Protect and Restore Free Flowing Oregon Rivers

Klamath Advocates Go To Court Over Wildlife Mismanagement
Conservation Groups Challenge Improper Management Plan for “Everglades of the West”

MEDFORD – In January three conservation groups -- Audubon Society of Portland, Oregon Wild and WaterWatch of Oregon -- filed litigation in federal court against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failure to follow federal law in the creation of the Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex. In 2015, the same groups won a court order to compel the agency to finally produce the long-overdue plan, which is required by law.

“The Klamath Refuges are some of the most important bird habitat in the Western United States,” said Portland Audubon Conservation Director, Bob Sallinger. “Unfortunately the plan put forward by the Service fails to meet the requirements of the law to protect and restore these critically important wetlands. We must demand better for these invaluable public lands.”

The National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 requires that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service develop and implement a “comprehensive conservation plan” (CCP) for each unit within the national wildlife refuge system. The CCP describes desired future conditions and provides long-range guidance and management direction to achieve the purposes of the refuge and ensure commercial activities on refuge lands do not undermine wildlife conservation. The Improvement Act set a deadline of October 9, 2012 for the completion of all CCPs. While the vast majority of refuges in the United States met this requirement, five Klamath Refuges lagged far behind. After a court order, the Service produced a final plan in December 2016.

“We are simply asking that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service obey the law,” said Sean Stevens, Executive Director of Oregon Wild. “The agency is legally required to prevent commercial activities, like leasing refuge lands to private agribusiness, from harming fish and wildlife. We simply want them to do their job.”

While there have been announcements in recent years of water-sharing and dam removal deals between some Klamath Basin stakeholders, these agreements do not address the failure of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to obey the law in the development of this CCP, nor do they resolve the ongoing water crisis facing the refuges.

Workers in protection suits spraying pesticides on Tule Lake NWR. Photo by Jim McCarthy

The Klamath Basin refuges’ wetlands represent some of the most important waterfowl habitat in the United States. An estimated 80% of Pacific Flyway waterfowl utilize the wetlands during their migratory journeys and more than 260 species of birds have been observed on the refuges.

The Klamath Wetland Complex once encompassed more than 350,000 acres but today it has been reduced to 80,000 acres to make way for commercial agriculture. In addition more than 22,000 refuge acres are leased for commercial agriculture, displacing essential wildlife habitat. In recent years, federal water management decisions and drought have resulted in Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge frequently going dry during the critical spring and fall migratory periods. Since 2012, tens of thousands of birds on these refuges have died for lack of water resulting from allocation decisions made within the Department of the Interior. When few wetland acres are available on these refuges due to lack of water, large numbers of waterfowl pack together during migration periods, leading to lethal disease outbreaks. Refuge staff estimated that some 20,000 birds perished this way in 2014. Similar conditions on these refuges sparked massive waterfowl die-offs in 2012 and 2013.

“Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge is one of the nation’s most important habitats for migratory waterfowl, but this management plan would allow parched wetlands and massive disease outbreaks to remain the norm here,” said Jim McCarthy, Southern Oregon Program Manager for WaterWatch of Oregon. “If the status quo continues, as largely proposed by this plan, we expect large bird kills will continue on this refuge and others. That is not acceptable.”

The groups allege that the plan fails to meet the purposes of the Klamath Basin Refuges to provide diverse habitats for migrating birds and wildlife. The plan ignores the implications of more frequent drought and climatic changes on refuge wetlands and the impacts that continued agricultural leasing has on wildlife, water quality, and diversion of limited water resources away from wetland habitats. The Service failed to consider management alternatives that would ensure reliable water supplies to the refuges or would reduce the incompatible agricultural leasing program on the refuges to ensure that wildlife conservation purposes are met. The plaintiffs ask the court to declare that the plan violates federal law and to enjoin further agricultural leasing on Lower Klamath and Tule Lake refuges.

“It is especially important that the Klamath Refuges follow science and the law given their critical importance to wildlife and the complex challenges that these particular refuges face,” added WaterWatch’s Jim McCarthy.

The plaintiffs are represented by the Crag Law Center, a public interest environmental law firm.

Links:

• Click here to view the court filing.

WaterWatch was hard at work in 2016 continuing a nearly decade-long battle for the Clackamas River and the fish that depend on it.

With an amazing team of experts and witnesses, WaterWatch went to trial in July and October 2016 to secure better protections for Clackamas River fish and to force Oregon to follow the law.

HISTORY:

In early 2008, WaterWatch challenged the Oregon Water Resources Department's decision to approve diversion of an additional 100 million gallons of water per day from the lower Clackamas River for municipal use. We asserted in part that the diversions were not conditioned to maintain the persistence of salmon and steelhead in the Clackamas listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, as required by law.

In essence, while the state identified Clackamas River flow levels needed at different times of year to maintain these imperiled fish, the mechanisms proposed in the water rights to maintain these flows had little or no effect on the cities' proposed use of water if the fish flows were not met. After a trial and an appeal, the Oregon Court of Appeals agreed with WaterWatch, concluding that with regard to protecting these fish, the agency's decision lacked "both substantial evidence and substantial reason."

The court told the agency to try again.

INADEQUATE RESPONSE:

Sadly, rather than improve the rejected rationale for the clearly inadequate fish protection conditions, the state has chosen to double down in its defense of these clearly inadequate conditions. Instead of addressing the questions posed by the Court of Appeals, the state continues to gloss over the central dispute: how do the proposed conditions protect the streamflows needed for the river's struggling fish?

WaterWatch fundamentally believes that, if used wisely, there is plenty of water supply in the metro area and that any additional municipal diversions from the Clackamas River can be formulated to protect the needs of imperiled salmon and steelhead while the reasonable water needs of cities are also met. We are committed to ensuring that the Clackamas River and its fish enjoy the protections afforded by law -- even if we have to go back to the Court of Appeals to make it happen.

Your support will help us continue to protect the Clackamas River for the fish, wildlife, and people who depend on it. Thank you.