Water board hits pause on flows for Scott, Shasta rivers
how important the salmon are for the Karuk people. If these fish are driven to ex- tinction, we will lose a part of who we are.” “The Scott and Shasta (rivers) are the heartbeat of the Klamath’s salmon production, serving as key spawning grounds,” he said. Siskiyou County Farm Bureau President Ryan Walker was part of an agricultural panel that spoke on behalf of the region’s farmers and ranchers. He said, “The emergency regulations are a way to make sure everyone stays at the table and keeps
working towards a solution. “I think the board would much rath- er have a proposal from stakeholders,” added Walker, a rancher from Montague. “There’s going to be extreme voices on both sides, but I think there’s a recognition that something that is more agreed upon would work better.” The region’s farmers were affected by curtailment of their water rights since May 2021 when Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency. The curtailment order
By Christine Souza The California State Water Resources Control Board held off on a decision to set minimum instream flows on the Scott and Shasta rivers and instead directed staff to return next month with a plan to adopt in- terim flow measures to support salmon. The board last week also asked farm- ers, tribes and other stakeholders to work together to develop plans for long-term restoration of the salmon fishery. “We heard a lot of commonalities among the discussions we had,” said E. Joaquin Esquivel, chairman of the state water board, during a seven-hour session on the matter. “There is disagreement on how you get to where we want, but I know this community wants to see thriving ag- riculture, thriving fish and thriving tribes. “This is a working board,” he added. “We are here to work with these issues and work with the communities that are impacted.” Alexandra Biering, senior policy advo- cate for the California Farm Bureau, provid- ed public comment, urging the board to not proceed with regulatory action. Instead, she called for allowing landowners and tribes to collaborate on better solutions. Following the meeting, Biering said the board needed to leave some near-term protections in place but was not yet will- ing to initiate a process to set permanent instream flow requirements. “This is not necessarily a win for any side but leaves open space for the parties to hammer out a long-term agreement for protecting fish, flows and the viability of the farming and ranching communities,” Biering said. The agenda item was initiated by the Karuk Tribe’s July 1 petition, which re- quested the state water board use its emer- gency powers to curtail water use in these watersheds to prevent the extinction of coho salmon. The petition urged the board
to set permanent minimum flows. Karuk Chairman Russell “Buster” Attebery told board members that state law gives them the authority, and they have a duty to protect fishery resources. Attebery said the tribe’s goal is not to drive farmers and ranchers out of business. But he added, “It is really hard to overstate
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