Congressional Action on Settlement Needed in Klamath Basin

Congressional Action on Settlement Needed in Klamath Basin

This spring bill was introduced into Congress to approve and implement the Klamath Basin agreements, to improve natural resource management, support economic development, and sustain agricultural production in the Klamath Basin. In the past six or seven years, farmers and ranchers have worked with multiple stake hold groups with differing opinions, tribes, state and federal agencies to create a settlement agreement. Klamath Water Users Association Executive Director Greg Addington explains
Addington: “If all of the stakeholders can kind of agree about how the water is managed — including in times of shortage. That is real valuable to us. What we want to know is —we know there will be shortages over time - but we want to know as early in the season as possible. Because the worse scenario for us is, you invest in your ground, put all the inputs in, you plant your crops and then you find out in August that you are out of water. That is the worse thing. We want to know early in the season — and we are getting better at that. But my point is — I think if we had some of these settlement agreement in effect, things that we’ve worked on over the past five or six years that awaiting Congressional approval; if we had those today, we’d be a lot more stable situation.”
Hopefully Congress will soon consider approval of this long-awaiting settlement for the Klamath Basin and all of its stakeholders.
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