Siskiyou County Water Users Determined To Save Endangered Species

Siskiyou County Water Users Determined

To Save Endangered Species

Press Release

By Dr. Richard Gierak, Science Officer of Siskiyou County Water Users Association

Hundreds of species are threatened with decimation should Klamath River Dams be removed. The release of 20 million cubic yards of toxic sludge, as determined by the Bureau of Reclamation, contains toxic levels of Mercury, Chromium, Zinc and Antimony which will destroy a plethora of species that depend on the Klamath River. These are just a sample of species that will pay the price for dam removal for a non-native Coho Salmon Species. (1)

Green Sturgeon, Lamprey, Steelhead trout, Chinook, Coho, Small scale sucker, Dace, Stickleback, Tailed frogs, Cutthroat trout, Minnow, Sculpin, Cottoidei, Southern Sucker, Candlefish, Western Brook Lamprey, Otters, Snails Basalt, Freshwater mussels, California floater, Western Gray Squirrel, American Beaver, Western Pocket Gopher, White-throated Woodrat, Black Rat, Black Bear, Northern Fur Seal, Northern Sea Lion, Coyote and this does not include the hundreds of species of birds that will be affected by toxic waters in the Klamath. (2)

The Coho Recovery Plan calls for increased water flows which the Klamath Basin Area Office of the Bureau of Reclamation Fisheries Research Division stated that water flows are insignificant to Coho Salmon spawning. (3)

Historical records, Karuk Tribe and the Shasta Tribe have clearly stated that Coho Salmon were never native to the Klamath Basin. The expert panel, in 2010, concluded that Coho Salmon in the Klamath Basin were from the Cascadia hatchery in Oregon which empties into the Willamette River in Oregon and are not native to the Klamath. Under the Federal Endangered Species Act there is no provision to list a non native species and therefore the listing by California Fish & Wildlife and National Marine Fisheries is arbitrary, capricious and unlawful. (4)

Under the KBRA/KHSA profiting plan for dams removals, billions of Taxpayer funds will be required for consequential damage to the entire river environment, but only after having Congressionally granted liability protection for the devastation caused to both that environment and her regional communities. Ironically, the plan anticipates the likely extermination of the very salmon solely ‘justifying’ those removals and calls for potentially replacing them with ‘genetically enhanced’ salmon as selected ‘from this and other watersheds’.

The entire Coho Recovery Plan by the California Fish & Wildlife has nothing to do with saving Coho Salmon, but instead is being promulgated to take control of vested water rights, private property rights, and assure ‘partnership’ funding placed on the backs of the uncompensated landowners. Both the listing of Coho Salmon and the Coho Recovery Plan should be dismantled and cancelled to stop this insanity. Call your Senators and Congressmen to voice your passion to save these species. For more information or support contact SCWUA at 530 842-4400.

1. Toxic sludge analysis by Bureau of Reclamation Pg. 47