Open Letter from The Klamath Basin Alliance, Inc. regarding:
“Klamath River Basin Restoration Agreement”

“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

The proposed “Klamath River Basin Restoration Agreement”, a 2-½ year labor, has been released to the public. The winners of the prized “seats” at the negotiation table have been released from their self-imposed secrecy to “educate” the seat-less. We, in turn have been afforded little time to scrutinize their agreement for content, legality, and constitutional credibility. Why? Will this agreement crumble under the weight of close scrutiny? Basin Alliance believes it must and will.

“The Mazama Forest Project”, the projected $21 million tribal land proposal, should not have been included within the scope of this agreement. The Klamath Tribes’ status, sovereignty, and private land purchase with federal dollars is a separate and volatile issue. Assurances are sought for tribal preference for contracting, employment and business opportunities, suborning equal rights. Preferential funding for programs such as separate Indian health services, educational programs, housing programs, tribal governments, congressional lobbying and gambling monopolies, to name a few, are already in force for tribal members.

Since Tribal Restoration in 1986, the Klamath Tribes have opposed and effectively restricted logging, thinning, road maintenance, custodial stewardship and enhancement projects on National Forest lands. Forest revenues have dwindled sharply. Now, taking no responsibility themselves, the tribes claim that the forestlands have been poorly managed and proclaim themselves as good stewards of the land. The Klamath Tribes ask for special preference on both private and federal lands to promote their proposed mill and biomass facility.

Depending on whose history is correct, endangered salmon will be introduced or reintroduced into the upper basin above the dams. If salmon were as abundant as is claimed, why would the bony sucker, not the salmon, have been the alleged dietary staple of the Tribes? This “experiment”, with a projected cost of half a billion dollars, will be a regulatory and economic nightmare for the Klamath Basin.

The promise that irrigators will be “guaranteed” water is clearly hollow. The State water adjudication has not been completed, nor has compliance with state water laws been assured. Future biological opinions, and looming Clean Water Act and the Upper Klamath TMDL (total maximum daily load) determinations, will render the ambiguous promises of water impotent. The Klamath Tribes have even asked for enforcement and jurisdiction over future Clean Water Act proceedings. Unbelievably, irrigators pledge not to contest tribal water “claims” with the priority date of “time immemorial” rendering all other rights junior to theirs.

Numerous groups have different roles under the agreement, but under whose authority are these groups regulated? Who has oversight and under what guidelines or rules will these groups operate? Who are the enforcers? Operating without oversight authority will result in costly litigation and nullification of unauthorized acts executed under the pretext of this agreement.

The “you’re all in or you’re all out” tactic used in forcing acceptance of this agreement through coercive action and destroying individual rights is deplorable. Adopting a compact that promotes cultural and racial segregation is a “crime.”

God bless us with the ability, integrity and determination to defeat this pernicious document.

“The fog comes on little cats feet ... it sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches.”
-- Carl Sandberg, American Poet (1878-1967)