Posted on 05/03/2002 4:23:57 PM PDT by RCW2001
Edited on 04/04/2004 3:52:59 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
A federal judge on Friday rejected an effort by commercial anglers, tribes and environmental groups seeking to force the government to release more water to the Klamath River instead of diverting it to farms.
Commercial fishermen sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the National Marine Fisheries Service last month, arguing that water being stored for farmers should be released to help young salmon migrate to the ocean.
by John Diehm Siskiyou Daily News Staff Writer
HAPPY CAMP - Something is fishy about the "scientific study" concerning stranded baby salmon on the Klamath River, claims Independence Creek resident Connie Rasmussen.
On thursday (5-2-02), the L.A. Times published a story called "A race to save baby salmon in Klamath - biologists rescue hundreds of fish stranded by low water levels as river's flow is channeled to farm fields."
The lead paragraph of the article written by Times staff writer Deborah Schoch states," As more Klamath River water is diverted to farms upstream, water levels drop and California state biologists have begun rescuing baby salmon stranded in puddles along river banks."
Federal water officials today told the Siskiyou Daily News the irrigation project near Klamath Falls and Tulelake has not caused river levels to drop enough to kill salmon. "The diversions to farmers has nothing to do with what is happening downstream." said Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken.
Rasmussen, who lives 14 miles downriver of Happy Camp at Independence Creek, said she had an encounter with the biologists who provided the information for what she calls a misleading L.A.Times story. She has grave doubts about their methods and conclusions.
Rasmussen said earlier in the week she noticed a group of people trespassing on her property, and making their way down to the Klamath River where there are some high water pools annually left by winter runoff from tributaries. She confronted the party and was told that they were biologists from the U.S. Forest Service and Yurok Tribe.
"They told me they were going to save some of the stranded fish in the pools," Rasmussen said. I thought that was all right because the fish were going to die anyway when the pools dry up or they get eaten by the birds."
Rasmussen said she watched what they did and saving the fish was not their priority. "They gave the fish an electric shock that killed many of them, counted the fish that floated to the top, and left."
When the article came out in the L.A. Times, Rasmussen said she knew it was not right. "They made an assumption that more water in the river would link these pools to the river. That is simply not what happens here. These pools are left every year by winter runoff and have nothing to do with the water level in the river. It's not a portion of the main river," she said, "it goes dry every spring. It dried up even earlier last year."
She said that the heavy rain this winter probably raised the level of the water enough for small fish to get to the site. "I've never seen fish in there before. It's a long way from the river."
Rasmussen said the Klamath River is running higher right now than it has for years and more water would not link these pools with the river. "The water is not low, it is high. I walk the river every day."
Dan Keppen, director of the Klamath Water Users Group, said the assumption of the biologists that diversion of irrigation water is the cause of the stranded fish along the river is simply not accurate. Some fish are stranded each year as a natural part of the river. He also finds it strange that this report came out just a day before a judge was scheduled to make a decision on river flows.
There is a little more to this article, but the Siskiyou Daily News does not have this article posted on it's site yet. So this ol' forester had to type the darn thing in by hand. I felt that you folks deserved to hear "the rest of the story".
As documented in my previous post, Ed's news flash is corrected: Standed fish examined by same dishonest biologists as those who studied the Lynx.
Trinity River will be blown out in the flyfishing only section, dam to Old Lewiston Bridge, from 30 April to 28 May due to the recent court decision to return Trinity flows to more "natural" flows for this time of year.
There is nothing normal about these flows. This is one of those sections where the fish are protected and like to just take their time to eat bugs, grow and slowly go downstream. They will be ripped downstream for 4 weeks.
Wonder if some of these ripped out fish due to high/fast and cold water are what the liars who represent the enviralist are talking about. More than likely any young stranded fish down stream is stranded due to high water and the fish using too much energy to keep from drowning. Yes fish will drown if they become too weak.
Of course know the lynx hair planters, they probably froze fish from last years run and took the frozen body's out and threw them in the river.
I made a reply that earlier on this thread, that this B$tch lawyer was lying as her group does all of the time.
It is time to start using the Rico laws on these lying envirals, their lawyers and those who plant dead fish and lynx hairs. Drag them into court under the Rico Laws. Take the law license away from this lying B$tch lawyer and fine these phoney fishermen that other fishermen detest! (Rant off now)
There were so many Coho in the Oregon rivers last year, that Fish and Game toadies were wearing out 8 aluminum bats on each shift killing these precious salmonoids.
A fish and game toadie about used his bat on me when I released a hatchery hen Coho and didn't kill it. He knew that he would have to kill it and a couple of million of its sisters and bros up stream during the great salmon shortage of 2001! (Salmon shortage is calculated by counting planted lynx hair and feathers from spotted Owl nests gathered from WalmaRt stores. These dumb birds like to nest in the R part of the Walmart Signs. Then you multiply that by the number of short nose Sucker fish who didn't die today but that you are counting as dead. This equals the number of imaginary dead baby coho in the Klamath as per the great enviral science!)
Save the Salmon! Abort an Enviralist and a lawyer!
Meanwhile a Federal judge is ordering SonicBlue , the manufacter of ReplayTV 4000 video recorders , to:
A federal magistrate in Los Angeles has ordered SonicBlue to spy on thousands of digital video recorder users -- monitoring every show they record, every commercial they skip and every program they send electronically to a friend.
So there is not a lot of consistant opinion on things is there.
I heard this about the Sonic Blue while driving. I just turned the radio off. My wife said first you stop listening to Rush and Sean, and now this. She is starting to bring her tapes back into my Bronco.
Now, I vote we abolish the EPA.
(snip)
Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Asssociation that represented farmers at the Oakland hearing, released a statement saying, "We are pleased that rushed and rash behavior has not been rewarded by Judge Armstrong."More omissions at link.
I believe that Judge Armstrong has made a couple of decisions in the last year plus that has really rankled the lefty/lying lawyers on the far side. They were not about enviralism, they were on other issues. I was pleased, but I can't remember what they were.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.