Lower Klamath Tule Lake Lake
Pesticides Foul Wildlife Refuges in Klamath Basin By Kathie Durbin Colii:fflffl------A Gl' T 1996 VOL 2 No. 4 Dear Reader
or years, as The Oregonian's envi• ronment beat writer, Kathie F Durbin knew there was a story to be told about the Klamath Basin. Bue, sh · ·ays there were always too many other conflicts and controversies (not the lea st of which wa her chief respon ibili• t • of covering the burgeoning crisi in orthwest forests) to co er. But this ummer, having moved beyond the grind of daily journalism and also having ornpleted her forthcoming first book Tm Huggers, to be published this fall b lountaineer in Seattle), Durbin finally found the time to cake an extended trip co the Klamath. What she found, she su s, wa · a story far bigger than she'd Restoring The Marsh Unsafe Havens ·, er imagined. High Noon in the Klamath Basin Page 7 Pesticides Foul Klamath Basin Refuges Page 7 The result, an eight-page report that scares un page 7, illustrates ju. t how interconnected places in the Pacific orthwest urc co the entire West. The Klamath Ba" in still ha .ome of the fine st watcrfow 1 habitat in . orth THE USUAL STUFF nerica, but \\ hat's been lost after decades of diking. filling, diverting and FIELD NOTES: Blue Babies. Forest MAIL: 16 pe ticidc .pra ing saddens the soul. The Roadblocks. Endangered Steelhead 3 impacts arc felt not just within the local POINT OF VIEW: Recycling Old Hat Ideas ecosy tern, but throughout the Pacific GROUNDTRUTHING: Confronting "Folk about Recycling. by Pamela Brown 17 Fl ·way, a giant a ian ·uperhighway from Economics" With Facts. by Kathie Durbin 3 laska to 1c ico. One of the lessons we REALITY CH ECK: .17 learn is just how far reaching the con e• CAPITOL BUZZ: Gorton's Power Play 6 quences of unwise u e of resources in BOOK REVIEW: Can We Learn from Deeds one area can be throughout the region. CASCADIA CALENDAR: 15 Done to the Dodo? by Elizabeth Grossman 18 Teachers are finding Cascadia Time· 11 seful in clas r c ms, and we think our ESSAY: The Victor in Victoria. by Ian Gill: .16 CLASSIFIEDS: 19 pr· cntation on the Klamath will be no e ccption. \Ve offer a specially discount• ed price for bulk order of Casradia Times. Back issues are al so available. For Editor/Publisher Paul Koberstein more information, call 503) -23-9036. Operations Manager/Publisher Robin Klein CASCADUI R R E C T l O - n editing Art Director Bryan Potter rror caused a mistake in the opening TIMES paragraph of John Rosapepe' fine essa , Contributing Editors Kathie Durbin, Jo Ostgarden "Mending a Broken River," iCasradia How to Reach Us Tim r, Jul· 1996). I lere's the paragraph Phone (503) 223-9036 Fax (503) 736-0097 a: it should have appeared: Email [email protected] BURDO OF ADUISOBS "Sometimes, if one is luck. or Susan Alexander. San Francisco, Calif. Web http://cascadia.times.org Mail 25-6 NW 23rd Place, No. 406, Portland OR 97210 hie red, a river will reach out and touch Peter Bahouth. Atlanta, Ga. .ou, talk to you and sing to you. I wa · Pamela Brown. Portland, Ore. Cosoxia Times is published I 2 times a year by fortunate the Elwhu found me." Cas adia Time regrets the error. David James Duncan. Lolo, Mont. Cascadia Times Publishing Co .. 25-6 Northwest Pat Ford. Boise, Idaho 23rd Place. No. 406, Portland OR 97210-3534. Michael Fro me. Bellingham, Wash. Subscriptions are $20 per year. $36 for two years...... 00 The entire contents of Coscaaa Times are copyright Ian Gill. Vancouver, B.C. cascadia Times.is not simply about ....! Peter Lavigne. Portland, Ore. © 1996 by the Cascadia Times Publishing Co .. and c Ken Margolis. Kitamaat Village, B.C. may not be reproduced in whole or in part wnh• furry animals and remote forests. i:i c out permission of the publisher. The publisher u Marshall Mayer. Helena, Mont. It's really about the _people live 00 encourages unsolicited manuscripts and art, but c Christopher Peters. Arcata, Calif. u in the Pacfflc Northwest and their Catherine Stewart. Vancouver, B.C. cannot be held responsible for them. Manuscripts or material unaccompanied by a self-addressed quaUty of · • cascadia Tames Randy Showstack. Washington, D.C. stamped envelope will not be returned. Cosoxia make949Rnectrons amobg c:o t: Jim Stratton. Anchorage.Alaska ::J Times encourages electronic submissions to e-mail 00 Sylvia Ward. Fairbanks, Alaska ::J box [email protected]. We reserve the right to <( Charles Wilkinson. Boulder, Colo. ~ ~: :tclsco .. ~ print letters in condensed form. fakiNI 8 . regi K"lf •• !0#1,lll.°'8'°°" ------Mary Wood.----- Eugene,------Ore. --- Field [& ..fro -C-m asca-dia _ Blue Babies, Hot Potatoes A NEW STATE OF WASHINGTON STUDY UNKS A RARE INFANT DISEASE TO A POISON IN SOME COLUMBIA BASIN DRINKING WATER SUPPUES. CRITICS SAY FRENCH FRY PRODUCERS ARE TO BLAME.
by Paul Koberstein with nitrogen fertilizers, the lion's share is pread on porato fields. And, according ew research on a rare and to recent studie cited by Washington ornetirnes fatal infant dis• health officials, th application is vigor• ease known as rnetherno• ou : farmer' apply 4 to 38 percent more globi nemia, or "blue baby of these fertilizer than crops require. syndrome " is rai ing trou• Health official. b Ii ve at lease ome of Nbling que tion s about health effects a o• the excess nirr tc p rcolates into under• ciated with potato and French fry pro• ground water upplies. duction in the Columbia Basin. imilar health studies in the Dakotas The Washington Department of and Nebraska h v found a correlation Health has reported seven possible ca es between nitrate in drinking water and of blue baby syndrome among infants in blue baby ndn rn at the ame nitrate the Tri- ities area of ·oucheast contamination I vel seen in the Wa hingron, where drinking water well Columbia Ba in. However, health offi- are ontarninated with a sub ranee ials in Wa hin rt JO rnpha ize they don't known co cause the di ease. That sub- yet have enough vid n e to how a clear ranee i nitrates, and the likely source i connection. Ther 's no evidence any of the nitrogen-based f rtilizer applied to the ca se reported in the study did or did potato fields throughout the area. The not in olve hospit lization, Doctor do case curred from 19 9 through 1994. not routinely report ca es of methemo• Doctors say blue baby syndrome can globinemia. The rud did find 13 other result when infants inge t nitrates in on• cases of child ht od rncthernoglobinemia centration of as little· 10 parts per mil• outside the lumbia Ba sin that did lion in their water, which is the maxi• involve hospiralrzarion, in Island, King, mum allowed under the Safe Drinking Yakima, Spokane. Pi ·r .e and Clark coun• French fries are safe to eat. but growing them can pollute drinking water supplies with nitrate. Water ct. According to the '.S. ties. a potential hazard to infant health. Geol i I urvey, 46 percent of th re - Health official do say there's idenrial drinking water well in the Tri• enough oncern to \\ arrant further inves• associated with environmental ause ." is to urvey all of the physician in the Citie area violated the 10 part per mil• tigation. ays the , cudy's lead author, onethele s, he say the tudy is state." lion tandard during the late 19 0 . lore Joanne Walker hi ·Ids, Ph.D., an epi• very preliminary, adding, "we weren't Bue William Bean, president of the recent data are not available. demiologi t for th l lealth Department's able to get all the an wer we wanted co Columbia Basin Institute, a Portland- While varied crops such as onion , Office of oxic iubsrance . "We would determine what direction our work F IE L D NOTES CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 ugar be ts and peppermint are treated suspect the (th t'\ ·n cases) might be should cake in the future. The next seep GROUND Confronting··Folk Economics"With Facts TRUTH ING By Kathre Durbin
ashingron Highway 4 amble northwe r from Lo g, iew along the Lower e onomy. Today, though tourism chokes the Long Beach Peninsula to the west, the Columbia River, pa t th leepy communicie of 'J....imokawa and Rosburg, Lower olumbia seem a place used up and forgotten. W Gray River and ' ellc. to Willapa Ba . le' a true Iascadia backwater, a The Lower olumbia is the exception chat proves the rule in Thomas Power's pl e the new ' rthwe: t e nomy ha not yet reached, new book, Lost landscapes and Failed Economies. Hi message: Folk economics - the For pare of the r · son, look to the gentle notion that we tern economies live or die by the extraction of natural resource - COMMENTARY and abu ed Willapa 11111~. stripped of their may have been true once, but it is true no longer. old-growth iitka pru and we tern redcedar The myths by which we environmentall aware westerners define our economic be inning in the I ~Os, then logg d again existence die hard. We say, and believe, that an and J~ain over the pa t centu h the pri• "Despite the high wages often associated with mining, old-growth cedar left tanding is more valuable vate c rnpanie that till control all of than one run through a peeler. But deep down, fore ted sourhwestern Washington. From most of us aren't urea dollar value can be 1 ,l< to I 3, during the tran irion from lumber and farming, few towns devoted to these a signed to the clean water and serenity that flow old-gr w th fore rs to industrial tree farm , from our wild ri ers and ancient forests. Deep mt re I. 0 acre of forest - nearly industries are prosperous. In fact, the more depen- down, we too believe that our wealth still comes per nt of the Will pa eco y tern - wa primarily from reaping the bounty of our waters logged, ording to Edward '. W I 111 dent a community is on one such industry, the more and our land . hi'> book .l TtdtrJ:iJ/e Place: P01tm11 of th, Tom Power is empowered by a different set U'i//11pa bvsystem. depress d it tends to be." -- Thomas Powers of a sumptions. Power, the chairman of the eco• lrm n uffered a imilar face. nomic department at the niversiry of Montana, verharvesting on the Lower C< lurnbiu has wre tied with local economic development sevcrelv depicted alrnon run· earlv in the century, and 1 ~in•, 111,11.l-building and i sue in the West for nearly 30 ear . He has grown frustrated at his inability to Jin: ll grazing contributed r the de tru tion f up ro 40 p C\ 111 of native almon counter the myth that econorni growth require e ploiting natural re ource , and that sp· wrun habitat. The Willapa \Jliam:e, a broad-ha ed ~roup th,11 includes represen• therefore protecting the environment carrie high economic costs, and vice versa. He tativ of imbcr ~imcs Weyerhaeuser nd Long, iew Fiber, r ·111 laun hed a call' this "folk economic." vali nr e ort t0 Ix- nn repairin ch damage. Built into the world view that pits economic vitality against e ological health i horn Cathlamet to Seavicw. ch arrcd hill reveal a land e I loited without inevitable conflict, and also an "implacable pessimism," Power says. "If it's true we're regard r the almon in it riv er . the shellfish in ic., estuari ·,, th quiet beauty of it in a heap of trouble. We have to hoose between damaging the environment and tideland - r the sustainabilitv of its fore t '--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 A'-' Fiel Notes CONT I D FROM coN11NuEo------PAGE 3 nvironmental group, ay the lf nitrates in drinking water are a in ground water." It also says mo c drink• bad new for the potato indu cry fa tor in the illnesses identified in the ing water wells that onrain un af Road blockades it doe how there are blue Washington tudy, there's likely to be nitrate le el· "are immediately downgra• babie c where you'd e pe t co find reason for con em throughout potato• dient f irrigated cropland." them." He insist that the study under• growing area of central and east ·rn But rnith of the orthwest Food ave forests - . rate the number of blue bab yn• Wa hington, ea tern Oregon and Idaho, Proces or ssociation says the indu tr· drome 'C . " o tor are not in structed where the le el of nitrate ontamination ha· improved it· pra ·ti .e ·. "The big• at least for a co look for it, and are not trained on how in water are similar to those ecn in Tri- issue is what i industry doing. o a to b · to look for it. So it's nut urpri ·ing e i• ities area supplie ·. Tens of thousands re pon ible: \\c have not alway done while den e of it is sport ." of people might be affe red. th right thing. In th' pa t we have done Bur Craig rnith, vice pre .ident of Indeed, nitrate contamination in a lot if thing that have been les than by Kathie Durbin environmental affairs for the [orthwest water is a national concern. In Mar h th be t management practi 'C that have Food Processor' socianon, aid the 1996, the Environmental Working Group to do with water quality. The knowledg • n a hot afternoon in che wilds of results show there's little problem. rep rted that 12 million American drink curve continue to build; we under rand Central Idaho, a young woman "What chis indicate i mechemoglobine• water from nearly 1,000 water sy. tern a lot more about ho, to manage ground O named h a it on a platform mia is omething we need to watch. But where ·ome or all of the drinking water water than 10 year· ug . " su pended from a ~5-fooc-high tripod, this report found no a es of hospital supply contain unsafe amount of the The EP response to the problem playing her flute. The melody wafts over admi. ions for childhood merhemoglo• ubstance. ha been cautious. For example, at a the lodgepole pine that over this ad• binemia in the Columbia Basin, and it The Columbia Basin Institute fir t January 1995 meeting, Chuck Clark, th· llc where the water . of the Clearwater found there wa nor a significant prob• brought national attention to the i · ue in EPA' Northwe t regional director, aid and Salmon ri er drainages divide. Shea lem." 1994 with the relea e of a study reported EP "i not ure how high a priority can h come from Utah to help block com• The phrase "blue baby syndrome" on the front page of the ev York be a igned to ground water pollution pletion of a logging road built to open up refer to th hlui h olor chat appears Times. But the stud drew heat from the within the olumbia Ba in in light of more wild land in the Cove/Mallard road- around the mouth, hands and feet of vic• the French fr industry, and, Bean ays, other pre ing demands." The EP 1 .ss area to logging. tims; a· well a to the fact that infant , a, a re ult orne foundations discontin• formed a task for to cud the problem The sum mer of 1996 mark the fifth e pecially one who drink infant formula ued their upport of the Portland-ha ed further, which led to the Wa shington ear of resi stance at chi' remote ice in and are under 4 months of age, are at the non-profit. Health Department'. report. The EP the Sclwa -Bitterroot Range, where the greatest risk of contracting the disea e. French fry production in the also launched an inve tigarion of longe t-running direct action in the The di case occurs when hemoglobin in Northwest pro ide · 4,000 year-round ,olumbia Ba in Institute itself- for the West, aimed at halting fragmentation of the blood ab orbs a nitrate molecule in jobs, iu ol ing 2.5 million a res. The fer• purpo e of determining "whether an the largest wildernes in the Lower 48, place of o ygen. The body becomes oxy• tilizers help farmers boo t crop yield EPA grant wa used to produce the orig• -how no sign of abating. Thi year, from gen dcpri cd, leading if uncreated co a ubstantially while retaining the quality inal (French fr ) report," according co June 30 to July 7, ,arrh First! held it form of hemical asphyxiation. Infant of the nearly uniformly white, quarter• the summary of a May 11, 1995, EP annual Round River Rendez ous in old are vulnerable becau e their stomachs inch- quare, -inch-long French fry ground water quality meeting. Bean say clearcuts ju t a few miles from the s ene lack suffi ient quantities of an enzyme served at many fa r food restaurants no EPA money funded his study; the of the standoff. The Cove/Mallard that can neutralize nitrate. Infant who around the world. Potato pr duction in grant was awarded a year after its com• oalition hosted the gathering in the drink formula milk also typically con- the Northwest last year topped 6 billion pletion. h pc of recruiting new volunteer to the ume three time more water than adults pound . Shields of the Washington Health campaign. relative to body weight. Infant who The fa t that French fries are a pop• Department says the public needs better The gut y confrontation in the have poor nutrition or uffer gastroin• ular snack among children is a wrinkle information about what's in its water. "If mountains of entral Idaho has inspired te tinal illnes are in danger of being Bean finds ironic. "One of the great con• nitrates are getting in," she say , "per• other in the Pacific Northwest. In late mi diagnosed and may be at greate t tradiction of the late 20th entury i haps other things are also getting in from July, a ti i t who have been holding our risk ac ording to Wa hingron health offi- that Ronald 1 Donald is not your urface runoff. That' omething to be • inc la t epternber on the logging road ials. Long-term e po ure an cause friend," he say . "Wherever they grow concerned about regardles of your age. leading to the Warner Creek fire alvage phy i al or mental retardation, and even the French fry the pattern of ontarnina• If you suspect your water quality is not 'ale, near akridge, Oregon, received death. tion is the ame." what it should be, you should have your long-await d news: The Willamette Infants of dark kin color may be at The nitrates-blue baby-French fry water tested." • ational ore t had negotiated ith the higher ri k, health official ay, becau e connection is buttres ed by EPA reports pur ha er co cancel logging in an area chang in their kin olor can be mis ed. that came out after the BI tudy. One scheduled co be ut thi year, and ocher According to Bean, the areas affected in 1995 EPA report ay in the Tri-Cirie ale uni in the road less area, which wa · the Columbia Ba ·in have a relatively area, nitrogen-based fertilizer u ed in . o hed b r oni ts in 19 I, won't be high Hispanic population. agriculture "are a major our ie of nitrate offered und r the notorious 19 S timber
Ground Truthing continued from pa re 3
damaging the e onornic ba e." rut the trees and pack the alrnon, arc fad• people who have money to bu influen e tf) of sou chem l ' h, which lungui hed "On' part of people's brains knows ing back into the forest. Most people don't are Charles F. Wilkin on's "Lords of ju t .. O year ago, are experiencing explo- how important the quality of the environ• want to live urrounded b such vi ible Yesterday" - the mining, timber, ranch• ive e onomi •rowth, fueled b. touri m ment hi," Power said during an informal reminders that chey inhabit a natural ing and irrigation interest' that have domi• and crvice e tor job and the fa t that pre entation at Portland rate niver iry resources colony, where companies made nated the we tern economy since the 19th people want to live where the air is clean in July. "They know why they live where fortunes but reinvested little of their profit century. 'We hear the voice of the past and the wiltlem s is clo e at hand .. they do." But he ays the more intellectual in local communities. much more clearly and forcefully pre ent• PO\\Cr d ri't oft-pedal tourism's side of our brain hold onto a surnption Those communities langui h in ed" than the new econorni reality, he cm ironm Ol'JI downside, or the fa t that chat aren't supported b the facts, or by remote comer aero the We t, but they say . "The other side can fla h powerful the job rr bring often pay minimum economic analysis. do not represent the new western econo• ultural image . We need to undermine \\. g . \\'h n he peaks of "service e r r" Folk economics doe n't begin to tell my. A panel of econornis led by Power those images with facts." j, , he ivn 't talking about hamburger flip- ...... the co · of what is happening in the West recently delivered good new for the Mining in Montana is a perfect exam• r but a ur white-collar jobs in the roda , Power ·ays. The face is that people Northwest a a whole: Between 19 8 and ple, he said. The powerful Montana m di al and fin n ·i I and communication .::• care P' ionately about where they live. 1994, despite declines in the timber and Mining Association acts a if it were still I Id - j that tier nd on preserving a c They will forgo in orne, status and the aerospace industries, overall employment 1925, when miner used pick and shovel quality of life that arr cc nd holds quali• i ultural rncnities of cities co live in places in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and to hack gold and sil er ore from shafts fi ti ,, orkers. "If an are i attractive and II of natural beauty. And economic activity Montana grew by 18 percent, two and a deep within mountains, instead of 1996, cl - iobs - will shift to meet tho e prefer- half times the national average; personal when "miners" are multinational compa• In late June. activists erect signs and banners on a logging road under construction as part of the Forest Service's Cove/Mallard project in Idaho. This is the fifth year of direct action at the site. alvagc rider but will be withdrawn until by prote uer perch .d cop a IS-foot tri• at least J< 7. That means they will on e pod n the road leading co the cwo units again b ubject to appeal and legal "With Warner Creek apparently ·afe for challcng • . It eems clear the Clinton the moment, we h pc some of those peo• adrninistrurion wanted to U\ oid national ple will come down h r .," said Karen coverage of n ugly election- rear con• Wood of iiskiyuu Fore~c D fender , frontation in the fore t. which i.s ba ed in rh · xmall ountercul• Ieanw hilc, on Jul) 7. young ture cornrnuniry ,t \\ illiurn . GardenProducts™ taste good, are Southern Ore on forest activist under t ,o,·c/\1.ill ml. a ti ists have the banner i ki ou Forest I cfender slowed but not topped logging of a good for you and are good for the earth blockaded the road leading to , , eral chunk of unprot red Idaho wildernc · units of the .hina Left old· •ro,, th um- that :,it~ at th J 10 non of three vast ber sale, n ar regon CuH·, an nul wilderncs areas. \\ '1 • in the .si th year \lonumcnr in the Si skivuu arinnal of a '>C\ en- v car I r •J 'l'l and the Forest @. Meatless Forest. Chrn., Left, a 530- r • le that Servi e ha built nl\ 11 percent of the will clearcut old conifers up co ">C\ en feet road mile, and c 111 I, p crccnr of the tim• in diameter. \\J'> released h) C.tmgrc , in ber," ·aid Sarah illn ·r of the collecriv l 9 9 and 1, 1\11t -ubje t to le~JI challenge. Seed of Peace, H ·rt.. ·le -based group @. low Fat The ah .1~1.: rider ordered uch ale m that i prov iding r, n, mlcnt civil di sobe• ~o forw ard unles logging threat ned dience training. 11111 and logi ·ci al marbled murrelcts. support fur the (, c/\t,llard a irion. Two @. 100% Natural Borrow ing tactic from the Warn r hundred people h , • I ecn arre red in Creek .cup rion, protester, at China Cove/Mallard acuons vin ·e 1992. Left dug ..1 de p trench in the road. built Thing'> w cr I iuvcly quiet at the rock and concrete barrier' and erected r more it lasr ~ r, hut rhi · ·um mer got tripods, I'he pi,r, de resistance i a I <}7()<.. off to a fr vr tart In l.uc June, just thr ·c Pontiac Bonneville c mentcd into the da) before ih Round River ground. l houzh ome miners and hiker Rendezv m1, be . n, 1 ti ist · ere ted a have comp! med about bio .ked uecc . metallic ortrc,.., · up .uded ections of 'iskiyou acitinal Fore t official- h.1, e culvert pipe ncr • rh road leading to been cunte r tn let the protc-tcr- ',(J\ the Jack nmh er ll pd xl up brush and until lu)!.gin • he tins in the f II. limbs, dug , 1. r I d p tren hes and But thinu began hcanng u ,\C erected two tripod .1111! u bipod. On the China Lcf kr logging on mo other hot afternoon of Jul I, ,1 oung man who vale unit he ran July 2.9. \\ hen lo~gcr, ga,·c his name .1, h• 111l111r~t was practic• for Rough and Ready Lumber L 1. ing lying conto r d 1111 a steel Fore t irrived for \\ rk July 30, the~ were met iervice gare, hi rt •111 rrm locked to a Field Notes c o N r I N u E o Ca itolf:JTm----- Idaho. and The Ecology Geater in only the stocks in we tern Washington Mi soula, Montana under the Freedom and the upper Willamette River in of Information Act reveal that the cz regon did not warrant protection. Perce forest has filed no cream monitor• The proposal, 18 months late, is an ing report and ma have began building important step in a process that may Gorton's Power Play the new road without collecting informa• re ult in listing. nder the law, the tion on rream conditions. A tivists say agency now has one year co a cept public they have photographed and videotaped comment and data and make a final deci• numerou e ample of inadequate sion. NMFS i al o delaying a decision Every year, the Northwest spends hun• Putty 1 urray of Washington continue to stream buffer , erosion and scream edi• until lace October on listing coho. That dred' of millions for salmon recov• work on a compromise hill. "It's one of mentation. The Idaho Sporting Congre s deci ion had been due July 25, but a fed• ery project in the Columbia those things that won't be dead until it is in Boise has filed a lawsuit char ing that eral judge in San Francisco granted an Basin. In many ca cs, the sam • tlead," says Vi her, executive director the n ew road violates the Endangered extension. tat federal and tribal govern- of the Sierra tub Legal Defense Fund, Specie ct and che Clean Water Act. A Then there's the q uestion of what ment agen .ies that receive salmon hich has been largely unsucce sful in federal court hearing is scheduled for listing might mean. Stelle stressed chat a money make recommendations on how battling timber ales under the rider in September. • Ii ting would mean few additional regu• to court. ''Th· concern i with western lations because of exi ting efforts to pro• spend it. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-WA. tect ocher specie . Hydropower opera• has a problem with this process. "There Democrats who are o anxious to have a tions on the Columbia River already have i a great deal of public support for deal on chi, that the will move for• Now it' Steelhead been modified to prate t fi h, he said, pending money on salmon rcco cry," ward." nd while Clinton has admitted and the orthv est Fore t Plan ha· Gorton say . "If the manner in which the the logging rider wa a mistake Sher and "solved" the habitat problems caus ed b. money i being spent is highly que ·cion• other!) fear that a biparti an salvage log• Who eed Protection, old logging practices on federal lands. able, public support will erode. This i a ging bill might be tempting for Clinton Stelle aid he had great faith in the good government is ue." to sign. especially as election da nears. NMF Says governor of Oregon, Washington and California who have prorni ·ed to produce l 'rider a Gorton- spon sored amendment dd Da id Brower ro the Ii ·t of environ• reco ery plans - originally to avoid a approved in Jul by a Senate subcommit• mental leader· "' ho won't vote for ho listing - that largely depend on !3y Orna lzttk 011 tee, an "independent scientific review Clinton. Browt!r, a board member of the gras sroot watershed restoration effort . panel" would make the re ornrnenda• Sierra Club and a past e. eeutivc director, Li1 I Jamil ton has been a pore angler Hi· optirni rn, he said, i based on his all her life. oh ervation chat "rimes have changed." rion in stead of government agencie . v rote July 21 in the Los Angeles Times that "Yo11 know what the prcttie r fi h in "If you had suggested ro me 5 years The final decision would till belong to "ovt!r the pa 't three . ear . I ha e the hole damn world is? A female steel• ago chat w e would be where we arc today the Northwest Power Planning Council, bccom increa ingl_ di tres ed by head. le give me gnn, chump . It's really on the c con ervarion issue · in the a regional body appointed by four Pre ·ident Clinton·., environmental something special." region, I would have cold you J thought [orthwesr governor . record. While I certainly would expect I Iurnilton get ery quiet when you were nuts," he aid. t that time, the no b 'teer fr m Bob Dole, I think it i asked about the importance of rreelhead region was "ripped apart b. potted owl Gorton 's proposal ha· won broad support time toe amine where we are going as ll to port angler . "It' the most rev red controversy," there "as "gridlock'' as in the Northwest. But it al o has a num• movement anti a· a ci, ilization. '.\1 per• spore fi~h of all." federal logging was halted by court ber of critics who think the enator has ~onal asses. ment ha led me to support "They're not easy to catch," she injunctions, and azencies were fighting an agenda other than f seal responsibili . pr~ e plains. "There's a re. I pride in learning each other. Ralph ader\ iclenrial campaign." Could Gorton be renewing his long-run• what it rakes to cnti ea steel head to bite. "Today, the situation is completely They race around like torpedoe v hen different. On the forestry side of things ning battle with Indian tribes over fish• The logging ritlcr i, ju~c one of ,e,eral you hook them, and the leap into the air alone, we have in c encc sol ed the ing rights? s attorney general in bones Bro\\ er pick, with the presi• and hake their heads ro they can spit problems (with the Fore t Plan). This is Washington during the 1970, he fought dent. ( ther.-, are the igning of your I ur • back at you." not an i ue an more." numerous court battles against tribal the PanJma Declaration, \\ hich l larnilton. executive director of the But environmentali c. say the Ii sting efforts to assert their treaty rights to undermine, protection or mu.rine orthw csr Sportfi hing Industry may mean little if anything for the steel• salmon. mam1m1b indu efore the work. of human began tran forming th · l ppcr Klamath Basin 90 ears ago, it was a marsh world. Gee e and ducks, Am .rican avocets · ml run • dra 'wan traveling the Pacific Fl •ay stopped to re ·t and feed on its 185,000 acre of .hallow lakes and fresh, ater mar he . In the fall, at the p ·ak of migration, more than 6 million bird converged where the peak of the South ·rn Oregon Ca cades give way to thi: broad lak ha ... in. Below the bod of water now known as l pper Klamath Lake, the indigcnou people harvested alrnon returned from the l'J .if · Ocean. Frum the lake of the basin the caught immense 11 kcrs, fish that pro" idcd their major .our ·c of protein. They shared this High Noon in the Klamath Basin natural bounty with Canada geese and mallard , bald cagl ·, and peregrine falcons, rnerican white pcli an and double-ere-red ·or• moranrs, grebes and loons, preys and JQ"Cat blue herons. 'I oday, nearly a century after :nngre passed the 190- Reclamation Act, auth irizing ,LSt proj ct.'> to drain and "reclaim ~ wetlands for farming across the We r, 80 percent of the Klamath mar h ha· vani .hed. Ab ur 36,CXlO acr es of marsh and open war ·r remain. The Upper Klamath Basin i · an artificial creation. Engineering rules nature. And the powerful agricultural indu try rules the ba in. An elaborate ·y tern controls the fl w of water - 45 pumping pl. nts, copyright 1996 by Kathie Durbin seven darns, l canals totaling 185 miles in length, 516 miles of I ucr• al ditche . and a 6,6()0-f or tunnel that convej water from Tule Lake to Lower Klamath Lake. When the basin's water has !«mt• it:; work for farmers and , ildlife, it rerurns to the Klamath Riv r ,, h r · it joiru acer from ther tributaries in a 192-mile tumble fr Ill Lr >n Gare am near Yreka, Calif., through the rugged Klamath Mountain. to the river's mouth on the northern California I t. Klamath River alrnon, blocked by Iron Jate am, no longer pawn in the ppcr Basin. Suckers, which have lo st most ul th eir .pawning habitat, hadn't pa, ned succe sfull in Oregon fir I years and faced c ttinction before they won protection und r th· Endangered Species ct in 19 . Waterfowl number haw plum• meted from 6 million co 1 million in just three decade . Mt· m1 bird , crowded into ever- hrinking islands of polluted rnar-h and open \ ater, suffer from avian cholera. Of 411 vertebrate P that inhabit the basin, more than a quarter are classified as ·n,1 rive, threatened or endangered. In then rth end of the ba in, cow manure from uj tr rn liv ·• ~t( .k operations foul· the trophy trout streams that feed l pp ·r Klamath Lake. 'lo the ourh, irrigation water returned cot c Klamath River from l'pper Basin furmv carrie a heax y load of scdi• rncnt and nutrients, degrading habitat f r Klamath River ilm in. Pesticides used to grow potatoes, onions and sugar be ·c c im. mi• nate the Thle Lake refuge. This is a rime of great p ril but also of great oppor• tunity for the fi h, ildlife and ecosystem of the lipper Klamath Basin. Elected offi• cials, federal and race agen• cie , tribal leader and con- ervationi , farmer and rdinary citizen are poised to make decisions that could begin repairing the damage n inflicted on the land and .. waters of the basin over the "..11:1 past century. If they delay, or ;;: if greed and political cow- .... ardice prevail as the have in ·- i ffl the past, natural y terns will .. c ntinue t lo e r iliency nd the capacity to recover. In 1995 l. . n. Mark Hatfield R- re., e tabli hcd \\ r - ing group to re mmend re toration, economi tabilicy and drought management projects he could upport a chairman f th · Senate Appropriation Committee. While Hatfield's motiv e m ... runs ...... , Ill -- • nu 1111 IIUUR lffllCI • The Klamath Basin is a main stopover for birds traveling the Pacific Flyway from Alaska to Mexico. CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 0 Cov Story C O N T I N U E D huvc been onsrructive, critics sa · the allowing them to maintain the status opening up land for home reading. Th It was flooded in 1920 when Pacific workin~ ~roup quick! • became a captive quo year after year? Can con cnsus bureau built a dam to divert water fr rn Power and Light Co. dammed the outlet of busiu awi ultural interests. really be achieved in an area so corn by the Lose River directly into the Klamath llf l pper Klamath Lake. Th · I Iarfield group ha' supported environmental confli ·t ? Ri er, a eparare ri er s tern, to keep In 1928 the 38,903-acre 'Iule Lake some worthwhile re toration projects farms near Tule Lake from flooding in refuge was establi shed under a unique o er the past year. But it also: endor ed a J n the . um mer of 19%, the an wer wee years. urrangemcnr that allowed local farmers to measure to return the use of toxic, feder• are far from clear. s ever, the basin, and J n 1908 Pre sidenr Theodore .ontinue leasing 1 ,000 acre for crop• ally restricted pesticide to two Klamath it preciou waters, remain a resource up Roosevelt established the 47,600-acre lands. The Bureau of Reclamation built Basin wildlife refuge ; agr ed, at farmer ' for grabs. Lower Klamath Refuge, the nation's first likes to contain the wetlands and in isten ie, to compromise a major wet• waterfowl refuge and the fir c of ix "reclaim" farmland , eventually redu ing land restoration project; supported a con• refuges in the Klamath Basin. Together, the size of the lake by more than 85 per• troversial juniper management program A History of Compromise the make up the mo t important fresh• ·enc. Al o e tabli hed that year wa the sought hy rancher ; and slowed progress water refuge y tern in the nation. The 1-J.,376-acre l ppcr Klamath refuge, con• toward adoption of a formal agreement Decisions made ·oon after the turn Lower Klamath, a mo .aic of shallow ~i sting of marsh and open water at the that ornrnirs farmer in the Upper Basin of the century are written aero s the marshes, open water, gras ·y upland and northern end of I pper Klamath Lake. It to helping restore depleted ·almon runs landscape of the ll pper Klamath Ba in grain field , hos about 800,000 birds r .muins a nesting and brood-raising on the Lower Klamath Riv r. - in shrunken lake and marshes, irriga• annually, one-third of hi 'tori al le el·. haven for pelican , egrets, heron bald Oregon's senior · enator i retiring tion canals and che -k dams, and in crop In 1911 the 33,440-acr · lcar Lake eagles and o prey. ne c ear and will not he around co coaxed from arid land. refuge, now the primary sourc of irriga• In 1958, the Fish and v ildlife pr re t the interest' of Klamath Ba in ( 'nder the l 9()S Klamath tion water for the eastern half of the . 'en, ice bought 16,.377 acres of a beauti• former . In his Oregon Resource Reclamation Project, the Bureau of l Ipper Klamath Basin was established. ful natural marsh urrounded by lodge• Conservation cc, a bill conferring Reclamation drained marshes and rerout• Jes small i land, surrounded by open pol pine forest from th · Klamath wildcrnc s designation on the an .icnr ed river. to dear the land for farming. le water provide nc ting site for pelicans Indian, after t irmination of the tribe's forests of Opal Creek, he ha included dammed and deepened , hallow lcar and cormorants. l Ipland areas harbor status a· a federally recognized tribe. language that would c tabli h the Lake co retain water that narurall pronghorn antelope, mule deer and 'a r' The Klamath Fore t refuge, surrounded working group a a state- .hartcred flowed into Tule Lake ia the Lost grou e. by pine forests and the snowy peak of foundation and authorize it co pend Ri er. 'Jule Lake, which once ·overcd The fall that gave the town of the S uthern Oregon Ca cade and $5 mi 11 ion over the ne t five years on up to 100,000 acres, shrank dramaticall , Klamath Fall its name no longer e i cs. fount Shasta, is a haven for horebird , projects in the basin. Sen. Ron , 1terfowl, raptor , pelican and sandhill \,\: den, 0-0re., has endorsed the pro• ran<.:s. posal, So ha e ci ic leaders in nd in 1978 the hsh and Wildlife Klamath Falls. Con ervacioni sr are What Rachel Carson Said , 'ervi c acquired co protect old-growth split over the propo ·al. fore~c . rand · that pro ide a major winter Wendell Wood of th · Oreg n t is. of course. not only the groundwaters that are becoming contaminated. but night roo t sire for bait.I eagles. The 'acural Resources Council, the most surface-moving waters as well - streams. rivers. irrigation waters. A disturbing Klamath l:bsin has the highest concen• vocal .n ironmentali 'tin the Upp r tration of nc:,ting bakl eagle in the example of the latter seems to be building up on the national wildUfe refuges at Klurn.irh Ba. in, oppo C' entru stin r the I Lower 4 state,. l latf ·Id group" ith the major responsi• Tule Lake and Lower Klamath. both in CaUfomia. These refUges are part of a chain \\ith all tht:,<.: refuge,, ou'd think bilir for restoring the ha ... in. "I feel Including also the refuge on Upper Klamath Lake just over the border in Oregon. All ch· need, of\\ildlifi· \\Oul I be Jm1 I, chat th ire i" progre .., being made. •· are linked, perhaps fatefully, by a shared water supply. and all are affected by the fact 1m:t. Hm fed ·r.il a ,cnl'it:, and farmer'> in \Ve ml said. "But man of rhcsc rcstoru• that they lie like small islands in a great sea ot surrounding farmlands - land th · b.i,in n ·, er ha, c pl icc "I'm not Atilla the Hun with a spray rig." insists John Crawford president of the Klamath Basin Water Users. He grows oats. barley and potatoes on the Tule Lake Refuge. Cover Story c o N r I N u E o Ultimately, he was forced to shut off Winema joined the working group reluc• Competing for Water Fishermen's Associations '>aid in a June Wildlife Service and tribes on the Lower water to all irrigators for periods ranging tantly, largely because of her commit• I 7 letter to Hatfield aide Dave Klamath River. from two to ix weeks. ment co the basin. Wood quit after the Commercial ~alrnon fishermen and Robertson. ''Once the working group is The proce s has forced tl1e Fi\h and Farmers' paranoia ratcheted up first meeting, in March of 1995, when he Indian tribe-, on the Lower Klamath in place ... it is going to be much harder Wildlife Service for the first time to another notch after Wendell Wood, a \\ a5 cold the task force would he expect• River arc ,kepcicul that the I latfield to get everyone back to the bargaining detail the extent of damage c1ui,ed by field coordinator for the Oregon 'atural ed to keep all proceedings secret. working group "ill t.tke their interests to table in good faith to formulate '>uch a the bureau's operations. For instance, thc Resources Council. mov ed to the Before the group even had time to heart. Watt'r from the basin, hcavy with basin-wide plan unlc~s there is a clear :.ervice warned in February that the Klamath Falls area in 1993 and began develop a process for reviewing projects, sediment and farm chemical'>, nows into requiremt:nt to do so." bureau' proposal for allocating water in snooping; into the em ironmental issues it found itself facing a deadline: There the Lower "I.Im.1th, into !)trcaim where In July, I latficld agreed to add a rep• dry )Car,; was inadequate co !>upport boiling over in the basin. By definition, was money in the 1996 budget for wet• depicted run'> of Klamath Ri,er salmon rcsentati,·es of downstream fishing inter• \\ilcllife, adding: "This is especiall) true that meant taking on the agricultuml lands restoration project'>, and I latfield spawn. Feder.ti thherie!-i biologim ests und a California cnn~cn-ationi<.t to a~ Tule Luke i'!ational \\'iltllife Refuge establi-hmcnr. Wood's arrival shifted the wanted recommendarionv on projects to believe Klumath foll chi nook clearly are hi new"' orking group. But he refu'led lose its abilit), to 'iupport \\ aterfcm I pop• balance of power noticeably. Even those fund. \\'ell~ said the rush to have some• affected b) the poor water qualit). 1 n to add language requiring the group to ulation!>." "ho oppose him publicly admit private- thing for the senator to back in the AugLM of I ti){(), O\)gen level... in a <,ec• adopt the l 'ppcr Ba.,in mendment. Karl Wenner, a Klamath falls ortho• 1) that Wood hav been the curalvst for appropriations process wav intense. "The tion of th<: "lam.nh River between Lake Is an l 1pper Ba.-;in mcndment pedic o;urgeon, co-chair.. the I latfield long-ov crdue change. majority of the committee felt we had to Ewauna and "cno fell to nc..tr 1,ero, needed? Yes, says John I lamilton. a:,.,i~• Working Group. I le call., farmer'>' will• Within a few munrhv, Wood had do something. The) were tired of talk• killing thOU'>.ind, of' li'ih. Temperature!> tant project leader for thc J· i hcrie:. Ta~k ingnes~ to support" cdand rc<,toration a obtained records re, caling that the Fi'>h ing. The) wanted to get some projects of 77 dcgn.:c,, lll',11 lcthJI to salmon, have Force. "Some of the problem., ha, ing co huge leap fonvard - one that would and Wildlife Scrv ice: and Bureau of going on the ground." been recordeJ 111 that reach, ju:,,t dov.n• do with water quality and quantity ha,c not ha,c happened \\ ithnut I latficltl''l Reclamation had failed to enforce fcdcr• By then, Wells suspected that she !>tream from" hl·r1: l'ppcr Ba~in "acer their origim in the l 'ppcr l3a<,in. The imen cntion. "I belie, c the people on al pesticide rules on the farmed 'lule wasn't in the information loop. "It return:.. to thl" rn er. ~olution'i tu cho-,e problem., arc going to the committee \\ant to make chi a bet• Lake and Lower Klamath refuges for at became clear co me chat a number of di~• ln 198<, < :1111.c,re,s created the come in part from the lipper Ba~in." ter place to live, though they don't all lcu-t 30 years. In 191)4, 0. RC filed cussions "ere going on that I was not a Klamath Ba,111 Fi.,hcrie, Rc\toration Fam1ers arc aho rattling their ~ahers agree on y,l,ac \\ ill achieve that,'' notice of its intent to sue both the Fivh party co. It \\ as not an atmosphere of 'fa'>k Force .rnJ charged it with develop• over a \\ater allocation plan bcmg Tl LEL KE, California - ~~ Rows of p tatoe: and fields of pale ri;Ji~i~,~~~~~~~~§~~~ green hurlcv, b rdered b dike . ; - - - .anals and shallow open-water rumps, rr tch coward a horizon f de. ere ridges at the 'Iule Lake ational Wildlife Refuge, ju t ouch of the reg n state line in Siskiyou . unry, ~alifornia. ongre e cablished the 'l=~===:=s2:::::a~~-~ refuge in 19 t protect habitat for geese, du - and other water• fowl that flock d co Tule Lake by the millions a they migrated along the Pacific Flywa s: But for nearly 7 l years, poliri ally powerful Klamath Ba in farmer have had their way here. Today, the water, ------f Tulc Lake re hallow, edi• merit-laden and E illured with fer• tilizers, and I:-,( )() acres of the refuge grow row crop that are oused with p ticidcs known t . highly tO tic t \ ildlife. t 'Ible Lake, the term "refuge" ha, mum agricultural use that i · con istcnt Since then the Fish and Wildlife use lea e-holder-. ·1 h ervice its If always been a misnomer. Birds u: e thi therewith." ft al o specifies that up to 25 Servi ·e ha· rood b1, impotent or unwilling mnnucs to applv the pcvti ide 2,4-D on refuge at their peril. percent of the leased land on the refuge co a t on behalf of wildlife. Toda , under in crops it gro", on the refuges to rm-- 131 1928 the ma. sive Klamath may be u sed to grow row crops - crop continuing political pre .sure from agricul• food and co, er fi r ,, rerfowl. M :I Reclamation Project already had drained like potatoe and onions, which have virtu• rural intere ts, the ag ency i trying to con In Si/mt Spn» . h •r hocking 1 %.? t=: and diminished Tule Luke and homestead• ally no value to wildlife, and which rely rrol the damage from the use of toxic pcsti po e of the invid« u nd longterm c ers had begun growing crop on the rich heavily on the use of highly roxic pe ti• ides thats .ientists sa have no pla eon , of pesticid . R hel Carson i lakebottom soil'. In e stabli shing the cide , fungicide and rodenricides. wildlife refu re. c led that hundr d I f dead and dyim; ~ refuge, Congre s guaranteed them the In 1977, the Interior Department In the early 1980s the Interior 11rJ found at the') ulc I .akc and Lo" er ~ right ro lease refuge land and continue guaranteed chat the conflict between farm• Department c tablished a committee to ~ Tattoo C- Used to treat potatoes. Low toxicity to birds: high toxicity to fish: Metam-sodium 426 - Used to treat potatoes. Highly toxic to fish and other braaks down rapidly In water. Large buffers required to Umlt exposure to fish. No aquatic life in liquid form. 'The accidental spill of Metam-sodium to water could be storage for more than 12 hours within 300 feet of any water body. No application disastrous to endangered suckers in the Tule sumps and clownstream In the within 48 hours of predicted rainfall Klamath River. For example. a large spill of Metam-sodium to the Sacramento River recently killed all fish for approximately 50 miles downstream: No storage Curzate M-Z -A combination of two fungicides used to control potato blight. for more than 12 hours within 300 feet of any water body unless contained in a .High inhalation doses have resulted in diarrhea. irregular respiration. posture lined. bermed area. changes. abnormal gait or mobility. tremors and lethargy In mammals. Buffers of 300 feet around sumps and 100 feet around other waters required during aerial Sevin XLR Plus-used to treat potatoes. Relatively nontoxic to birds but application. highly toxic to fish. Toxicity increases with increasing pH and temperature. condi• tions typical in Tule Lake. Telone II -A fumigant used to treat nematodes in potatoes. Incomplete com• bustion of the compound produces highly toxic phosgene. 'Talone is acutely toxic Rodeo -Used to kill weeds. Relatively nontoxic to birds but highly toxic to fish to mammals. and probably birds. through dermal or inhalation exposure." and highly water-soluble. Suckers are particularly sensitive. Toxicity increases Application only by injection to a depth of 12 to 14 inches. with sealing to prevent with increasing pH and temperature. conditions typical in Tule Lake. escape. Buffer zones of 300 feet required around sumps and channels. "Only one company will be permitted to serve as the certified applicator for this otherwise Oisyston 8 (Oisulfoton) - Used to control Russian wheat aphid on barley dangerous compound." and wheat. Approved for emergency use only. and only for a single application. Toxic to birds if inhaled. Bird hazing Lorsban 15G (Chlopyrifos) -An organophosphate pesticide used to required prior to application. Plants accumulate high control onion maggots. Low to moderate toxicity to birds: extremely toxic to fish residues within 7 to 10 days. Bird kills may result if and highly soluble. Associated with numerous fish kills. Toxicity Increases with ' birds eat insects that land on contaminated plants dur• increased temperature and pH. conditions typical of Tule Lake and its drainwaters. ing exposure period. "If Introduced into fish-bearing waters. the compound will likely result in acute and/or chronic toxicity to fish, depending on concentrations ... Endangered Pounce 3.2 EC (Permethrin) - Used to control cut• suckers may be particularly vulnerable to spills into water." Found in worms in potatoes. Low toxicity to birds: very high toxicity to fish. water samples at Tule Lake. To reduce risk. must be applied in Bioaccumulation potential in fish is high. 'The main threat to listed granule form to onions only. No storage for more than 12 species is to suckers. from drift into water during aerial application. hours within 300 feet of any water body unless in a lined. and indirectly through reducing food resources (aquatic insects): Buffers bermed area. No application within 24 hours of predicted of 300 feet around sumps and 100 feet around canals and drains required. rainfall refuge are relativel; short-lived. , till, biol• Lake refuge p taro fields that had been Kuchel ct ·ay , 'Optimize agriculture.' aquatic life; and ldicarb (trade name ogi ts like longtime refuge emplo ee Jim sprayed with mcthamibopho (trade The act itself creates an automati conflict. Temik), to ic to both birds and aquatic Hainline believe exposure i inevitable. name 1onitorl 1 nitor has since been There' no way you can have farming with life. Linda Lyon, a contaminant specialist "There's certain! got to be ome ignifi• banned from the Klamath refuges. all the chemical use, and all the fertilizers, for the Fish and Wildlife Service in cant impa .t on passerine bird that are sit• • In early 1992. fi, · bald eagles died along and the withdrawal of water, without hurt• Wa hington, D.C., said it was pos ible that ting in the p taro fields at the time of the river near Klamath Fall after inge t• ing the birds." pe ticide u cd on the refuges might have application." ing the pe ticule rerbufos (trade name In ugu t of 1992, Fish and Wildlife entered the food chain. Bet, een 1984 and 1993, four pe ti• Counter), used in growing sugar beets, Service field inve uigator visited and filed In 1994, after O RC notified the cide-related bird kills were re orded on or sorghum and · ,rn. a report taring: ' Pe ticides known to Interior Department of it intent to sue near Klamath Basin refuges: cause fish and wildlife die-off arc routine• both agen ie over pc ticide u e on the In his tudv, ;ro" s also documented ly used at the Klamath refuges.' The refuges, the Fish and Wildlife Service • In 1984. 0 white-fronted gee e were that IS percent 11f .1 lult phca ants collected investigators also noted that nope ticide• belatedly began requiring farmers to get found dead in a field on the 'Iulc Lake from potato field, hov ed symptom of u e applications had ever been submitted permit· before they applied re uricted n refuge. Laboracory re st confirmed that a etyl choline tcru ·c inhibition, a tempo• for Klamath refuges. chemicals. In an out-of-court settlement, • ..n the gee e had inge red zinc phosphide, rary or p rman nt n · • disorder believed In 1993, the Oregon atural Fish and Wildlife and the Bureau of •11:11 u ed as u rodenticide on refuge crops. to be a sociated with th· use of newer Resources Council wrote to the Interior Reclamation promised to adopt an inte- a • In 1986, SO dead mallards were discov• organopho iphatc pesti ·ides. The e pe ti• Department's Office of the Inspector grated pest management plan for the ...,. ered near the Lower Klamath Refuge cidc act on bir , lik · n erve gas, making it General accusing the department of a refuge . Integrated p t management ! and found to have consumed phorate, difficult for them to th, "aid Elaine Snyder- coverup and demanding an inve tigation . emplo s such techniques as crop selection 00 used to treat potatoes. The death were • onn, who re i w pc ti .ide u e on the That year farmer· leasing land on the Tule and rotation, mowing, and biological agents ;g, believed to have resulted from spraying refuge for the J, rvh ind Wildlife Service. Lake refuge applied 6,673 gallon' and to reduce dependence on pesticide . ~ on the refuge or on adjacent private "If exposure is nor sev ire, birds will recov• 54,000 pounds of at least 53 different In 1994 and 1995, federal pesticide ~ farmland. er if they're not taken h predators.' chemicals to their crop . Among them were reviewers refu ed farmer permission to crop and worm · de imated hi potatoes tions on pesticide use. ' and sugar I .ts. "I had no ncrnaticide for In the spring of 1995, when en. two year . no protection from onion mag• Mark Hatfield created his Klamath Ba in got , no prote tion from Russian wheat Working Group, farmers saw a chance to aphid." get more relief. At a meeting clo ed to the But th • agcn y' new rough tanc public and pre , agricultural intere t put wa short-lived. Farmers went to sympa• a never-discussed propo al on the table to thetic members of Congres · to demand exempt them from mo t refuge p ticide that pesticide review be rransf rred from restriction in 1996. It was presented as a Washington, D.C:., to the regional level. quid-pro-quo - the price farmer Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitts Fi h and demanded in exchange for their upport of Wildlife 'crvice complied. Last .ear pe ti• a large wetland re toration project on cidc rev iew for Klamath Basin refuge wa Ipper Klamath Lake. moved to Klamath Falls for a three-year tri• The one- -car mea 'Ure ripulared that al period to determine whether the r · iew if the Fi. h and Wildlife. ervi e denied proce s xiuld be speeded up to accomrno• farmers the me of any chemical for 1996 date farmer 'needs. Elaine S nder-Conn, that they had used in 1995, or failed co in con ultation with other pe ticidc special• approve the u e of an new pesticide, and ists, now rc v icw pesticide use application if that decision wa made after September and make, re ·ummcndations tu refuge s• 1995, it would not be enforced. Instead, tem manager 'lorn Stewart. "I think it' tate and federal pe nicide rule - rule ju 't as good, just olid a the work clone written co apply to private farmland, not h the Wa.,hington office," he aid. "We wildlife refuge - would appl . Hatfield, are putting a lot of stipulation and r tric- chairman of the Senate ppropriations ommittee, prompt! granted their wish, pprupriationx report requiring the Fish adding the requested language to the 1996 an Wildli e Service to work cl el \ ith Interior appropriations bill. n the Hou e Hatfield's working group to "reach con en• side, Rep. We· ooley, R-OR, carried the su on the use of pe ticidc " on leased ball for Klamath Basin farmer . land . The report language ay pesticide In written comments to the Interior use sh uld c rnply with an integrated pc t Department, the Fi. h and Wildlife ervi e management plan that should nm be more warned that many pesti ides allowed re trictive than applicable uare and federal under rate and federal rules could signifi• law "uni ~ there i a compelling public southeast alaska' s most effective cantly in rease the risk of pesticide-related intere t r a on co the contrary." deaths of migratory birds and endangered If that language i finally adopted, environmental voice for the pecies or impair their reproductive abili• aid Don ireffick, chief of environmental ties e en if they were applied properly. contaminant for the Fi h and Wildlife "The history of pesticide au ed ervice Pacif region, it will undercut the death of wildlife at the Tule Lake and the integrated pest management plan now ITongass National Forest! Lower Klamath national wildlife refuge being pr pared. in ludes documented Linda L) m of the Fi h death of bald eagle, and \i ildlifc ''f'> ice called Americans all across the country are Ros ' goose, snow the language "a disturbing talking about protecting the Tongass goose, greater white• precedent not only for the Rainforest. Not only is the Tongass our fronted goo e, ring• Klamath Refuge but for the largest national forest it's also the largest billed gull, California entire refuge') tern." ull, mallard and n rth• Pcsricide-, aren't the temperate rainforest left in the world ern pintail," the service onl) wutcr-br rne threat to home to our nation's largest populations of warned. " ~ an e ample wildhf at Tul Lake. grizzly bears, bald eagles and Sitka black• of the potential negative Be au-c the irrigation tailed deer. effects of this language, water that nters the 35 herbi ides, fungi• refuge h been recycled cides, insecticid and throu h farmers' fields five The Tongass Is under attack by nernati ides made with times, it i lo ded with Alaska's Congressional Delegation. chemicals which are known to have repro• nutrients and often trigger algae bloom , The Delegation continues efforts to In• ductive and endocrine disrupting effects . rarving the water of di olved oxygen. crease clearcuttlng and undermine the could be used on the Tule Lake and "It i filthy water in term nutrients and Lower Klamath refuges." algae, but we have not detected many 1990 Tongass Timber Reform Act. In fact, the rider never kicked in, pe ticides," Snyder- onn ays. because refuge manager Tom Stewart On a bumpy t ur f the refuge over Yes! I want to join Southeast Alaska's most effective approved all 16 restricted-use pesticide du ·ty dike road , refuge biologist Jim environmental voice. SEACC will keep me informed through applications farmers submitted for 19% - Hainline points out that the average depth in some cases, with trice conditions f the water on the unformed sections - ..... the quarterly newsletter and timely action alerts. Enclosed is :IE attached. Whether Stewart felt pressure to th " ump " - · I than one foot. As .:: my tax-deductible check for a one-year membership. grant approvaJ is unclear. What is clear is the edges of th e I k, dry out, they c i:i Sign me up as: that the agency' biological opinions asses - I me "old-growth mar h" and lose their c u Individual $25 Name ing the effects of the e pe ticides on , lue a habitat or waterfowl other than ..c threatened and endangered specie con• n sting du k. u Family $35 Address------~ ------tained everal dire warnings. (See page 13). Warerfow I produ tion has dropped Donor $50-$100 City _ The Hatfield working group, burned -h irpl on the Tule L ke refuge in recent Friend $125 State ZIP ------by the experience of doing the farmers' ar ; refuge official recently notified the ! Mail to: SEACC, 419 6th st#328, Juneau, AK 99801 bidding, this year made no recommenda• Bureau of Reclamation chat nest succ i ::, tion on pesticide u e. But Cooley and Rep. now under 20 percent and that breeding <{ PHONE: (907) 586-6942 FAX (907) 463-3312 HOMEPAGE: http://www.juneau.com/seacc/ Wally Herger, R- A, managed to get lan• habitat for mallard and other waterfowl ft EMAIL: [email protected] guage included in the House 1997 Interior pecie "doe not e i ton Tule Lake ~--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~--' National Wildlife Refuge." on grain crops. But on the refuge, where One way to revive the 'Ihle Lake he grows oat , burl and potatoes on 240 CascadiaCalendar marsh is through "sump rotation," a pro• leased acres, Monitor is banned and gram under which existing croplands Disy ton is tight! restricted. would be inundated and sumps would be Crawford, a blunt, no-nonsense dried out and farmed. Sump rotation farmer who heads h politically influen• would improve habitat for endangered tial Klamath Ba in Water Users, insists uckers, which now hang out in a deep that farmers who I use land on the channel that connects the two ump at refuges wane co r xluce their use of pe ti• Tule Lake. It would create deep-water cide '. But, Crawford says, they can't Green Fire Production, whos videos have been used by areas, wetlands inter persed with clumps grow row crops wi hour them. 'I'm not a CNN, "60 Minute " and the" ews Hour with jim L hrer," of vegetation, and half-submerged "herni• big promoter of th · use of pesticides. I marshes" to provide varied habitat. That's con ider th rn a 11 xessary tool for has released it second video on alvage Logging, "'TI ubled the regime the Fi h and Wildlife Service remaining comp titive. Waters." The video f tures sport and commercial fishers, a follows now at the Lower Klamath He also considers them afe. "When logger, an economi t, a city water supply manager and a tax• Refuge, where wildlife i abundant. But I see 30,000 to 40,000 birds itting on my payer advo te on the economic importance of protecting farmers like John Crawford are keptical cropland b rdering the refuge cropland, I our national forests." Green Fire' first video, "Logs, ies and that the sump can be farmed succe ful• gues · I have a problem with the percep• ly, and the Fi h and Wildlife Service, tion that bird, ar · ti ing out rhere. I don't Videotape," can be view don the web at http://www.tele• which is tinder a legal obligation to imple• wane to use '>Omcrhing that' un afe for port. om/-gfmedia. Or call 541) 486-4070. ment the program, now says it may have me or my famil . or that leaves a residue to cud the issue for five ears before on my crops. I'm not cilia the Hun with pro .eeding. a pray rig." Because the Tulc Lake refuge now Jim 1-1 inhn · ~ce.,; things different! . Conferences provides uch poor habitat, birds now Like other refo~ · .rnployees, he re enc· crowd the Lower Klamath Refuge. the way the rcfug; ·s have been treated by The Puget Sound Habitat onference is Sept. 28 at Seattle "There used to be a much more equi• farmers and rhc Bureau of Reclamation Univer icy. Topic includ health of critical habitats in Puget table di, tribution of wuterfov I between over the • e r . "\\'c think we have just as Lower Klamath and Tulc I .ake," much right to the water a anyone," he Sound, opportunitie: to restore and prate ·t habitat and deter• Hainline ay . "Ba, ically th bird com' says. "We n ·d wildlife roo. I don't think mining conne tions between habitat and a sound economy. here and a· we can live without For rcgi cration information, contact Pe ple for Puget Sound, 'pfffft' and fly over it. I can't imagine a 1-800) People-2. the hill. Tulc I .ake world without birds ha ob, iousl lost in the trees and The San Francis o Estuary Project will hold its "'I hird its attraction to fi sh in the water. It Biennial State of the Estuary onference," Oct. 10-ll at the mo t of the water• doe sn t need to be Golden Gate lub, Presidio of San Francisco. The conference fowl re ource in a wilderne · · for u . will review the health of the Bay and Delta. For more infor• thi ba in. When With ump rota• an) one piece of tion, the be t we II mation all (5 l 0) 2 -0460. the refuge ystern get i function. i,n 'r carrying its We'll never get the load, it affects the form. But we'd like Dainforest Campaign ~) stern as a to ha e it a lot bet• whole.' ter than rh is." One cffe t of I lainline isn't British Columbia and '. '.organization· ha e form d the the overcrowding ~h) about sharing anadian Rainforest Network to coordinate campaign pro• and bad water ha his iew with tecting temperate rainforests, which are threaten d b he n an epidemic farmers. "I tell B.C. of J\ ian cholera, some of thern., logging. For more information contact Jill Thoma , coordina• ,, hich now claim, 'You guy, ha, e had tor, (604) 669-4303. 4,000 birds on the a 75-year run. You t\\ n refuge ev cry made a lot of mon• year, In one re enc ey. You were heavi• year, the coll was ly subsidized by I 0,000. "There' ta payer . Iaybe orne speculation that water that i · not that time. i, L h.111 •ing. ,., People for Puget Sound are ponsoring a ballot initiative, the well-o ygenured will harbor more of the He kno \\ rh,n the ultimate decis ion Marine Water and Salmon Habitat Initiative" (1-188) co pro• bacteria (that cau cholera), and birds on the future >f Klamath refuges will be are getting crowded everywhere," made far fr, m "lule Lake. He know· it tect the Sound and coa cal water from oil spills and other Snyder-Conn said. "The more wcrlund won't happen on the timcline he'd prefer. pollution. mong the major components of the bill: a disabled restoration char can be done. the more w But Hainlin 1, caution ly optirni ti that vessel emergenc respon e stem, and a permanent ban on can pread bird out and limit the conta• the ultimate re olution will b favorable n off- hore oil drilling. If the sponsors obtain the n eded a, gion, the better.' to wildli e, 00 182,000 signatures b December 1996, the measure will be c, John Craw fort! dispute th r what he "It took th 75 ·car to get into this a, does on hi I a ed land harms w ildlife in me s." he . "W, won't crawl out of it sent to the Legislature, which would then enact it as law or =;: any way. If an one get a raw deal, he overnight." • refer it to a tatewide vote in November 1997. For more infor• -t insi ts, it' farmers, "The refuge land are mation call {206) 382-7007. i a liability to m private lands because of 00"' the pe ti ide regulations on the refuge," he say . On hi own land - 600 acres of wheat and barley adjacent to the refuge - he use the pe ticid Monitor to con• trol aphid and worm· in his potatoes and •Publicize ~01r euent in Caswiid Times. Send information to Cascadid Calen,n~~-·• Place '40' Disyston to control Ru ·sian wheat aphid Portland OR m10. Ueadline fer submissions is the 10th of~ menttt. The Victor in Victoria 8. C.'s NEW PREMIER KEEPS 'EM GUESSING By Ian Gill DP government looks on the urface, to Clayoquot Sound cientif• be a plus for the environment. i panel? Will it tick to oon • fter British Columbia's ew But the truth, · on the Xfiles, is out its chlorine-free agenda Demo .rati Party squeaked to a there. There i no proof that the DP under for B.C. pulp mills? Will knife-edge election victory in late Glen Clark will translate into better fore t it continue to care down S fay, one of Premier Glen Clark' practice , cleaner streams, more robust fish the big auto makers and closest confidantes called to say he was uf• cock , cleaner air, and better legi lacion in i t on emi ion stan• fering from "post-election, post-partum around issues of true su tainability. In fact, in dard that rival or depression." terms of an environmental track record, exceed those being "We've ju t given birth to a baby that Clark arguably has more to prove than demanded in alif rnia? only a mother could love," he said. For the Gordon Campbell. Finally, will Clark NOP, it wa in fact a rebirth of a government Campbell, for example, was the first tackle the thomie t i sue that two months before the election was 20 party leader to call for Alcan's Kemano water of all: die forest land tenure points behind in the poll and had already project in orthern B.C. to be canceled tern and the urgent need received its last rites. (something the Harcourt government even• for i reform? Right now, the t p Then along came Glen lark - tually did). In the run-up to the election, the companies in the B.C. fore c young, talon- harp. whip- mart and hyper• Liberals announced a Living River trategy, indu cry apture two of every aggres ive - in place of 'like Harcourt. argued for a provincial takeover of the We t three trees cut. nlike the Harcourt wr the architect of some of the Coast's woefully mismanaged almon fishery ll. · .. almo tall B . .' forest DP' best land-use initiatives and envi• (at present, a federal re ponsibiliry), commit• land are public! held. hue ronmenral policies, but he resigned because ted to improvements in groundwater and air are apportioned tO big he failed to contain the damage from a fes• quality, committed to completing protection "w,, companies thn~ugh tering scandal that didn't involve him, but of 12 percent of the B. . land base in park II an outdated, oh- gar hie I tenure trucrure ultimately undid him. and protected areas, and owed to e tabli h Glen Clark Clark went upside in the face of the more marine parks. Privately, Campbell's th t illow them alrno t unfettered a s to government, turning the 'DP's fortunes advi ors hinted that he would re-visit the fihr . and m hu profi . The prov in e gees around with quick and decisive leadership Harcourt deci ion allowing logging in "Look," ay Webb, "this is a labor pre• , 1111 • resource renc in rem rn, but in ider• and a deep well of spending promise', such layoquot ound, and would explore mier, he i dedicated to the working guy." i, ..: the value of the resour e, far coo few job chat the 'DP entered the election 12 points reforming B.C.' outdated and damaging for• Webb maintains her boss is strongly commit• .rnd for coo little , alue d rive from the pub• ahead in the polls. e st land tenure y tern. ted to environmental issues as they pertain h ·\ mtere tin u own land. Gordon lampbell, leader of the opposi• lark, by cornpari son, ran a campaign to growth, auto emi sion , improved transit, Clark km,", all thi . Indeed, he wrote a tion Liberals, thus went from a geode glide chat barely featured the environment at all. and clean water. "He's pro bus driver , and m.hter'~ decree in planning whi h \\:I a cri• into the premier' offi ·e to a frenzied rear• On the day he called me election, he gave a anti car dealer ," \\:ebb ay . ti 1u of the B. ·. c nure y tern. 8 fore the guard campaign, and he never did make up peech timed to coincide with the six o'clock Since his election, Clark has shown I xion, be tied cut levels co ernplov rnent the 32 points he'd spotted Glen Clark. In news in which the word "environment" sim• bullish determination in tackling the salmon for the benefit o the" rking guy. But he the end Clark and the NOP eked out a bare ply didn't cross his lips. i sue. He has attacked Onawa for its "arro• h: , vet co str an appn · tion for the effect majority of 39 eats in Vi toria's 75- eat "We were looking for an environmental gance ... incran igence, bureaucratic inertia f cur level on hiodiv er-it}. Legislature. context and there imply wa n't one," said (and) stupidity" in not agreeing to allow B.C. "Overall. the em ironrnental communit So we look forward to another four or Tri h Webb, Clark' pre s secretary. Webb more control over that re ource. But then \\Ill do better if'u Ir t die economics," five year of the same tyle of government in ihould know, since before jumping to Clark's Ottawa-bashing is a bloodsport in B.C. \\ bb say . In I th r w rds, this reborn NOP B .. Ord we? campaign, she ran the media campaign for But the fi h lark wishe to manage I I , needs a sen u education around the The conservation movement in B.C. B.C. Wild, a coalition of ome of the need habitat. His government remain com• t I that conservau m and economic devel- seem· near unanimous in it belief that the province's leading conservation group . mitted co protecting 12 percent of the B.C. re-election of the DP is a good thing. The Rue Webb should al 'O know better. land base by the year 2001, hut Webb admits ,. ew Dernocra arc social democra , friends llark could have created an "environmental the land-u e agenda "i going co be harder to dsnrtor of Eaurust of labor and purportcdl · of ocial activists context" if he wanted to, and he didn't. He do." nd be ·and the 12 percent, will a Clark II/) based in like environmentalists. n the other hand, w s prepared to rea ·c to an environmental government really lower the rate of cut of 11t•a; and, 11 uj Cllsmdio Times· the Lib ·rab, despite what the name might agenda, but not ro a ·con one of hi own B.C.'s forests to ustainublc levels? Will it · of dt•J.Son. < ; 1 II iormer arcironmen• imply tu meric ns, are primarily attuned to making. So the question become, will he enfor e the For· t Pra tice Code? Will it ' 1rti rfrir ('H( Ir ,, tl11d 11 senior the intcrcvts of business, So electing another ever? implement aJI the recommendations of the Washington~ Senators Are Killing A Good Bill 00.... :& \! here have all the ti h gone? Year after this w cc. L'nder the cxi ting law, the is ues discus ed were overfi hing, bycatch .:: year our fivh population are declining. or lagnu on Fishery onservation and and indi idual transferable quotas (JTQs). c only are river ind stream habitats being lanagement Act, thi · destruction of the ITQs would privatize our national fisheries ii c de tro ed by uch vil a overlogging and marine ecosystem i completely legal. - and tran fer their owner -hip to large com• ~ o ergrazing, but our coastal ecosystems are Environmentalists and small- cale m er ial enticic ·. c00 u al. fa ing severe negative irnpa ts. In fact, con cal fishing comrnunitie have joined ;urrencly awaiting a vote in the l'.S. the , rion I Mari ne Fisheries Service esti• together to reauthorize the Magnu n cc o Senate) i · . 9, which include pecific pro• mate that more than 80 percent of f h chat it does in fact protect vital marine ecosys• ' i, ion - requiring the fa tol) tm~lers co stocks within the l.'nircd State 'ZOO-mile tem while promoting sustainable fishing, reduce d1eir bytacch, and in ludcs a four• J,c11111e Patton ~ Exclusive Econorni · Zone arc being exploit- To achieve this end, Greenp eace has and-one-half year prohibition on the implc• G1'empea1, §Cl d. Year~ of O\ erf hing and federal misman• worked with coastal ti hing comrnunitie m ntation of any new ITQ program and Po,tlmul <( agement of l T. '. fisherie have led co a criti• over the past few ears co identify and di - mandate · a tud a· to whether ITQ should cal decline of cocks. Corporate factory cus areas of mutual con ern and then take be allowed at all. Of course, pa~~ing legi ·la• trawler fleets are respon ihlc for a rnajori · of the ·e concerns co Congrc ~. 1any of the rion of this ore cannot go unchallenged. Point ofB .....------Recycling Old at Ideas about Recyclin Did you know? By Pamela Brown There are man bri •ht, dedicated in the workplace. Whoopee. Then we • Motor vehicles have access to people in the plasti ~ industry. For can con entrate on other second- and ere you disgruntled, years, many of u, h.1\ • been in meet• third-tier commoditie uch a organ• more of the Pacific Northwest oncerned, upset or ing' trying t fign • nut how co ics. The truth is sometime we don't than do salmon or trout just plain mad at the improve plasti , r • · ·ling for the ee the ne t layer opportunitie until (Neighbors' Property Rights, carefully placed New comrnoditie the pl,1 ti " indu cry we plow through the first, Washington Environmental Yor:k Times A,fagazine manufa cures .. \n I nu know what - Check out con tru tion ite rec - Councill. Wcover article attacking recycling (lune if they really w nt d to improve their cling, uch as at the Ros Garden, 30 1996)? Ot to worry, the tory (and rec cling rates I h ·1 1h ·y could figure Portland' new pro basketball arena. it i only a cory) ha brought to the out a way to do it. It d ebris rec ·ling program, orche - • Washington state is losing urface , hat man of us ha e known The paper indu-,u was one of traced by Debbie lien of River ,ity 30,000 acres of wildlife habitat for a long time: Re rycling i not a part the first industries 10 move beyond Re ource Group, is a model us ed by per year to uses such as resi• of the long-term strategy for some what I call fir r-ricr omrnodities. other cities and con .truction cornpa• indu tries. First-tier comm )tlin ~ are the biggies nie all o er the '.S. Debris recycling dential and commercial devel• uch a' H PE#~ plastics, glass, steel is now a work practice. When done opment, agriculture and road Big deal. can', aluminum a11 ind white ledger correctly, it is profitable. construction (Ne[ghbors' paper. econd- .md (hi rd-tier com• s Meg Lynch writes in Resourte Prop~rty Rights, Washington I don't remember anyone ever moditi · are thin , hk 'scrap" paper Recyding's latest i sue, "In Oregon Environmental Council). saying recycling is the one way out of and polysryren •. E, h big industry alone, the largest single untapped cat• our wa te challenges. Do you? The ha its own et of 1 illti ·al and eco• egory of material by weight is food, biggest part of the olution is reduc• nomic concer and i, dependent on with more than 340,000 ton di posed. • Washington residents in eight ing the amounts of material manufac• our dwindling wt rid r .source . T Recovery, though undoubtedly higher tured and reusing what we can. If know, I know ... th plant five tree than five years ago, is till estimated counties live in areas where the those manufacturers had pent their for every one the: · tnk •. Well you at le s than 1 percent." And when wa air they breathe is too dirty to stockholders' mone more wisely, and know the tree h plant are very it that you first thought about rerno - meet natonal health !»tandards been an ongoing part of the solution, small and the t k • a long time to ing organics from the waste stream? If (N~ighbors • Property Rights, they would have been even more grow. it wa ju t this morning, you'd better profitable. Tho e are the real co t av• While we arc: 'urious when we take a look at your sewer bill because Washinr.on Environmental ings for everyone. As it is now, recy• see articles in th ,\ ., York Times over the next everal years the co t of Council. cling gives secondary materials, fiber Magazinea bout r · ·ling, some peo• everyone's water will increase and we and new jobs to a growing world mar• ple obviou ly r I · h • 1 ily on chi will be faced with reducing our ket. information, 11 h t ew York City inflows so everything doesn't have to • Since 1940, Americans alone What I have observed between Mayor Rudolph W, iiuliani. As the go through the "sy tern." Organics have used up as large a share the period of no recycling (then) and Net» York Time« rci ut ·don July 7, (fruit, vegetables, those things that go of the earths mineral resources 1 recycling (now) in the l nited State "The mayor of " ork City down the garbage dispo al, e cept as all previous 9enerations put is commitment by many manufactur• declared la t c k th It requiring New meat and dairy) are the fir tea win together (New Road Map er to take re ponsibility for the mate• Yorker to sort By FJizobeth Grossman The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions n May, four of us hiked up over parche of snow to a high spot not By David Quammen far from Mount. Adams. The view Scribner's $32.50 702 pp. Iwa long and deep in the blue light of early evening. We looked down over miles of fore ced slope that resembled nothing so much a a cla sic patchwork The unraveling of ecosystems - or 19th entury explorers might have seen ~uilt. "What we re trying co achieve," ecosystem decay, as it's called by those them, and in one of the most poignant Joked one of my friends, "is a continu• ous corridor of clearcut." Looking at study_ing thi disturbing phenomenon, c~nes in the book, to what the last day describe what happens when a habitat might have been like for the last dodo those pat hes of fore t, those island of trees, I thought of the first chapter of erodes, is encroached upon or degraded on earth. David Quammen' new b ok, The Song to the point where it can no longer us• Serious cience, beginning with Darwin and Alfred Rus el Wallace, who of the Do~lo. I wondered how its subject, tain the specie it once supported. The effects of ecosy tern decay are particu• first brought ob ervations of these island Island 81 geography in an Age of Extinctions, might apply to what's been larly signifi ant and dramatic - espe• species home co the We tern world happening co the wildlife of the cially in David Quammen's accounts - underlies the e expeditions. To under• American We t. !n the case of islands. So important are stand the importance of island biogeog• islands co the study of extinction that a raphy, it is worth considering ome of its . ''.~ec's tart indoors. Lee's start by imaginmg a fine Per ian carpet and a field devoted to them has developed concepts and those of the extinction hunting knife," the books begins. "We called island biogeography. process. They explain how, when a In a book whi h was eight years in species' population ha dwindled - s~t about c~tting the carpet into thirty- ix equal pieces ... Have we got thirty• the making, Quammen roams the world because of disea e, predation and hunt• six nice Per ian throw rugs? No. All investigating the fate of island species. ing, disturbance and de truction of its we're left with is three dozen ragged From the Malay Ar hipelago, the habitat or any combination thereof - it fragmen , each one worthies and com• i lands of Bali, Lombok Komodo and ?ecomes difficult, if not impos ible, for Aru to Maritiu and Madagascar to tin rt to reproduce and e pand its territorv men ing co come apart. 1the island in the Gulf f California, Now take the same logic outdoors successfully. It may well be imperiled Galapagos and Guam, from Tasmania to and in danger of extinction. Tht So11g of and it heg!n. tO explain why the tiger, Hawaii and the Amazon we are taken the Dodo shows how this has happened Panthera ttgn , has di appeared from the island of Bali. It ca 'ts light on the fact along on field trips co explore the on islands, as well as in island patches chat the red fox, Vulpes vulpes, is missing remote and singular land capes that within continent . once harbored the dodo, the strange I a ked David Quammen how the from Bry e Canyon National Park. It suggests why the jaguar, the puma, and Tasmanian predator, the thylacine. To eco y terns of the American West might forty-five species of birds have been where giant tortoises and the huge car• be affected by these problems, and extirpated from a place called Barro nivorous lizards known a Komodo drag• whether it was pos ible to iew what's Colorado Ivland - and why myriad on have almo t become zoo creature happened to the grizzly, the spotted other creature are mysceriou ly absent in their own home . We accompany the owl, or salmon in term of island bio• author on unnerving excursions in geography. For there can be islands in ~rom m riad ocher sites. An ecosy tern is a tape try of species and relation• Guam, in search of the snakes whose the midst of a mainland continent an i land of water or an i land within 'a ships. hop way a section, isolate that population ha welled frighteningly section and there ari es the problem of while the native birds ha e dwindled to body of water. In the case of the grizzly, unraveling." the point of extinction. And we travel Ursus araurus, whi h ha been isolated back in time to see the e places a their within the Yellowstone e o y tern, the have indeed been islanded, David affirmed. Their habitat throughout North America have been eparated. A GARDEN OF The ablllty of scientists t.o alter the genetic make-up of The bears' population has dwindled to a U fA THLY DELIGHTS our food is lncrelSing by leaps and bounds. In A Gorden of --· point where survival is problematic. Unearthly f>elthts, Robin Mather enters the barns and labs where bloqlneerlng is being pracdcecHnd The same may also be true, he said, of resisted. She explores the two confflcdng theories of the spotted owl and other birds that ..... food production that have emerged in this country in the need extended contiguous old growth to - past 25 years: the near-utopian vision of biotechnology thrive. Might the same also be true of .::• the de ere tortoise, who e stomping c where "no one goes hungry" and which has been ' ii embraced by corporate giants; and the passionate voices grounds have been hemmed in by the c u of those who champion sustainable agriculture, development of desert into communi• c biodiversity, and organic farming, tie feacuring shopping plazas and golf u- courses? It' a que tion worth asking. available at But when I asked about ·almon, David ~autioned against o erexcending the POWEL~S CITY OF BOOKS Rliz.abeth G , rites from I 005 W Burnside • 503-228-4651 island metaphor, of pushing ic beyond R O 8 I N vrtland. MATH FR www.powells.com t~e limits of it rigors. For example, if a A GARDIN OF UNIAIITHLY DELIGHTS, Powell's Books at Cascade Plaza nver specie depend on deep pools or IIOENGINEEIUNG ANO THE FUTURE OF FOOO 1775 SW Cascade Avenue• 503-643-l I l I riffles co survive and the e are eroded or A IY R081N MATHER Powell's Books on Hawthorne eradicated - if water exi cs only in iso- 6 ...__PL_u__H__EMNG u,_N .....,,,.-=,.,...----l-7_23.....:...SE=--.H:awt.:..::.:.horn:.:..:.:e:..:Bl:vd::50:·_:·l :·2:38:-.:.:''::':a _J ~westNet Tiie Onffne·Communlty for People with a Passion for Cucadta WeslNet is..a regional online service that makeS it easy to find the best lnfanlllllan on 1:0IIIIRlilon and community in the West. 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