The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, which was signed in tandemwith the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement on February 18, 2010, is a remarkable political achievement for many reasons. These include the size of the Klamath Basin, ten and a half million acres, and the vast differences, as well as the distances, between many of the stakeholders. It is remarkable especially in light of the history of war and other forms of hostility between the populations within the Klamath Basin.
Bear in mind that the Klamath Basin was a war zone. During the Gold Rush, there were numerous battles between miners, vigilante groups, and tribal members. In the early 1850s, vigilantes based in Yreka, California launched a War of Extermination against Indians, especially the Shasta Tribe. In the early 1870s, the Modoc War eliminated the Modoc Tribe from lands later drained and developed for agriculture and ranching under the Klamath Project of the Bureau of Reclamation.
Illuminating crucial developments in the 20th century is the perspective put forward by Aldo Leopold in A Sand County Almanac. He wrote, "Many historical events, hitherto explained solely in terms of human enterprise, were actually biotic interactions between people and land." Land for Leopold was a very inclusive term, including wildlife; so we can look at 20th century events in terms of the changing relationship between people and salmon.
There was once a thriving salmon canning industry at the mouth of the Klamath. The canneries employed Yuroks as fishermen; the record catch, in 1912, was 17,000 salmon in a day. After the first dam came in, in 1918, salmon runs declined, and by the end of the 1920s, there were no canneries. By cutting off hundreds of miles of habitat, the dams reduced the spring chinook, which spawned in the Upper Basin, to a remnant population.
California's response to the demise of the canning industry was to ban the Indian fishery. A US Supreme Court decision restored Indian fishing rights and the Yurok reservation forty years later. But during the drought year of 1978, commercial and sports fishermen blamed the Indians for the decline of Fall chinook salmon, and the US Fish & Wildlife Service tried to enforce a moratorium on Indian fishing, even instituting a Court of Indian Offenses to punish violators. The gillnetters responded with nonviolent resistance. This event became known as the Salmon War.
Fast forward twenty years: The Yurok Tribe is employing scientists who monitor the decline of coho salmon, which are listed under the Endangered Species Act. By this time, the commercial fishermen recognize that the tribe is their ally. In 2001, a judge's order invokes the ESA to curtail irrigation in the Upper Basin. The farmers respond with civil disobedience. This became known as the Water War.
In view of this history, it's no wonder that there were hostile feelings on the part of some Klamath Basin communities toward others. And by mid-decade it was clear that the commercial salmon fishing industry in California and much of Oregon was collapsing due in part to the decline of Klamath salmon populations.
The history of conflict within the Klamath Basin raises a question that is important to answer, not only for the sake of knowing the recent past but also as a possible model for addressing present and future conflicts over resources elsewhere. How did Klamath Basin stakeholders turn from bitter and sometimes violent confrontation to the process of consensus building and negotiation that led to their unprecedented dam removal and river restoration agreements? Without presuming to answer this question, here are some observations.
1) The poverty of many farmers in 2001, the extraordinary die-off of tens of thousands of spawning salmon in 2002 after the farmers' water was restored to the fields without regard to the needs of salmon, and the collapse of the commercial salmon fishing industry all contributed to a tragic awareness: awareness of a shared humanity and shared suffering that helped bring Klamath Basin stakeholder communities together to find common ground.
2) Expiration of the licenses of the four hydropower dams on the Klamath River was a catalyst, because the outcome of the relicensing process would shape the future of the Basin, environmentally, economically, and politically. This helped to motivate moves toward reconciliation.
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