Apparently the stench of 33,000 rotting salmon didn't reach the Supervisors' chambers. The only fish in the entire Klamath system not in serious trouble are the yellow perch at Copco Lake and the rainbow trout downstream of Iron Gate.

The continued agricultural bias displayed by the Board of Supervisors in a county where tourism has contributed more than farming to the local economy for a number of years is a paradox I have yet to understand.

Today, as a nation, we find ourselves in a process of deciding how best to use a very precious resource, the water produced by the Klamath River System. Two court decisions and a vote in Congress over the last two weeks, in addition to the looming dam relicensing process should make it clear to everyone that water is a natural resource owned by all the people and the decisions made regarding it's use are not going to be left to the local citizenry.

Unfortunately demands and rights for water use far exceed the capacity of the Klamath system. There is a drastic over allocation of the existing water supply. "Everyone is learning that what's being asked of them by the farmers is (a) impossible to deliver and (b) not really believed by the farmers themselves, i.e., each farming interest asks for its water to by guaranteed while asserting that other farmers should be cut off. The delegations know the status quo is unsustainable; they need to respond to Administration leadership on the issue." This statement was made by Allen Foreman, Chairman of the Klamath Tribes To the House Subcommittee on Water and Power in 2001.

I believe it is possible for a strong agricultural community to coexist within a strong healthy ecosystem. However, until the agricultural community resolves the water supply issue and can rely on dependable deliveries, it will remain a depressed segment of our economy. The only way to develop an economically strong regional agricultural community is to reduce the amount of irrigated land and restore the health of the river.

The courts have affirmed the water rights of the Tribes as being superior to any other claim for over 100 years and since the tribes are leading the fight for river restoration, it will eventually happen. Slowly we are seeing movement in this direction. The recent restoration of the Wood River and Williamson River Delta wetlands has had a profound positive effect on both the fish and bird populations. A partnership of conservation groups, government, and farmers led by the Tribes made it work.

Without doubt there will be temporary dislocations as we proceed through the process of change. I submit it would be better for the long-term economic health of the County to look for ways to improve the health of the river, such as the preferred BLM alternative, than to continue to insist on trying to preserve the status quo. The Board of Supervisors energy could be better-spent finding ways to work with the Federal Government to find funding which will ease the transition.

River restoration will bring about a increase in tourism which will improve the economic health of the local economy as well as provide much more funding for the County Government than the agricultural community could ever dream of.

The water issue has deeply polarized our community and intransient flippant statements such as the one made by Supervisor Hoy can only widen the divide we will all have to cross in the coming years. I hope it doesn't take an economic boycott of the County, the brunt of which would be felt by the tourism sector, to bring us to our senses!