KLAMATH PROJECT DROUGHT RESPONSE AGENCY PROGRAM EXCEEDS 2026 ENROLLMENT GOAL
From the beginning of the year, the Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA), irrigation districts, producers, and the Klamath Project Drought Response Agency (KPDRA) recognized that 2026 would be an extraordinarily difficult water year. Historic low snowpack, combined with existing regulatory requirements, pointed to a surface water supply that would fall well short of irrigation demand.
That outlook was confirmed in April when the Bureau of Reclamation announced an irrigation supply of 221,000 acrefeet, just over half of a full Project supply. To help stretch the limited water available and improve the likelihood of making it through the irrigation season, action was needed.
The KPDRA estimated that between 40,000 and 50,000 acres would need to be idled during the 2026 season and opened enrollment from April 15 through June 15, offering four voluntary assistance programs for Klamath Project farmers and ranchers. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of KWUA, KPDRA, Reclamation, the Administration, and our elected representatives, sufficient funding was secured to offer a robust program in 2026.
No farmer or rancher wants to idle productive ground. The goal is always to irrigate crops, support employees, provide for families, strengthen rural communities, and produce the food people depend on. Choosing not to farm acres is never an easy decision, particularly in communities where agriculture serves as an economic backbone.
However, recognizing the challenges of 2026, Klamath Project irrigators stepped forward in remarkable numbers. Their willingness to do so for the benefit of the broader Project resulted in enrollment exceeding the original acreage goal, making the 2026 program the largest in KPDRA history.
This level of participation provides the best opportunity to stretch the limited water supply available this year, helping maximize the chances that irrigated acres can successfully make it through the 2026 season.
KPDRA program administrators are now reviewing applications, verifying enrollment information, and finalizing acreage totals for publication on the program’s online public map. Applicants will be able to review submitted acreage once the map has been updated. Response letters and additional program information will be sent directly to applicants as the review process is completed.
KWUA and KPDRA extend sincere appreciation to every farmer and rancher who participated in this year’s program. Your willingness to make difficult decisions during an exceptionally challenging year reflects the resilience, cooperation, and commitment that have long defined the Klamath Project agricultural community.
Welcoming Acting Commissioner Aubrey Bettencourt
KWUA extends a warm welcome to Aubrey Bettencourt, who recently assumed the role of Acting Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. A third-generation California farmer with an extensive background in agriculture, water policy, and natural resource management, Bettencourt brings a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing water users throughout the West.
Before joining Reclamation, Bettencourt served as Chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), where she worked to advance voluntary conservation efforts on working agricultural lands across the country. Her previous experience also includes serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the Department of the Interior, California State Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service Agency, President and CEO of the Almond Alliance, and Global Director of Government Relations and External Affairs for Netafim.
For the Klamath Project and water users across the West, Bettencourt’s appointment comes at an critical time as Reclamation continues to navigate complex water management challenges, ESA consultation, and aging infrastructure. Throughout her career, she has earned a reputation as a strong advocate for agriculture and practical, collaborative water management. She is widely recognized as a friend of Western water and a friend of the Klamath Basin, with a longstanding appreciation for the importance of reliable water supplies to family farms, rural communities, and the environment.
KWUA has appreciated the opportunity to work with Aubrey over the years and looks forward to continuing such work in her new role. Her leadership, practical approach, and commitment to collaboration will be valuable as Reclamation works with water users, Tribes, states, and other partners to address the complex challenges facing the Basin.
Congratulations Acting Commissioner Bettencourt!!
Klamath Project Operations Update
By: Gene Souza, KID Executive Director
Stretching Our Remaining Supply
As we enter the warmest months of July and August, demand and system losses will naturally increase with evapotranspiration. As of July 1, we have utilized almost 50% of our remaining water supply. District managers are collaborating closely to stretch this supply through September 30; however, every day that combined flows exceed 650 cfs challenges our ability to meet that goal.
We strongly encourage our farmers to continue complying with operational policies: call your water on, call it off, and do not open headgates independently — that water is already ordered for a downstream user. We remain hopeful that the Drought Response Agency and KID SWAP programs have provided the necessary space and flexibility for our producers.
Balancing Needs: Refuges and Communities
Our wildlife refuges are also in desperate need of water. Current policy constraints require us to manage our available supply very tightly, which unfortunately results in reduced return flows to the refuges. Alarmingly, we have already received reports of avian botulism — approximately 30 to 45 days earlier than anticipated.
Our operations teams are diligently coordinating across the watershed to find ways to prevent mass waterfowl mortality in the coming weeks while avoiding further harm to the farming communities we serve. Under the 2024 policies, this is a near-impossible balancing act; no available option prevents some level of hardship for basin families. We continue to pray for summer and fall rains, for wisdom in our management decisions, and for meaningful opportunities to reform policies that are failing both our communities and our ecosystem.
Grasshopper Update
By: Gene Souza, Klamath County Grasshopper Grant Committee
Reporting Recommendation: We encourage all producers to report grasshopper sightings to the ODA portal (link below). The ODA portal recently reopened for reporting; state personnel previously assigned to monitor grasshopper conditions across Oregon have been reassigned — meaning there is currently no active state monitoring on the ground. Reporting locally ensures we maintain direct, near-real-time access to the data to identify hotspots and alert those at the highest risk.
The Klamath County Grasshopper Grant Committee met recently to discuss remaining grant funds, the lack of state funding for a 2026 monitoring program, and the explosive grasshopper hatchings in the sage hills and dry wildlife refuges surrounding our farms.
The Good: Approximately 300,000 waterfowl in the basin are providing a meaningful natural check on grasshopper populations. This biological mitigation is supported by water on the refuges and a healthy number of breeding duck pairs — larger than in recent years, though not outside historical norms.
The Bad: The Klamath County program currently has only $43,000 in uncommitted grant funds; in 2024, we helped offset more than $121,000 in costs to farmers. The ODA reporting portal has reopened, but with state monitoring personnel reassigned, there is no active state-level surveillance of conditions to help us assess what the 2026 financial impact will be.
The Ugly: With over 50,000 acres estimated to be enrolled in Drought Response Agency programs (creating dry, untreated land) and untreated hatchings across units of the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, we are seeing simultaneous multiple-generation hatchings across the landscape. Grasshoppers from the 2022–2024 expansion cycles are now hatching at different life stages, making coordinated treatment more complex and costly. Many gained their wings last week. Mitigation is most effective — and least costly — before that stage. Left untreated, the situation requires multiple treatment rounds and significantly increases agricultural damage.
What We Are Doing: The Klamath County Grasshopper Grant Committee is actively exploring options to fund a locally-managed monitoring and reporting program. This would give us direct access to near realtime data, allow us to identify where reporting is concentrated, and enable us to proactively inform producers at highest risk as conditions develop. We will keep the community updated as this effort progresses.
District Meetings
KWUA Launches Agriculture Photo Contest
Life in the Basin
The Klamath Water Users Association invites everyone to participate in our July Agriculture Photo Contest. July is a time to celebrate the people, places, and traditions that make agriculture in the Klamath Basin so special. We want to see the Basin through your lens!
Throughout the month of July, visit the KWUA Facebook page and share your favorite farming or ranching photo. Whether it’s a breathtaking sunrise over the fields, livestock on the ranch, hardworking farm families, irrigation in action, or multiple generations working the land, we want to see the stories that define agriculture in our Basin.
Participants may submit one photo in one of two ways:
- Post your photo in the comments on the official contest post on the KWUA Facebook page (will be available on July 8).
- Or email your photo to chelsea@kwua.org. KWUA will post your photo to the official contest thread on your behalf so it can be included in the public voting.
At the end of the contest, the photo with the most Facebook “likes” will be named the winner. The winning photographer will receive a $75 Diamond S Meats gift certificate along with a collection of KWUA merchandise.
Contest Details
- One photo per participant.
- Entries may be submitted through the official Facebook contest post or by emailing chelsea@kwua.org.
- All emailed entries will be uploaded by KWUA to the official Facebook contest post for voting.
- Voting is based on the number of Facebook “likes” each photo receives.
- Contest ends at 11:59 p.m. on July 31.
By submitting a photo, participants certify they own the image or have permission to share it and grant KWUA permission to use the submitted photograph in future publications, on the KWUA website, and across KWUA social media and promotional materials. Photo credit will be provided.
We look forward to celebrating the people and places that make Klamath Basin agriculture extraordinary. Visit the KWUA Facebook page or email your favorite photo to chelsea@kwua.org and join the fun!
Beyond Water Volume in the Klamath Basin: Realizing Solutions For Fish, Farms, and Wildlife
(originally published by KWUA on June 23rd)
Few opinions are more deeply embedded in Klamath Basin water debates than the notion that more water automatically produces more fish. However, decades of fisheries science and more than 25 years of experience in the Basin tell a different, more complex story.
Fish health depends on far more than one input. Water temperature, habitat quality, dissolved oxygen, disease, predation, historic fishing pressures, ocean conditions, and other overall ecosystem conditions all play critical roles in determining survival and recovery.
Since 2001, water management in the Klamath Basin has been heavily influenced by mandates issued under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for the purpose of protecting listed fish species. As a result, water allocations have increasingly prioritized instream water volumes, often leaving farms, ranches, wildlife refuges, and rural communities with reduced water supplies. Yet, despite these regulatory actions, fish populations have not improved. This warm, nutrient-loaded water is then released downstream into the Klamath River.
For salmon, this warm water from Upper Klamath Lake increases stress, reduces dissolved oxygen, and creates conditions that favor disease. For example, numerous studies show that warmer water increases both infection severity and mortality associated with Ceratonova shasta, one of the most significant diseases affecting salmon in the Klamath system. This research shows that temperature, under certain conditions, is a stronger predictor of disease-related infection or mortality than flow volume.
These findings illustrate a broader lesson for Basin management: increasing water volume alone cannot overcome other limiting factors when water quality and temperature conditions remain unfavorable. Fish recovery depends on addressing the conditions that directly influence survival, not simply increasing the quantity of water moving through the system.
Why Water Temperature Matters
High water temperatures, harmful algae blooms, low dissolved oxygen levels, and disease outbreaks can undermine fish survival regardless of how much water is allocated to flow volumes for fish. Upper Klamath Lake illustrates this challenge. The lake naturally experiences elevated summer water temperatures and heavy nutrient loads. Water in the lake accumulates nutrients and heat. This warm, nutrient-loaded water is then released downstream into the Klamath River.
For salmon, this warm water from Upper Klamath Lake increases stress, reduces dissolved oxygen, and creates conditions that favor disease. For example, numerous studies show that warmer water increases both infection severity and mortality associated with Ceratonova shasta, one of the most significant diseases affecting salmon in the Klamath system. This research shows that temperature, under certain conditions, is a stronger predictor of disease-related infection or mortality than flow volume.
These findings illustrate a broader lesson for Basin management: increasing water volume alone cannot overcome other limiting factors when water quality and temperature conditions remain unfavorable. Fish recovery depends on addressing the conditions that directly influence survival, not simply increasing the quantity of water moving through the system.
What Early Post Dam Removal Monitoring Has Told Us
The same principle applies to habitat restoration efforts. Restoring access to habitat is critical for long-term recovery, but habitat access alone, like water volume, cannot overcome the water quality, temperature, and disease challenges that continue to affect fish throughout the Basin. For years, dam removal was viewed as the most significant opportunity for fisheries recovery. Reconnecting hundreds of miles of habitat and restoring fish passage were expected to provide substantial benefits for salmon populations. The rapid migration of Chinook salmon into areas above the former dam sites exceeded expectations and represents an important restoration milestone.
Yet, in Spring 2026, researchers reported that nearly half of the sampled juvenile Chinook salmon carried Ceratonova shasta, with approximately one-fifth showing infection levels associated with mortality. These findings were documented in areas newly accessible to salmon following dam removal, illustrating that disease, temperature, and water quality challenges persist even where habitat has been restored.
The lesson is not that habitat restoration is unimportant, but that recovery depends on addressing multiple limiting factors simultaneously. Just as additional water volume has not guaranteed recovery, expanded habitat cannot eliminate temperature stress, disease pressure, or poor water quality conditions.
As stakeholders consider the next phase of recovery efforts, the focus should expand toward integrated approaches that improve overall biological conditions. Opportunities exist to improve water quality, moderate temperatures, restore ecosystem function, and support fish, wildlife, farms, and rural communities simultaneously. The burden of addressing remaining challenges cannot continue to fall disproportionately on agricultural communities, wildlife refuges, rural economies, or other species that also depend upon Basin water.
Opportunities to Restore the Basin
Projects such as Tule Lake Flow-Through offer one example of a broader, integrated approach. Rather than releasing nutrient-rich water directly from Upper Klamath Lake downstream, water would move continuously through agricultural lands, wetlands, and wildlife refuges, where it can benefit from natural treatment processes that can help reduce nutrient Scott Seus Elizabeth Nielsen Wyatt Kane concentrations, improve water quality, support groundwater recharge, and moderate temperatures before re-entering the river system. Similar treatment-wetland systems throughout the West have demonstrated measurable reductions in nutrient loading and improvements in water quality through biological uptake and natural filtration processes, although outcomes vary by location and operating conditions.
Perhaps most importantly, Flow-Through is intended to create benefits across multiple parts of the ecosystem. If successful, it could support endangered suckers, improve water quality conditions for salmon, enhance wetland habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife, contribute to groundwater recharge, and help sustain the agricultural communities that remain vital to the Basin’s economy and culture.
While additional analysis, monitoring, and implementation work will be needed to fully evaluate these outcomes, the concept illustrates the potential for more integrated water management approaches that seek to deliver benefits across multiple Basin interests.
Moving Toward Meaningful Solutions
The Klamath Basin has spent nearly three decades focused primarily on a single management approach: dividing up available water according to subjective ESA mandates. This narrow approach has failed.
However, we have a real opportunity to move beyond decades of conflict and toward solutions that improve conditions for fish while sustaining the farms, refuges, wildlife, and communities that also depend upon Basin water. The Klamath Basin has the resources, infrastructure, expertise, and drive to make it happen.
The solution is achievable.
Proud Sponsor of KWUA: BASIN FERTILIZER: 50 years in the Basin
Basin Fertilizer & Chemical Co., LLC was proud to celebrate our 50th anniversary last year — a milestone made meaningful only because we shared it with the people who made it possible: our grower partners. Seeing so many familiar faces, long‑standing customers, supplier reps, and families reminded us why we do what we do. Serving our communities is the reason we’ve been here for five decades, and it’s the reason we plan to be here for the next fifty.
For more than 50 years, Basin Fertilizer has stood alongside the growers of the Klamath Basin and beyond with a simple commitment: when our growers succeed, our communities succeed. That belief has carried us through decades of partnership, innovation, and resilience.
We know that water is the lifeblood of agriculture, our rural economy, and the way of life we all work so hard to protect. The strength of this Basin depends on the strength of the people who farm it, and we are proud to serve those who feed our communities and sustain our heritage.
Our longevity comes from the relationships we’ve built—real partnerships grounded in trust, shared goals, and a deep understanding that we rise or fall together. When our growers thrive, local businesses thrive, families thrive, and the entire Basin thrives.
We want to continue being part of that success for the next 50 years and beyond.
We also understand that uncertainty about water availability makes it difficult to commit to input purchases, plan programs, or manage cash flows. That’s why we want to partner with you in navigating these conditions.
If you need to adjust or scale back an existing order, let’s talk. If you’re trying to figure out how to stretch your inputs, we can help you think through it. If the financial pressure of this season has you wondering whether you can afford the inputs you need, come down and have that conversation with us. We can find a workable solution together.
The Klamath Basin has weathered hard years before—and the people who farm this land are as resilient as any in the country. We are proud to be part of this community, and we are committed to being a resource you can count on, not just when times are good.
Together, we can protect our water, our livelihoods, and the future of the communities we call home.
22990 Malone Rd. Merrill, OR 97633 (541) 798-5655 www.basinfertilizer.com
The Ferguson Group: Federal Report
By: Mark Limbaugh & Chris Kearney
June was yet another eventful month in Washington DC, both in the Congress and the executive branch.
In Congress, Senate Republicans and Democrats led by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) continue discussing the latest Republican comprehensive permitting reform proposal and have indicated varying degrees of optimism about reaching an agreement this year. Significant hurdles remain, however, including disagreement over key issues, including, but not limited to the role of historic preservation legal requirements; the status of Trump Administration actions regarding renewable project approvals; and the debate over preservation of state and local authority over transmission siting, versus those advocating for stronger federal grid-building power. Sen. Alan Armstrong (R-OK), a former oil pipeline company executive, is introducing legislation to expedite environmental permitting for major electricity, gas and mining projects, a move that proponents hope will jumpstart Senate negotiations to pass a bipartisan permitting package this year.
In addition, the Trump Administration is pressing ahead through executive action. Most recently, the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, whose director is a Trump appointee, signed a memorandum of understanding with the State of Utah, its fourth such deal, following agreements with Alaska, Idaho, and Tennessee, to coordinate and expedite environmental reviews for energy and infrastructure projects under the FAST-41 program. The Utah agreement establishes a framework for federal-state coordination on project reviews, including dedicated staff contacts, monthly coordination calls, and a shared federal dashboard to streamline information sharing among agencies.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Mike Lee (R-UT) held a hearing on Colorado River issues, in which he made clear that Congress intends to play a central role in shaping any solution and that basin states pursuing litigation may find themselves cut off from federal dollars. Chairman Lee convened the first major congressional hearing on the river’s future as the Interior Department prepares to issue its own unilateral management plan by end of July, one expected to include significant water delivery cuts to the lower basin states of Arizona, California, and Nevada. Lee argued in the hearing that Congress holds constitutional authority over any interstate water compact and warned that plans burdening upstream states (like Utah) would face a “difficult path forward.”
Of note, Lee and his Democrat counterpart Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) frequently clash on issues under the committee’s jurisdiction, but on this issue, their states are on the same side of the dispute, united as Upper Basin allies (UT, NM, CO, WY) against the Lower Basin states that are bearing the brunt of proposed cuts.
And in the most significant administration personnel announcement in the water arena in months, the Trump Administration’s former Chief of the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Aubrey Bettencourt, has been selected to serve as the Principal Deputy Commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation in Washington DC. Her role will also be to serve as the acting Commissioner, replacing Scott Cameron who previously served in that role and has moved back to the Water and Science hallway.
No official word yet as to when Ms. Bettencourt will be formally nominated for the Commissioner position, which must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, though we expect it to be a matter of days or weeks, not months.
The Future of Water Management Starts with Education, Collaboration, and Firsthand Experience
In June, KWUA had the opportunity to host members of the CASA Environmental Leadership Accelerator (CASA ELA) program for a tour of the Klamath Project.
With the help of the Klamath Irrigation District and Klamath Drainage District, participants learned about the history and operation of Link River Dam before visiting an overlook of the Klamath Drainage District to gain a firsthand perspective of how water is managed across the Basin.
Programs like CASA ELA are helping prepare the next generation of researchers, water managers, and environmental leaders by connecting students with real-world water management challenges and the professionals working to solve them.
Supporting the future of agriculture means supporting more than just the next generation of farmers and ranchers. It also means investing in the future scientists, engineers, researchers, and water managers who will help shape water policy and resource management for decades to come.
Thank you to CASA ELA, KID, and KDD for helping make this educational opportunity possible. We look forward to continuing these important conversations about water, agriculture, and the future of the Klamath Basin.
