll, Klamath Water Users Association
After fourteen months of convoluted and often contentious meetings with stakeholders, including tribes and members of the Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA), the Bureau of Reclamation recently completed its consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service over ongoing operations of the Klamath Project.
Such a consultation is required under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1972, to address “discretionary” federal actions that have a detrimental impact on fish and wildlife listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA.
This consultation process was documented in a series of technical reports that together totaled 976 pages, excluding references and appendices, attempting to analyze the ongoing operations of the Klamath Project. But reading between all that bureaucratic speech – what does the Bureau of Reclamation actually do?
Historically, Reclamation was responsible for constructing and then delivering water from canals and other facilities to ranchers and farmers of the Klamath Project. But Reclamation long ago handed that responsibility over to local irrigation districts. Those districts also fix and maintain the delivery infrastructure. So, Reclamation does not actually “deliver” water to anyone or any entity in the Klamath Project.
Link River Dam
Today, what Reclamation does is largely confined to Link River Dam, at the lower end of Upper Klamath Lake, where six separate cast-iron gates – each five feet wide and seven feet tall – can be raised or lowered, to adjust the rate of water flowing out of the lake. When fully opened, each gate has a maximum release capacity of approximately 500 cubic feet per second (cfs).
Along with these gates, larger sets of stoplogs in the dam’s bays – all 25 of them – can be removed, to increase the amount of water that can be released through the dam. Between the gates and the stoplogs, the technical answer is somewhere between zero and about 10,000 cfs can be discharged from Upper Klamath Lake through Link River Dam.
Prior to the dam, the lake’s outflow was controlled by two natural rock reefs at the head of Link River, which were excavated and lowered during the dam’s construction in 1921.
Thus, human control has replaced natural forces. By adjusting the gates and stoplogs on Link River Dam, the releases can be regulated, thereby manipulating water levels in Upper Klamath Lake and flows in the Klamath River.
Link River Dam was originally built by the California Oregon Power Company (Copco), under the arrangement that title to the dam be held by the United States and that it be operated to provide water for the Klamath Project. For 102 years, the dam was generally operated in this manner by Copco or its predecessors.
In 2024, in coordination with the removal of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, the Bureau of Reclamation for the first time ever assumed responsibility for operating and maintaining Link River Dam.
Keno Dam
In addition to assuming operational responsibility for Link River Dam, last year Reclamation also accepted title to Keno Dam, as a donation from PacifiCorp. Keno Dam controls the flow in the Klamath River approximately 21 miles downstream from Link River Dam.
Keno Dam also occupies the general location of a natural rock reef, which historically functioned as a natural dam. Like at Link River Dam, this reef was excavated and lowered when the power company built the original and now current dam.
Through Keno Dam’s six massive floodgates – each 40 feet wide and 17 feet tall – the flow of the Klamath River is subject to human control.
The Significance of Gate Operations
The matter of the flow in the Klamath River at the Oregon-California border is inherently a question of federal law, being an interstate and navigable (at least in part) waterway.
Upper Klamath Lake is one of the largest natural freshwater lakes in the Western United States. Like the Klamath River, for a period the lake was used for commerce by the timber industry. More recently, companies have harvested blue-green algae from the lake for sale as a nutritional supplement.
The Klamath Tribes – whose former reservation bordered Upper Klamath Lake – claim water rights to certain water levels in the lake(along with certain flows in tributaries to the lake). These determined rights are for the purpose of supporting the tribes’ reserved hunting and gathering treaty rights. Along with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Klamath Tribes are adjudicating these rights in a legal proceeding in Oregon that has been ongoing for more than half a century.
Beyond being an interstate waterway, the Klamath River is the third largest stream flowing into the Pacific Ocean in the continental United States. While there is no major industrial port, navigable commerce, or population center on the lower Klamath River, there are two large federal reservations for the Yurok and Hoopa tribes. These tribes have historically fished the lower river for subsistence and commercial purposes. Their reservations also include certain – although still unquantified – water rights to water in the river.
In the Pacific Ocean, a commercial fishing industry – including tribal fishers – historically has relied on salmon originating from the Klamath River and its tributaries for a significant portion of their catch. Fish stocks – particularly fall-run Chinook salmon – have been struggling in recent years, leading to several annual closures of the fishery.
Given these various interests in water levels in Upper Klamath Lake and flows in the Klamath River, the matter of releases from Link River and Keno dams is an acutely legal and political matter. These operations necessarily have ecological significance, but that consideration has always been viewed through (and influenced by) the legal and political context.
Legal Origins
While Reclamation has only recently taken direct physical control of both dams, this notion that the agency can control water levels in Upper Klamath Lake and flows in the Klamath River is not novel; it’s existed since the Klamath Project was first authorized.
In 1905, prior to the Klamath Project being approved by the Secretary of the Interior, Congress passed a law that gave Reclamation the authority to “change the levels” of Lower Klamath and Tule lakes “or any river or other body of water connected therewith…”
At the time, it was believed such a law was necessary for Reclamation to drain two large interstate waterbodies on which there was some level of commercial navigation. But as later demonstrated after the power company first built Link River Dam and later Keno Dam, the necessary implication of this law was the authority to regulate water levels in Upper Klamath Lake and flows in the Klamath River.
Conclusion
As explained, the Bureau of Reclamation’s day-to-day work does not involve actually delivering water. Instead, Reclamation’s present operations are functionally limited to changing the gates on Link River and Keno dams – and managing the related parts of these two dams, like fish ladders. The gates and associated infrastructure must always be managed in some manner, so long as the dams exist.
Being subject to human control, that management is necessarily subject to debate and contest – legal, political, or otherwise.
This point was amply demonstrated in December when shortly after accepting title to Keno Dam, Chinook salmon apparently began appearing in the dam’s fish ladder for the first time. After various tribes objected over the reports, Reclamation scrambled to modify the facility to accommodate the larger fish. Reclamation has now committed millions in federal funding for further modifications and more studies on this dam that PacifiCorp “donated” to the United States just months ago.
Although it is tempting for many to draw a big circle around the Bureau of Reclamation’s operations (and influence), the agency’s operations effectively consist of that simple action – raising or lowering the various gates and operating the related parts of Link River and Keno dams.
Any ESA consultation or related science initiative should begin and end with this “action,” because as a practical matter, it is all that Reclamation directly controls. As acknowledged, that action is inherently politically and legally complicated, which is all the more reason the scope of Reclamation’s discretion should be carefully and narrowly drawn.
¹Act of February 9, 1905, 33 Stat. 714.
Remaining concerns over negative impacts of Klamath River dam removal
The demolition and removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River is now complete. Last month, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation’s (KRRC) lead construction contractor, Kiewit, demobilized its equipment and work crews from the former dam sites, marking the effective end of construction.
The physical work of removing the dams may be done, but the impacts to the river and the fishery are not. We need to be clear-eyed about this concern and confront the situation.
Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve and enhance the viability of irrigated agriculture in the Klamath Basin, for the benefit of current and future generations. Dam removal is a contentious subject with a complicated history, but the fact is that KWUA honored a commitment to remain neutral on the issue.
As with all environmental restoration efforts, KWUA remains supportive of increasing and improving fish habitat, on the simple premise that such projects 1) do not create additional regulatory burdens on agriculture, and 2) effectively help recover threatened and endangered fish populations and trust resources.
As the focus on the river shifts from dam removal to restoration, KWUA’s position is unchanged. But we are concerned about continued impacts to fish and the long-term recovery of fish stocks in the Klamath River. More importantly, we remain concerned about whether farmers and ranchers will be called upon to provide – or regulated to require – mitigation of such negative impacts.
KWUA’s specific concerns revolve around the one thing still remaining from the dams – sediment. Hundreds of thousands of tons of fine, organic sediment that had accumulated behind the dams over decades and now have been deposited in the mainstem of Klamath River through the reservoir drawdown and dam removal process.
A large release of sediment most recently occurred during removal of the cofferdam at Iron Gate at the end of September, causing a temporary crash in dissolved oxygen levels in the river. Fortunately, unlike the similar event at the end of August, there were no reports of dead fish downstream, just thick, muddy water.
Significant amounts of sediment continued to be released from the former reservoir through September and the first half of October. Provisional data, which was publicly available before recently being pulled from the U.S. Geological Survey’s website, indicated that more than 80,000 tons of sediment flowed out of Iron Gate in September alone. Much of this sediment – mostly decayed algae that had accumulated in the hydroelectric reservoirs during their existence – was carried out to the Pacific Ocean and deposited somewhere on the continental shelf. But initial data also supports what we know anecdotally – a massive amount of sediment has been deposited in the Klamath River downstream of Iron Gate.
Data submitted by KRRC’s contractors to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission indicate that between the start of dam removal process in January and the end of October, over one million tons of sediment were released from the former dam sites. Roughly ten percent of this volume – around 100,000 tons – has been deposited in the river’s mainstem between Iron Gate and Seiad Valley.
Downstream landowners and county representatives have expressed concern over this sediment in terms of the presence of heavy metals, like arsenic and mercury, and the potential risk to health and human safety. Those concerns are legitimate and deserve respect.
For farmers and ranchers of the Klamath Project, whose water supply has been severely reduced over the last three decades for the sake of salmon, the concerns with the sediment are tied to its existing and future impacts to fish.
According to monitoring data collected this past year, the initial release of sediment during the reservoir drawdown process last winter destroyed the salmon redds in the mainstem reach of the Klamath River below Iron Gate Dam. That loss meant the effective failure of a large portion of the wild fall-run Chinook that returned last year to the Klamath River to spawn.
While the number of fish that hatch and survive to maturity varies each year, the natural lifecycle of fall-run Chinook salmon means that there are generally only five age-classes of fish in the population. So when an event like dam removal prevents an age-class from successfully reproducing the entire population is affected.
The full magnitude of the harm to fall-run Chinook from dam removal process won’t be fully known until 2027 or 2028, when the fish born in 2023 would be expected to return to the river as adults. But for a population that is widely reported as already struggling, the cumulative impact could be severe.
Looking forward, the sediment will continue to pose the risk of smothering salmon redds and killing juvenile salmon so long as it remains in the river.
The impacts to salmon are not just limited to their redds being destroyed. Sediment from the hydroelectric reservoirs has been and looks to continue to be a primary driver of fish disease in the Klamath River.
Since the early 2000s, coinciding with the adoption of flow requirements under the Endangered Species Act, scientists have documented a dramatic increase in the prevalence and rate of infection of the parasite Ceratonova shasta in juvenile salmon in the Klamath River downstream of Iron Gate Dam. C. shasta is a disease that attacks the intestinal tracts of fish, causing hemorrhaging and in severe cases, death.
The increase in the disease has been attributed in part to the prevalence of fine, organic sediment released from the hydroelectric reservoirs. This sediment is an ideal habitat and food source for the microscopic worm that serves as a host for the parasite. (The basic cycle with C. shasta is the worms release spores that infect juvenile fish, and when infected adult fish return to spawn, they release spores that infect the worms, restarting the process.)
By providing consistently high flows in the Klamath River, even during periods of drought, Upper Klamath Lake was prevented from filling and spilling, thus eliminating the types of “flushing flows” that historically scoured this sediment from the river. Due to managed river flows post-2000, the sediment built up in the river channel downstream of Iron Gate Dam. Under this flow regime, worm populations and C. shasta proliferated.
Following the draining of the reservoirs, researchers initially found lower numbers of the worms that cause C. shasta, suggesting that the sediment released from the dam sites had somehow disrupted populations. But as the summer progressed, the worms quickly and extensively recolonized the new sediment in the river. As a result, contrary to expectations, this year’s monitoring showed C. shasta spore counts matching recent years.
In the long-term, when this sediment has finally been flushed from the system, it is plausible that C. shasta will be less of a problem. But until that occurs, this disease is likely to continue to impact coho and Chinook salmon, slowing recovery of these stocks in the wake of dam removal.
The recent reports of adult Chinook spawning above the former dams, including tributaries in Oregon, may reinforce concerns with the sediment in the river below the dam sites. While hundreds of fish have recently been seen above the dam sites, typically thousands of fish spawn in the mainstem, particularly the reach from Iron Gate to the confluence of the Shasta River.
So far this fall, the river below Iron Gate has been too clouded by sediment to observe any redds and only ten adult carcasses – a proxy for the annual run size and potential spawning success – have been found in that reach. The average for this time of year would be around 1,000 carcasses. Similarly drastic declines of spawning adult Chinook have been observed in Bogus Creek, immediately below Iron Gate Dam.
KWUA has recently joined with the Yurok Tribe, Karuk Tribe, and the Klamath Tribes in supporting restoration work throughout the Klamath Basin. As projects move forward and restoration occurs, it is critical that the sediment left in the river in the wake of dam removal not be overlooked or forgotten.
The federal and state regulatory agencies responsible for overseeing dam removal need to ensure that KRRC addresses the sediment remaining in the river, now and likely for years to come. As these agencies repeatedly promised in the lead-up to dam removal, releasing more water from Upper Klamath Lake is not an option for dealing with this sediment. KRRC and the supporters of dam removal will need to come up with other physical, mechanical, or biological solutions.
Nor is acceptable to allow the continued impacts from this sediment to somehow warrant additional legal protections for fish or other regulatory burdens on farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Project. That would also violate an explicit promise made by federal and state agencies in advance of dam removal.
Now that the debate surrounding removal of the dams is over, it’s time to confront the remaining and continuing impacts to the Klamath River and the heavy work needed to now clean it.
Klamath Water Users and Bureau of Reclamation Agree to New Programs Funds
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Yesterday, Klamath Water Users Association and the Klamath Project
Drought Response Agency (DRA) signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) for an allocation of funding under Public Law 117-169, also known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA).
The DRA, which operates a voluntary program to assist with chronic water shortage for irrigation in the Klamath Project, would receive $33 million over the next few years to supplement that program with new, longer-term measures. “We are resolute in our commitment to improve our water supply situation, and we are optimistic that can occur,” said KWUA President Tracey Liskey. “While we are getting there, we will continue to do all we can to provide security for producers and our communities.
Under the MOU, the DRA and Reclamation agree to complete more detailed contracts establishing new programs for producers that will be operated by the DRA.
“We expect the program will include three-to-five-year contracts with producers for voluntary land idling, but with the ability to rotate the idled land in an operation,” said DRA President Marc Staunton. “We will also offer incentives for modified practices like fall planting of grain, that would reduce and shift water demand.”
Mr. Staunton echoed Mr. Liskey’s sentiments about the need for these programs. “Our approach addresses the ongoing challenges posed by the unmitigated effects of the Endangered Species Act. We aim to utilize IRA funding to support family farms in the Klamath Basin, ensuring their sustainability in production agriculture through programs that prioritize farming over water sales.”
DRA and Reclamation have also agreed to a program where irrigation districts could earn funds for the benefit of producers by altering operations to benefit wildlife and wildlife refuges. “This allows us to exploit win-win opportunities without negative impacts on irrigators,” said Mr. Staunton.
Both Mr. Liskey and Mr. Staunton expressed appreciation to Reclamation’s leadership for responding to a need. “We are very grateful to Commissioner Touton and her team for bringing this to fruition,” said Mr. Staunton.
Reclamation also intends to allocate an additional $17 million of IRA funds for programs that it would pursue. These potential permanent reductions of water demand for land not in commercial agricultural production, and work toward modifying infrastructure to improve fish passage.
About Klamath Water Users Association on (KWUA)
Since 1953, the KWUA is a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation representing the interests of Klamath Project farmers and ranchers. KWUA members include rural and suburban irrigation districts, public agencies, and private individuals who operate on both sides of the California/Oregon border. These entities and individuals typically hold water delivery contracts with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The Project is home to over 1,200 family farms and ranches; KWUA’s member districts deliver irrigation water to over 170,000 acres of some of the mostly productive farmland in the United States.
KWUA’s mission is to preserve and enhance the viability of irrigated agriculture for our membership in the Klamath Basin for the benefit of current and future generations.
KWUA is governed by an eleven-member Board of Directors representing Project districts. The Association employs an Executive Director and staff to execute policy decisions.
About Klamath Project Drought Response Agency (DRA)
The DRA is a local government agency formed by irrigation and drainage districts, each of whom is additionally a member of KWUA. As an intergovernmental agency under Oregon law and a joint powers agency under California law, the DRA can perform functions that its individual members can perform. Formed in 2018, the DRA develops and administers programs to address insufficient irrigation water supplies for land in the Klamath Project.
Klamath Water Users is Hiring our next Executive Director!
KWUA is Hiring our next Executive Director
Klamath Water Users is looking for qualified, ambitious applicants to fill the role of executive director of our dynamic organization. Final application date is March 1, 2025. For more information and application, please go to KWUA.ORG
It is with sincere appreciation and great respect for Paul’s dedication to promoting and preserving irrigated agriculture, ecosystems, and the communities of the Klamath Basin, we extend our warmest wishes to Paul Simmons for a happy and healthy retirement this coming summer from his role as Executive Director of the Klamath Water Users Association.
KWUA Executive Director Job Description 2024
KWUA Seeks Dynamic Leader for Marketing & Public Affairs
Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) seeks a self-motivated, highly productive individual as the Director of Communications to lead marketing and public affairs effort of an established organization that serves the interests of member irrigation districts and their constituents on natural resources issues, with emphasis on water resources and power costs. This is a unique opportunity to join an organization that is at the forefront of precedent-setting issues.
This is a high energy and demanding job. It will also be rewarding for the right candidate. The ideal candidate must have high level communication skills, be collaborative, and an independent worker who works with little direction and produces timely and impactful work.
The ideal candidate must have the high level of expertise needed to successfully facilitate outcomes on short-, medium -, and long-range goals and implement the vision of the organization. The candidate must be effective in a variety of venues and possess the organizational and technical proficiency needed to develop and maintain the relations and understanding between KWUA and the public. Open Until Filled. For more information and application, please go to KWUA.ORG
KWUA Director of Communications Job Description 2024
Committee Pressure Leads to Withdrawal of BIDEH Rule, Members Thankful for Return to Common Sense
Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced the withdrawal of their proposed Biological Integrity, Diversity, and Environmental Health (BIDEH) rule. “Today’s announcement proves something we knew from the beginning, the BIDEH Rule was a terrible idea and should have never been proposed in the first place. I would like to thank Congressman Bentz for his work to fight this disastrous proposal and his continued work to push back against the Biden’s administration’s radical policies. As a lifelong outdoorsman, I’ve seen firsthand how our wildlife refuges benefit from collaboration with farmers and communities to ensure the best possible results for conservation and I’m glad to see one example of common sense in this administration’s dying days.” – House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) “The BIDEH rule was a completely misguided approach to management of the National Wildlife Refuge System. The rule would have imposed bureaucratic nightmares on refuge managers and opened the door for a wave of anti-farmer and rancher litigation. Under the proposed rule, normal and historic management tools, such as grazing, planting crops, and native predator control, would have required a full NEPA review prior to implementation. This would have severely restricted the discretion of refuge managers and putting at risk the very purpose of individual refuges. I welcome the withdrawal of the rule and will continue to push back on policies that put politics over practical management.” – Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Chairman Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) “I am glad that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service decided to withdraw this outlandish rule that would have given Washington bureaucrats the power to undermine the authority of local wildlife conservationists. I’d also like to thank the thousands of Americans who spoke out against this rule and Chairman Westerman for his efforts in this matter. The benefits of our greatest conservationists and American farmers will remain where they belong, on the ground in our local towns.” – U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) “I am pleased the Biden Administration has withdrawn their out-of-touch BIDEH rule. This one-size-fits all policy from Washington will only overburden the National Wildlife Refuge System. That is why I joined my colleagues in urging the Fish and Wildlife Service to rescind this rule. This is a victory for wildlife and conservation efforts across the nation.” – U.S. Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.) Background Today, the USFWS announced they are withdrawing their proposed BIDEH rule for the National Wildlife Refuge System. If it had been finalized, the rule would have made sweeping changes to the ability of refuge managers to utilize key management tools. The rule stated that certain practices, such as native predator control and cooperative agriculture, would be prohibited unless refuge managers fully evaluate the potential environmental effects of the management activity in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. In addition, refuge managers would have also been required to complete a comprehensive analysis to justify that utilizing the management practices is necessary to meet statutory responsibilities, fulfill refuge purposes and ensure BIDEH. This would have created management paralysis in the refuge system. The Committee conducted a series of oversight and legislative efforts on the rule since it was proposed in February. These included an oversight hearing in April held by the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries where representatives from State game and fish agencies, agriculture producers, and conservation organizations testified in opposition to the proposed rule. In June, Chairman Westerman led a bi-partisan letter with 20 other House members calling on the rule to be rescinded. In addition, a legislative hearing was held in September on H.R. 8632, the “BIOSAFE Act” sponsored by Congressman Grothman, which would have required the USFWS to withdraw the proposed rule. Today’s announcement is a return to commonsense policy, which allows land managers to continue working in the best interest of our wildlife refuge system. Impacts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Proposed BIDEH Rule. Proposed Regulations to Ensure BIDEH of the Refuge System are Maintained |
Contact: John Seibels (202) 225-2761 |
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U.S. House Passes Bentz Legislation Benefitting Klamath Farmers
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 7938, authored by Congressman Cliff Bentz (R-OR), which fulfills financial and regulatory commitments made years ago to Klamath Project irrigators.
In his floor statement, Mr. Bentz called the legislation “long overdue” and critical to mitigate negative impacts on agricultural communities resulting from the removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River that took place this year.
Under the legislation, federal agencies would not be allowed to pass on the costs of operating or maintaining Keno and Link River Dams, infrastructure built and formerly operated by PacifiCorp, which are not being removed.
“This is a very important achievement, and great news for Klamath Project irrigators,” said Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) President Tracey Liskey, who testified in a Congressional committee in support of the bill earlier. “We have been promised for years that we would not be stuck with these costs but need this legislation to make that promise real.”
The legislation would also provide the authority and tools needed for keeping a promise that upstream migration of salmon and steelhead would not impose new regulatory burdens by providing a mechanism for the Bureau of Reclamation to install and pay for costly measures such as fish screens that would not otherwise be needed.
A similar measure, authored by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who sits on a key committee in the U.S. Senate, is pending in that chamber of Congress. “Senator Wyden and Senator Merkley have been champions of this legislation for years,” said KWUA Executive Director Paul Simmons. “It passed the full Senate in a previous session of Congress and has moved through all necessary Senate committees again, this year.”
Under the current Congressional calendar, it is unknown whether the legislation can be taken up in the current session of the Senate, as needed for the bill to become law. “We feel very positive that bipartisan leadership and support we have can push this across the finish line,” said Mr. Simmons.
Mr. Liskey noted that it is extremely complicated to move legislation through Congress. “There is much more involved in this process than you could ever believe, and we are fortunate to have the effective Congressional delegation that we do.”
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Dead In The Water: The Impact of Klamath Ag
It was the night before Thanksgiving. You go to the grocery store to buy the fixings for a big dinner, but something is different. Shelves are empty, and for the food that is available, prices are very high.
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Tracey Liskey: Leading KWUA into a Sustainable Future
Tracey Liskey, a fourth-generation farmer and the current President of the KWUA Board of Directors, embodies a legacy of dedication and innovation in the Klamath Basin. With over 3,000 acres under cultivation, Liskey’s farm is a testament to sustainable agriculture, featuring geothermal-powered hot houses for organic produce and aquaculture, and a partnership in the “Gone Fishing” hatchery for endangered species restoration. Beyond his farming ventures, Liskey’s commitment extends to significant roles in various agricultural and environmental boards, reflecting his passion for growth, wildlife, and community service. Whether tending to his land or advocating for sustainable practices, Liskey’s life is a profound connection to nature and a model of stewardship for future generations.
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