Like a good American, I sat diligently in front of my television last week and watched the President’s State of the Union.  I actually felt a little proud of myself.  Usually, I feign boredom or busyness and don’t make it through the whole speech—what with all the up and down and clapping and delays for bad jokes—but this year, now that we’re in D.C., I felt some obligation to buckle down and pay attention.  

This was the right year.  Of course, for me, the hubbub over salmon was thrilling and remarkably accurate.  Last week, salmon were very much on the Oregon Wild brain.  Along with our partners the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Protection Information Center, and the Larch Company, Oregon Wild filed a petition to list the Klamath-Trinity Chinook salmon under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  The goal of the petition is to establish protections for the dwindling wild spring Chinook population in the Klamath-Trinity River watersheds.  You can read more about this effort here.  After working on this petition effort for some time now, it seemed all the more appropriate that the President’s speech called out one of the greatest challenges in establishing protections for salmon—agency management.

When considering government competency and opportunities for improved efficiency, the President aptly pointed out what many in the conservation and fisheries community have dealt with for years:  “Then there’s my favorite example:  The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they’re in saltwater.”  This isn’t news to many, but it struck a cord with the American public, and what did people remember most from last Tuesday night’s speech?  Salmon.  

At Oregon Wild we see this schism between fresh and salt-water fisheries management in the Klamath Basin on a regular basis.  In freshwater, in Upper Klamath Lake and Tule Lake, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFS) is tasked with managing the Biological Opinion and protections for ESA listed sucker fish, Lost River and short nosed.  Just downstream from the lake, in the Klamath River, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS) (a branch of the Commerce Department’s National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration) must ensure sufficient flows (under their Biological Opinion) and habitat protections for ESA listed coho salmon.  As of last week, we’re also asking them to consider improved protections and species restoration efforts for Chinook salmon.

For a system that is connected both literally and through dozens of irritable stakeholder groups, these listed species, suckers and coho, make for complex management between Interior’s USFWS and Commerce’s NFMS.  Add irrigators to the mix, and Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) makes it a weekly cocktail party, sans the fun drink umbrellas.  

There is no doubt, the Klamath is a tricky system to manage.  These days, agencies and tribes meet on a nearly weekly basis in an attempt to navigate river flows and lake levels to accommodate various basin needs, including those of the noted listed species.  Oregon Wild has long played a “watch dog” role in the basin, and while the agencies’ job is complex, we continue to ensure protections for fish and wildlife in the basin are maintained.  In doing so, we often ask that management agencies be held accountable for their actions, particularly when they run astray from that agenda, as required by law.  

In order to ensure adequate water levels for sucker fish in Upper Klamath Lake, the USFWS follows the guidance of a Biological Opinion (2008), wherein lake levels are identified for each month of the year.  For example, in February, the minimum level of Upper Klamath Lake should be 4141.5 feet.  For ideal “refill” (so that the lake can sufficiently refill by summer, to meet the needs of irrigators and downstream fish), the lake level should be 4142.5 feet.  In February 2010, the maximum lake level for Upper Klamath Lake was 4140.09 feet; two feet below the targeted refill levels, and a clear violation of the Biological Opinion for endangered suckers, and therefore federal law.  The Klamath Basin suffered one of its worst droughts in decades during 2010, and low lake levels in February only made the challenge more difficult later in the year.  Lucky for the agency, neither conservation nor tribal stakeholders filed suit.  Given this significant blip in 2010, we’re taking a much closer look at lake levels on a weekly basis in 2011.  

Similarly, as recently as January 2011, the Klamath River saw significant shortfalls in river flow levels below Iron Gate Dam.  According to the NMFS Biological Opinion (2010) for the protection of coho, river flows should be at around 1751 cubic feet per second (cfs) in January for an average water year.  This year, flows spent 15 days well below 1700 cfs during the first month of 2011.  Instead levels assumed drought-like levels, hovering between 65-95% exceedence (read:  dry year to extreme (!) drought).  It’s clear (so far) that 2011 is not gearing up to be a drought, and certainly not in January.  In fact, according to a January 15, 2011 Herald and News article, recent reports suggested from a survey of 15 sites around the Klamath Basin, that by the time the water year begins in April, Upper Klamath Lake flows will be 116 percent of normal, Gerber Reservoir will be 129 percent of normal, and the Williamson River will be 117 percent of normal.  Hardly a drought.  Conservation and tribal colleagues waved a few red flags, asked some pointed questions, and by January 16th, flows came up to average year conditions.  Again, lucky for the agencies, no party filed suit.  

The challenge the Klamath faces is consistently an issue of demand vs. supply.  For years Oregon Wild has argued that we must bring demand for water in the basin back into balance with what the watershed can naturally provide.  

The President is right—it’s complicated, and there need to be improved efficiencies when managing complex natural systems.  Agencies in the Klamath Basin are beginning to open those lines of communication, and we can certainly sympathize with the difficult job in front of them.  Unfortunately, it seems suckers and coho might be suffering through their adjustment period.  Furthermore, as non-governmental stakeholders (who cannot participate in weekly flows’ discussions), our information and resources are limited, and we need more accountability.  More evidence that something is being done to ensure whole months don’t go by wherein lake levels are a foot low, or river flows are causing fish to gasp.  

Like the President, we’ll be watching for competency and efficiency, in hopes of enjoying many more years of Klamath salmon, smoked or otherwise.