The National Academy of Sciences has waded into a battle over water policy in Northern California and Oregon with a report criticizing the judgment of federal fisheries biologists.
Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service recommended water restrictions to protect two endangered species of suckerfish in Upper Klamath Lake and a downstream species of Coho salmon. The recommendations came in the middle of a regional drought and touched off angry protests by farmers and calls for an independent review of the move.
CREDIT: AP PHOTO
The committee's report, issued this week, found no clear connection between water levels and conditions that promote algal blooms and other problems that degrade water quality and can kill fish. At the same time, the committee said there was no evidence to support an alternative plan from the Bureau of Reclamation to release more water than normal to farmers.
Glen Spain, a fisheries expert with the Institute for Fisheries Resources in Eugene, Oregon, says the academy's conclusions put federal biologists in "a difficult box." The report suggests they shouldn't raise or lower Klamath Lake water levels, Spain says, although current levels contributed to the fish's plight. The agencies must come up with a new plan by 1 April to protect the fish during the upcoming growing season.
