A timeline: the Klamath Basin water conflict
1864: The Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin tribes sign a treaty with the United States to live on a reservation along Upper Klamath Lake and to have perpetual hunting and fishing rights.
Late 1800s: Pioneers follow the Applegate Trail to the Klamath Basin. Many pioneers start farming the fertile but arid soil with small private irrigation works.
1902: Congress creates the U.S. Reclamation Service and passes the Newlands Reclamation Act to convert marshes, desert and other lands into farms.
1905: Oregon and California cede 230,000 acres of lake and marshes along their border to the federal government for conversion to farmland. Congress authorizes construction of the Klamath Project, one of the Reclamation Bureau's first irrigation projects in the West. The project captures, stores and channels spring runoff.
1907: Klamath Project's headgate opens.
1908: President Theodore Roosevelt creates the nation's first waterfowl refuge on Lower Klamath Lake.
1930s-1940s: Federal government awards Klamath Basin farmland to homesteaders, including many World War I and World War II veterans, with a promise of ample irrigation water.
1954: Congress terminates the Klamath tribes' federal recognition and converts the reservation into a national forest.
1957: Construction of Klamath Project completed, including hundreds of miles of irrigation canals and earthen ditches.
1957: Oregon, California and Congress ratify the Klamath River Basin Compact to settle water disputes. The compact gives top water-use priority to irrigation.
1973: Congress passes the Endangered Species Act.
1986: Klamath tribes regain sovereign status and urge greater protection of Upper Klamath Lake and sucker fish. The tribes also join with downstream tribes to advocate protection of the coho salmon.
1988: Lost River sucker and shortnosed sucker listed as endangered species.
1992: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sets a minimum water level in Upper Klamath Lake, the primary irrigation reservoir, to maintain water quality for sucker fish.
1992, 1994: Two droughts and increasing conflict over basin water supplies.
1997: Coho salmon listed as threatened species.
2001:
- Cascade snowpack and runoff are 29 percent of normal in the Klamath Basin, prompting declaration of a drought and a state of emergency.
- Biological studies from federal scientists recommend higher water levels and stream flows to sustain imperiled fish in Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River. The recommendations conflict with biological studies commissioned by the Klamath Water Users Association.
- Environmental groups sue for greater wildlife protection in the Klamath Basin.
April 2001
- Citing a drought and endangered species concerns, federal agencies raise minimum water levels in Upper Klamath Lake and minimum stream flows in the Klamath River.
- Bureau of Reclamation announces a shut off of irrigation water to the Klamath Project's 1,400 farms, whose 210,000 acres make up 90 percent of basin farmland. Some farmers have limited irrigation water and well water, and emergency well permits are issued in both states. The basin's national wildlife refuges, which are a key stopover for bald eagles and other waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway, also will get no water.
- A federal judge denies Klamath Basin farmers' request for an injunction to restore irrigation flows, saying the need to protect imperiled fish outweighs the economic needs of the farmers.
- The American Land Conservancy, using federal grants, signs a deal to purchase 20,000 acres of farmland in two of the national wildlife refuges in the basin to restore it to marshland. Other farmers also reluctantly consider selling out.
May 2001
- Federal funds allocated to the Klamath Basin for cover crops to reduce soil erosion, crop insurance, low-interest loans, well drilling and other emergency aid.
- The House Committee on Resources announces plans to meet in Klamath Falls to discuss the water situation, including requests to reform the Endangered Species Act to consider economic and social impact before a species is granted protection.
- A Klamath Basin farmers' bucket brigade draws an estimated 13,000 people to protest the water shut off. The demonstration is peaceful but tense.
