Michael E. Campana, director of UNM’s Water Resources Program and the Albert and Mary Jane Black Professor of Hydrogeology, has been appointed to the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council Committee on Further Studies on Endangered and Threatened Fishes in the Klamath River.
Photo: Klamath River in Oregon
The Klamath River, which heads in Oregon and flows to the Pacific Ocean in California, used to be the nation’s third most productive salmon river, but has seen its fishery reduced dramatically in recent years due to development in the basin. Several of its fish species are classified by the Federal government as either endangered or threatened under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act.
The Klamath basin has the all the elements for a classic Western water conflict: endangered and threatened fish species, Native American tribes, fishermen, environmentalists, the Federal government, hydroelectric plants and irrigators.
Farmers use irrigation water supplied by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Irrigation Project, which supplies water to about 240,000 acres in California and Oregon. The water usage can endanger fish in the Klamath River by reducing flows or changing water temperatures. Hydroelectric plants can block fish from reaching upstream spawning areas.
“The Klamath River situation has been categorized by some as the archetypical ‘fish vs. farmers’ conflict,” said Campana. “To some, irrigated agriculture is the culprit, threatening the fish, while others question the excessive concern for fish and the seeming disregard for the welfare of people and the local irrigation-based economy.”
The NAS-NRC “Klamath 2” committee will build upon the work of the first Klamath River committee, which issued its report in 2004. Its specific charges will be to: review the Bureau of Reclamation’s effort to reconstruct the “natural” (pre-development) flows of the Klamath River; review a study of habitat needs for coho salmon and other anadromous fishes; review and evaluate the implications of those studies vis-à-vis threatened and endangered species; and identify additional data and information gaps.
The appointment to the committee will suit Campana appropriately. He has been at UNM for nearly 17 years, but will depart for Oregon in May and will head the new Institute for Water and Watersheds at Oregon State University.
Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at February 21, 2006 11:59 AM