May 1, 2012
Bill Easing State Paperwork Requirements Passes Committee
(SACRAMENTO) – Senator Doug LaMalfa’s (R – Richvale) today announced that Senate Bill (SB) 1526, which exempts veterans organizations and other charities from state tax forms and filing fees, has passed the Senate Governance and Finance Committee. Senator LaMalfa and the American Legion seek to ease burdensome reporting requirements that far exceed the federal standards.
“There’s simply no reason that small, tax-exempt groups should be required to file complex tax forms with the state,” said LaMalfa. “When we’re talking about groups that stretch every dollar to help our veterans, the cost to prepare and file these forms can be a real burden.”
The federal government only requires veterans groups to file a “postcard” form with the IRS. However, California requires charity groups to file complicated forms that are simply unnecessary, as well as pay filing fees. LaMalfa’s bill gives federally-tax exempt charities with under $50,000 in annual revenue the option to file a simple form online and exempts them from filing fees. The proposal will also lower costs to the state, which currently reviews each form by hand.
“Generating savings for our veterans’ groups and the state is simply common sense from my point of view,” LaMalfa added. “These veterans fought for our freedom, we need to stand up and fight for them.”
Senator Doug LaMalfa is a lifelong farmer representing the fourth Senate District including Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Siskiyou, Sutter, Del Norte, Placer, Trinity, Yuba and Nevada counties
May 1, 2012
Yreka Tea Party Patriots
Meeting for Tuesday, April 24, 2012 6:30PM
Decision Life Church
Corner of Main and Oberlin..1301 South Main St. Yreka
Program: Celeste Fowler, Coordinator of Search and Rescue
And
Open Mic with discussion of Prop 28 and Prop 29
Public welcome to attend: Call Louise for more information 842-5443
May 1, 2012
PNP comment: There is NOT enough suitable habitat or prey for wolves to be in California. DFG admitted to me over 10 years ago that were (and nothing has changed) already too many predator animals in the State. Yep, there are plenty of bear, mt. lions, coyotes, etc. Wolves populate inappropriately too fast and then decimate the surrounding prey, including livestock. Oh, did I mention that these wolves are NOT native. They are a bigger Canadian wolf. So these wolves are not native. Should not be listed with the Endangered Species Act and are NOT being RE-introduced! — Editor Liz Bowen
By John Bowman
Siskiyou Daily News
May 1, 2012
Yreka, Calif. — “The Siskiyou County Department of Agriculture wants you to have the facts so you know what to expect if wolves become established in Southern Oregon and Northern California,” stated a recent press release from the department announcing an upcoming presentation about wolves.
At 6:30 p.m on May 10 at the Miners Inn Convention Center at 122 East Miner Street in Yreka, Carter Niemeyer – “an expert on wolf biology and a leading authority on wolves” – will give a presentation on the potential influences of wolves on the Siskiyou County ecosystem.
Niemeyer has worked for the Department of Wildlife Services in Montana and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where he helped develop wolf management plans in Idaho and Oregon. He will give a presentation on wolf behavior, wolf impacts on elk and deer populations, and procedures he has used to confirm wolf kills on livestock.
In addition, he will answer specific questions from audience members about wolf management and their potential impacts on the local livestock industry.
OR7 background
Since it first entered Siskiyou County in December, gray wolf OR7 has wandered far and wide across Northern California, stirring up controversy in each of the counties it has crossed through and throughout the state.
After spending most of March in Southern Oregon, OR7 ventured back into Siskiyou County on April 1 only to bounce back into Oregon on April 11 and again back into Siskiyou County on April 17.
Since then, the wolf has wandered from northeastern Siskiyou County down to the southeastern section of the county and most recently into Southwestern Modoc county on April 27.
California’s wolf potential
In response to concerns about California’s policies and preparedness to deal with the recolonization of wolves in the state, the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) has posted a report on its website titled “Gray Wolves in California: An Evaluation of Historical Information, Current Conditions, Potential Natural Recolonization and Management Implications.”
According to the report, Larsen and Ripple (2006) modeled gray wolf habitat suitability (those areas calculated to have “>50 percent wolf pack probability”) in Oregon and several adjacent states.
That model identifies areas of probable wolf habitat in the Cascades and Siskiyou/Klamath area adjacent to California’s Del Norte, Siskiyou and Modoc counties. Larsen and Ripple estimated that Oregon could support approximately 1,450 wolves, including 600 in the Cascades and 120 wolves in the Siskiyou/Klamath region (18 wolves/1000 km2 in both areas).
Carroll et al (2001) developed a model for Oregon and California that included estimated prey density, prey accessibility (a function of slope, where increasing ruggedness makes prey less accessible), and security from human disturbances (a composite of road and human population density).
The 2001 Carroll model predicted the southern Cascades/Modoc Plateau region of Southern Oregon and Northern California would likely provide the largest, essentially contiguous area of suitable habitat in the study area. The authors estimated the area might support 190-470 wolves.
Other areas modeled as suitable habitat in California included the Sierra Nevada and parts of the southern Klamath and North Coast ranges.
However, Carroll developed a second 2006 model which predicts that if current habitat trends continue, the central and southern Sierra Nevada would provide the largest area for a potential wolf population in California.
Other areas of potentially suitable habitat, according to the 2006 Carroll model, include California’s southern Cascades, the Modoc Plateau (in the approximate vicinity of Mt. Shasta, the Medicine Lake highlands, the Devil’s Garden, and the Warner Mountains), and the Klamath Mountains (in the approximate vicinity of the Trinity Alps Wilderness).
“Compared to many areas in California, these areas have low human population density, have few year-round or heavily traveled roads, and are predominantly public land,” the CDFG report states.
The CDFG has acknowledged that gray wolves will likely recolonized areas of California in the future and Siskiyou County is likely to be home to some of those wolves.
“Based on the current distribution of wolves and the predicted distribution of suitable habitat in the state, it is most likely that dispersing wolves will first arrive and reside in Modoc or Siskiyou counties,” the report continues. “However, any future pattern of habitation in the state is unknown.”
Regarding the legal status of those wolves that do find their way into California, CDFG says, “any wolves dispersing into California will be considered endangered pursuant to the Endangered Species Act.”
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NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
This information and much more that you need to know about the ESA,
the Klamath River Basin, and private property rights can be found at The
Klamath Bucket Brigade’s web site – http://klamathbucketbrigade.org/index.html –
please visit today.
May 1, 2012
May 1, 2012 | Northwest News Network
Photo not copied, see link
Artist’s rendition of upper and lower reservoir of Swan Lake Pumped Storage Project northeast of Klamath Falls, Ore. credit: RiverBank Power
Artist’s rendition of upper and lower reservoir of Swan Lake Pumped Storage Project northeast of Klamath Falls, Ore. | credit: RiverBank Power | rollover image for more
PORTLAND – If you thought the great dam building era of the Northwest was long over, you might be mistaken. But we’re not talking about damming rivers here. This is about building long earthen dams to make new off-stream hydropower reservoirs. They’re being designed to act as giant batteries and shock absorbers for the electric grid.
Here’s an odd thought that relates to keeping your lights burning steady and bright. Someday a small portion of your electricity bill could go toward pumping water in a loop. Lots of water. Pumped uphill, run back downhill, then pumped back uphill again. Enterprising energy developers have at least seven places in the Northwest in mind for projects of this type. Erik Steimle is shepherding a proposal for two reservoirs near Klamath Falls, one up on a plateau connected to another down below in the valley.
Erik Steimle: “It’s a large reclamation project, yes. Hundreds of workers on site. The construction project would likely take place over the course of years… a large project.”
Steimle works in the Portland regional office of energy developer Riverbank Power. On the walls are renderings of what in the biz they call a pumped storage hydropower project. Steimle gets help explaining how it works from Ellis Arzu of joint venture partner enXco.
Ellis Arzu: “On energy generation, what we’re talking about is a simple arbitrage between pumping using low cost energy, so basically off peak, and generating the energy at peak hours of the day.”
In other words, the good old Wall Street principle of buy low, sell high. But Arzu says that alone doesn’t net much money given this region’s generally low electricity prices. So the developers are marketing their project as a grid stability service. They propose to make most of their money billing utilities for backing up — or “balancing” — the volatile, irregular output of the Northwest’s burgeoning fleet of wind farms.
Ellis Arzu: “So the wind stops blowing. There’s no energy from that wind farm. What happens at that point?”
Call me, he says in so many words. Conversely, Arzu says his project could soak up excess power when wind and solar farms overproduce and hydroelectric dams are maxing out with spring runoff. Pumping water uphill consumes lots of electricity. The upper reservoir then essentially acts like a big battery. It can later release the water on demand to run downhill through a generator. That effectively time shifts the irregular power production. Multiple energy developers are proposing this sort of hydropower project in the Northwest. The Klickitat Public Utility District has applied for a federal permit to build two connected reservoirs at the east end of the Columbia Gorge. The PUD’s general manager is Jim Smith.
Jim Smith: “As soon as wind development started going – let me put it – crazy in the area, we kind of recognized probably it was time to start working on a project like this.”
There are other competing proposals in eastern Washington near Grand Coulee, also in eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. Whichever end up happening, the construction price tags are staggering… in the neighborhood of two billion dollars. That’s billion with a ‘B.”
Rick Miller: “That is the challenge, who pays for this?”
Rick Miller is a nationally-known hydropower consultant with HDR Engineering.
Rick Miller: “Since it is a regional grid benefit, there are a lot of discussions going on that maybe everybody pays a very small portion of their power bill that would go to contribute to this type of an asset.”
Major Northwest utilities haven’t yet been convinced they should pay a third-party to ensure grid stability. That’s one reason why the big reservoir projects we’re talking about could take five to ten years to develop. Area utilities are also looking at cheaper alternatives, which include your basic natural gas backup power plant and a variety of more exotic options. All of these have their own limitations though.
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NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
This information and much more that you need to know about the ESA,
the Klamath River Basin, and private property rights can be found at The
Klamath Bucket Brigade’s web site – http://klamathbucketbrigade.org/index.html –
please visit today.
May 1, 2012
PNP comment: Talking about protecting their own! Herald & News has signed-on to the KBRA, just like Greg Addington and Dan Keppen. Hum, you can’t even write biased letter to the Herald & News in Klamath Falls without them making it biased to dam removal. It used to be that individuals were allowed their right to an opinion without others immediately being able to comment. Looks like YELLOW Journalism is alive and well in the 21st century! — Editor Liz Bowen
Where is the water going to come from?
Agreement doesn’t promise more water
Herald and News
Letter to the Editor
May 1, 2012
Editor’s note: Because of the tenor of the remarks in this letter, the Herald and News contacted the targets and asked for responses, which are below:
The truth about the KBRA: Dan Keppen and Greg Addington are implants from the federal government’s agenda to depopulate rural America.
They are here to destroy the farms in the Klamath Basin and in that it will destroy the economy of our community.
Does anyone remember the year 2001 when the government took the water away from farms, and there were our fellow citizens standing in food lines for assistance? Well, I do and it was sad and degrading to hardworking families that depended on the economic base from the farmers.
In the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, there is not one single thing that guarantees water for the farms and it actually says it will take water from the farms.
Keppen and Addington have been lying to this community all for a position in the New World Order at the cost to our community and children’s future.
The KBRA/Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement might as well been written by Hitler, Gorbachev and Stalin. Ask Keppen and Addington what page, what paragraph, and what line in the KBRA promises water for the farmers. And don’t let them beat around the bush, hold their feet to fire. They will not show you because it’s not there.
Bob King
Charter Board member of the Klamath Bucket Brigade, and farmer in Klamath and Lake counties
Editor’s note: Dan Keppen is Executive Director of the Family Farm Alliance. Greg Addington is executive director of the Klamath Basin Water Users Association. Both have been supporters of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. Their responses follow.
By GREG ADDINGTON
Bob King’s letter alleges that Dan Keppen and I are “here to destroy farms in the Klamath Basin” and we “have been lying to this community all for a position in the new world order.” Interesting, I haven’t even sent the NWO my resume!
Mr. King just doesn’t get it. The one statement he makes that deserves a response is one that challenges us to show him exactly where the KBRA “promises water for farmers.” I’m not a lawyer, but I know that if the KBRA promised water to anybody it would violate state water law.
Under the KBRA you can’t divert water unless you have a water right. What matters about the KBRA is that it protects the use of the water under that water right.
My great-grandparents homesteaded on the shores of Lower Klamath Lake and my kids are the fifth-generation of my family to call this place home.
I care deeply about this community and its future. We should all be grateful to those who came before us and developed the infrastructure and perfected water rights that built these communities.
In these times it is irresponsible — silly, even — to simply deny the existence of things like tribal water rights or the Endangered Species Act.
Our obligation to the community and those who will come after us is to deal with the real world in an intelligent way and find meaningful solutions.
The KBRA does that. It will use legal tools that have not been used before and includes many significant commitments that protect the right to divert water.
Read Mr. King’s letter again and then ask yourself, what you think the biggest threat to agriculture and our community really is.
By DAN KEPPEN
I admit I am uncomfortable responding to unsubstantiated allegations of this sort, but do appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight.
Mr. King’s letter tries to put words in my mouth. No one in the West has a 100-percent guarantee of water. What I have stated is my belief Klamath Project irrigators will have much more water supply certainty under the KBRA than with the status quo.
That belief is derived from 25 years’ experience dealing with water resources engineering and policy issues at all levels.
That belief is built on the understanding that a very complex document was forged by very diverse, sometimes traditionally adversarial, water professionals — and that every sentence in that document was painstakingly negotiated by all of those parties.
That belief persists after thoroughly reading the KBRA and knowing the character and credentials of many who were involved with crafting the agreement.
For the record, an organization I work under contract for — the Family Farm Alliance — has not taken a position on the KBRA. However, as an independent citizen of this community, I have every right to stand up and take a civil, reasonable position on something I feel strongly about.
I certainly respect the passion Mr. King and the other KBRA opponents carry for their cause. But, really — those of us who take pride in the fact that our community took part in the creation of a historic accord should not be personally and publicly attacked simply for having a different viewpoint. I honestly do not know what Mr. King means when he calls me an “implant” from the “federal government’s agenda.” So, I cannot respond to that particular claim. Ironically, the best argument I have in my defense on this matter is Mr. King’s own letter. Read it again. Please.
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NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
This information and much more that you need to know about the ESA,
the Klamath River Basin, and private property rights can be found at The
Klamath Bucket Brigade’s web site – http://klamathbucketbrigade.org/index.html –
please visit today.
May 1, 2012
Warm temps melt snow too quickly
By JOEL ASCHBRENNER
H&N Staff Reporter
May 1, 2012
The Klamath Basin water situation this year is, for lack of a better term, fluid.
Projections show the Klamath Reclamation Project will receive nearly 90 percent of its annual allotment of water, with groundwater pumping and land idling programs likely to cover the rest.
But a recent warm spell melted snowpack, sending potential irrigation water downriver and leaving farmers concerned that there won’t be water left for their crops later in the summer growing season.
“That hot streak last week, if it would have stayed like that we would have been in trouble,” said Tulelake farmer Otto Huffman, who spent much of Monday planting potatoes.
Double-edged sword
Forecasts call for high temperatures in the 50s this week, down from the 70s in recent weeks. But cool weather is a double-edged sword, as it helps retain snowpack but can stunt crop growth, said Hollie Cannon, executive director of the Klamath Water and Power Agency.
Irrigators want to see snowpack melt slowly throughout the summer so water is available late in the growing season, Cannon said. But this winter, which started bone-dry and ended snowy and rainy, was far from ideal.
“The snowpack didn’t have time to set up in the mountains and become dense — become ice, essentially — and with this unseasonably warm weather, the runoff becomes quicker,” he said.
It’s all about timing when it comes to Klamath Basin water. Biological opinions for endangered coho salmon in the Klamath River dictate that certain amounts of water in Upper Klamath Lake, a primary irrigation source, must be sent downriver between April and June 1. The amounts are based on a variable scale; the more water in the lake, the more that has to be sent down the river.
Outflows from Upper Klamath Lake have increased from about 300 cubic-feet per second a month ago, to about 3,100 cubic-feet per second Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Irrigators like Huffman say the biological opinions send too much water downriver, that they are flawed, based on how much water would flow downriver only in the wettest years.
“There’s plenty of water in the lake for us to irrigate with if they didn’t have to give it away,” he said.
Opinions differ at the other end of the Klamath River.
The amount, and more importantly the timing, of water sent downriver is critical to keeping salmon and the salmon fishing industry healthy, said Glenn Spain, northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations.
“It means jobs and dollars in communities,” he said about healthy river flows. “It means people can pay their mortgages.”
Both Huffman and Spain advocate more water storage in the Upper Klamath Basin.
While plans to build water storage have been deemed too costly, some storage capacity already exists. The Bureau of Reclamation is using Agency Lake this year to store up to 27,000 acre feet of water above Upper Klamath Lake until it is needed for irrigation, said Kevin Moore, spokesperson with the Bureau’s Klamath Basin area office.
If there’s enough water to go around, both the farming and fishing industries could enjoy profitable years. Commodity prices for many of the Basin’s staple crops have soared in the past year and large returns of chinook salmon are predicted for the Klamath and Sacramento rivers.
Side Bar
Shortage predicted
There is more than enough irrigation water for the Klamath Reclamation Project now, but a shortage is expected in July, August and September.
The Project, which annually draws about 400,000 acre-feet of water, will be short about 50,000 acre-feet, said Hollie Cannon, executive director of the Klamath Water and Power Agency.
To mitigate the shortage, KWAPA plans to pay irrigators to pump 40,000 acre-feet of groundwater and to leave some fields dry late in the year. A more severe water shortage following an unusually dry winter was narrowly avoided.
“We were really fortunate that March was so wet, otherwise we could have been looking at a year similar to 2010,” Cannon said, referring to the most recent drought, when irrigators pumped more than 100,000 acre-feet of ground water and left more than 40,000 acres dry.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
This information and much more that you need to know about the ESA,
the Klamath River Basin, and private property rights can be found at The
Klamath Bucket Brigade’s web site – http://klamathbucketbrigade.org/index.html –
please visit today.
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