News

Fears of another massive fish kill are growing as tribal officials and biologists size up the combined effects of a low water year and high demand from upstream farmers and local pot growers, the Two Rivers Tribune is reporting.

“Dangerous conditions on the Klamath and Trinity become the new normal,” warns the headline in this week’s edition.

About 100 juvenile fish have already died in Blue Creek, where an estimated 20,000 have crowded together to escape warmer water elsewhere, a Yurok fisheries biologist told Two Rivers staff writer Kristan Korns.

Korns’ piece offers a snapshot of local conditions, from trucks trundling into the back country carrying loads of irrigation piping to creeks plagued by algae to the “sickly sweet” chemical spray used on legal crops: “It smelled like syrup mixed with bathroom cleaner, and could be felt in the eyes and on the skin from 100 yards away.”