The Biocrat
The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and a dam removal plan were signed this February by a couple of dozen stakeholders — several tribes, fishermen and farmer and environmental groups, agencies and politicians. Craig Tucker, who represented the Karuk Tribe in the negotiations, said Detrich was the one who really enabled frank discussions to flourish.
“At times we just caucused, the tribes and the irrigators, and we just threw the feds out of the room,” said Tucker. “I think there were some people from the other agencies that didn’t really like that. But Phil was one who would say, we need to give them space. … Phil had that certain kind of humility, where he was helping to build the bridges.”
Detrich calls the deal a success only on paper, for now. The future will determine if it saves salmon.
“I think it will make things a lot better for fish,” he said. “Will it give all the water to the fish? No. Will there still be difficulty for both farmers and fish in the driest of years? Yeah, there will. What happens then is that the relationships that have been built over the last several years in negotiating this agreement will get together and try to work things out instead of suing each other.”
Some walked out on the deal. A couple of environmental groups were mad it didn’t require thousands of privately farmed acres in the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge to be repatriated into the refuge.
Detrich reponds that the FWS was required by law to set aside some of the refuge land for farming. And, he said, a new agriculture/wetlands rotation scheme was improving the landscape — and now they’re beginning to encourage organic farming on some of those lands.
Other critics say the deal should have included removal of the Keno dam, whose reservoir they say is a major source of the pollution making fish sick in the river. Detrich says no doubt it is a pollution problem.
“But that reservoir provides irrigation water for the National Wildlife Refuges,” he said. “There would be a big tradeoff to taking out the dam. There were a number of tradeoffs made, no question. Was that one worth falling on a sword about? Not to us.”
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Label GMOs Signature Gathering Training
meetings / 4 p.m. Sun Yi's Academy of Tae Kwon Do, 1215 Giuntoli Lane, Arcata. Help gather valid signatures to get the 'California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act' on the 2012 ballot. E-mail northernhumboldtlabelgmos@hotmail.com. 223-0424.
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music / 3 p.m. Cafe Veritas/Mosgo's, 180 Westwood Center, Arcata. Informal monthly gathering of musicians playing Irish and other Celtic music. Hosted by Seabury Gould. seaburygould.com. 845-8167.
Nonviolence Action Camp
etc. / 10 a.m. Chinmaya Mission near Piercy. Weekend-long direct action orientation features workshops, role playing, seminars, ceremonies and field trips. Bring food, bedding, warm clothes, signs, banners, bikes, drums, acoustic instruments. Pre-register. saverichardsongrove.org. 932-5898.
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ONE Comments
Comment / By Thirdeye / March 19, 8:46 a.m.
Dietrich puts it in a nutshell pretty well. The more you know about environmental topics, the more you see that eco-groovy is a bunch of shallow nonsense.