KWUA Executive Director Elizabeth Nielsen’s Letter to the Editor is featured in the Los Angeles Times, bringing national attention to a challenge that has shaped the Klamath Basin for decades.
For years, irrigators and rural communities have faced instability under inconsistent interpretations of the Endangered Species Act. The Department of the Interior’s May 2025 memorandum offers a path toward balance, fairness, and long-term stability in the Klamath Basin.
“This is about fairness and consistency as much as it is about law.”
Nov. 12, 2025 8 AM PT
- Klamath Project farmers contend that the Department of Interior’s May 2025 memorandum correctly applies the Endangered Species Act and shouldn’t be viewed as anti-environmental.
- Decades of inconsistent ESA implementation have devastated rural communities and irrigators while unfulfilled promises on fish passage remain unmet.
- Agricultural leaders seek balanced, stable law implementation that honors commitments to irrigators and environmental protection.
To the editor: Contributing writer Jacques Leslie’s recent piece misrepresents Klamath Project farmers and ranchers (“Salmon’s comeback pits nature against Trump administration,” Nov. 5).
The Department of the Interior’s May 2025 memorandum doesn’t ignore the Endangered Species Act. Rather, it’s anchored in legal principles of section 7; only discretionary federal actions are subject to Endangered Species Act consultation. Courts will ultimately decide whether it is somehow “specious” for the Klamath Project, though the government has successfully advocated for it elsewhere since at least the Obama administration.
This is about fairness and consistency as much as it is about law. For decades, irrigators and rural communities have suffered from unstable Endangered Species Act implementation that divides up water rather than addressing species’ needs.
Advocates spent decades on removing dams while promises to protect irrigators and fish, such as constructing fish passage improvements and fish screens, remain unmet.
We continue to seek balance and stability. Implementing the law as written and honoring commitments achieves that.
Elizabeth Nielsen, Klamath Falls, Ore.
This writer is executive director of the Klamath Water Users Assn.
Read the full Letter to the Editor in the Los Angeles Times HERE