Lessons flow from Klamath Basin water crisis

ater is flowing this summer, but the KlaW math Basin continues to reel from the dramatic cutoff of irrigation water last year to hundreds of farmers. Straddling the California-Oregon border, the high-elevation Klamath Basin is fairly remote and sparsely populated. But it made national headlines when a severe drought resulted in a decision by federal regulators on April 6,2001, to stop the flow of irrigation waters that historically fed agriculture. The cutoff served to maintain flows in the Klamath River for coho salmon and to keep lake levels high for two endangered species of sucker fish in Upper Klamath Lake. That’s the day the phone started ringing off the hook at the UC Intermountain Research and Extension Center (IREC) in Tulelake, Calif., near the epicenter of the resulting uproar. On the other end of the line were desperate growers who needed answers on how to manage their dry fields, public agencies asking for information on improving irrigation efficiency, and scientists wondering whether they could conduct planned field studies. “It was all consuming,” says Harry Carlson, IREC superintendent and farm advisor. ”The days were long.” And more than year later, ”it hasn’t stopped,” Carlson says, ”although it’s become a bit less intense.” UC scientists, advisors and outreach profes: sionals continue to play a critical role in the Klamath Basin, providing science-based information, analysis and outreach for a variety of stakeholders, including farmers, fishermen, water managers, politicians, the media and government regulators. At the same time, the IREC was dealing with a problem of its own: the cutoff of water to the 100acre research plot leased for several decades from the Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge (see box). The research program is on track this year, but Carlson estimates that he still spends half his time on activities related to last summer’s irrigation cutoff, including serving on several regional committees and task forces. “We’re looking at more long-term solutions,” Carlson says. “If there’s a silver lining to what happened, it’s that there is almost a consensus across the stakeholders that we don’t ever want to do it the way we did last year.”