Klamath Falls Crisis

the paper is about the water crisis that is taking place right now in the Klamath Falls are of Oregon. It discusses the many problems that the different groups of interest are dealing with. The main group that I focused on was the view point of the farmers.

The Klamath Lake, along with other various rivers, lakes and canals that surround it, are the basis for almost 500 species of wildlife in southern Oregon and parts of northern California. It also serves as the most important factor in a farmer’s livelihood; their irrigation. The basis for the water crisis that is going to today in this region is that the current water levels and somewhat water quality are diminishing and reeking havoc on the area’s wildlife. The most notable argument from our guest lecturers and Steve Kandra (our somewhat uninvited tour guide), is that the water levels are too shallow for the two species of sucker fish to fully mature and to spawn. This makes it difficult to the many other species that rely on the sucker for a source of food, the most popular being the bald eagle, which is also an endangered species. Aside from the wildlife issues, the other main issue involved in this water crisis is the right to water usage. Some of these water rights date back many years but, they are still having difficulty deciding who gets to use the water and exactly how much they should use. There are also many other parties involved in this crisis, aside from environmentalists and irrigators, which I feel, are left out and many people don’t realize their role in the crisis.

Coming from a finance background myself, I feel that one of the major stake holders in this issue that are being overlooked are the local business owners as well as the businesses that purchase goods from the Klamath area businesses. Since many of the family farmers around this area are unable to irrigate, they have no crop to sell. This in turn means they either have no income to purchase goods or in the worst case scenario, they might have to sell some of the assets to pay for their living expenses. These assets could include anything from faming equipment to the land itself. Having been to the Klamath Falls area personally, I noticed that it is not a very wealthy town, to say the least. You will notice that there are not a lot of corporate firms compared to fam...

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...use. They said that cattle can damage the land very easily and it can take quite a few years to reverse the damage. It also discussed some of the problems with the cattle polluting the streams. What wasn’t discussed very much were the steps that the ranchers were taking to help preserve the land. It seems like all they did was focus on the negative side of what cattle can do to the land.

Regardless of what someone’s standing is on the water crisis debate, it is very apparent that there isn’t going to be any short term solution to this problem. As stated by Steve Kandra and another speaker, the way I understood it was that the current biological order is in place for ten years. This doesn’t leave any room for improvement. Another factor to consider is that there is 70% less rain fall this year compared to the average. This is going to be very difficult for them to keep the water levels stable without the irrigators even taking any water. On MSNBC, a reporter discussed the current conditions around the Klamath Basis as well as a number of other places throughout the west. Many states involved with the problem of dramatically less rain fall have already declared a drought for summer.