Restoring the Klamath Basin

Thanks to a large infusion of federal funding, more than $160 million, stakeholders in the Klamath Basin are submitting proposals to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for restoration projects. The Klamath Tribes are one of the groups submitting a proposal. Mark Buettner is an environmental scientist for the Klamath Tribes. We hear more about what the plan looks like.

This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. One hundred sixty million dollars for the Klamath Basin was tucked into the bipartisan infrastructure bill. It means that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be giving out a lot of money for restoration projects in the Basin. It’s asking for proposals from tribes, local and state agencies, and other conservation partners. The Klamath Tribes is one of the sovereign nations that’s going to be asking for money. Mark Buettner is an environmental scientist with the Klamath Tribes. He joins us now to talk about what they hope to do. Mark Buettner, welcome to think out loud.

Mark Buettner: Thank you.

Miller: I want to start with this money. It’s not a sure thing, but what kinds of consultations have you already been involved with, with federal officials?

Buettner: When the funds were made available, the Fish and Wildlife Service reached out to the different tribes to provide information on what this money could be used for and a process that they were developing to be able to distribute those funds and prioritize projects. So we’ve had a couple of different consultation meetings with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Miller: How much money could be coming to the Klamath Tribes?

Buettner: There’s, like you had mentioned, over $160 million dollars overall. Of course that money is supposed to be spread throughout the Basin. We are hoping to get a good chunk, hopefully in the $5-10 million dollar range, out of this package.

Miller: Can you put that in perspective? How significant would a grant of that scale be?

Buettner: We [could] accomplish quite a bit of work in the Basin. Of course, we’re very concerned about some of the degraded habitat conditions, both in the tributaries and in Upper Klamath Lake. [In] the Upper Klamath watershed there’s been a lot of land-use activities that have led to some degradation of both stream and lake environments. We have endangered species that have resulted from some of the long-term practices that have resulted in habitat degradation, poor water quality, that type of thing. So, in terms of what we’re hoping to accomplish, one of the main projects that the tribes will be trying to obtain funding for is to do habitat restoration work in stream environments, particularly in the headwaters area of the Bootleg Fire, where last summer over 400,000 acres of the National Forest [burned] and that was part of the tribes’ homeland. Over 50 streams and over 300 miles of stream length were impacted by that fire, resulting in the loss of the vegetation that would hold the soil. Our proposal would be to implement various stream restoration activities which would stabilize the stream and reduce the amount of sediment and nutrients that flow downstream.

Miller: And some of that would be, say, planting trees along the stream to replace those that burned?

Buettner: The main activity would be instream structure to slow the water down. The more recent technology, or methods that are used, is something that beavers established naturally. They’re called beaver dam analogues: basically small beaver dams throughout the stream system to slow the water down, capture the sediment, allow some of the water to percolate into the stream banks, which would support some of the riparian vegetation. What we’ve noticed [is] a lot of the vegetation wasn’t totally killed during the fire and will re-sprout and come back. So, by putting in these structures, we’ll hold some water and that will allow the vegetation to become re-established and grow, hopefully.

Miller: Are there still actual beavers in the area that could, not do beaver dam analogues, but just plain old beaver dams?

Buettner: There are, but they’re in very localized areas. They’re not as widespread as they once were. Part of that is because a lot of the habitat that they would use – the willows and the trees along the streams – are no longer present. One of the challenges of getting beavers back is to get some of that vegetation along the streams re-established and that’s going to take some time.

Miller: What kind of work do you do with private landowners?

Buettner: The types of work that we generally do include riparian fencing, to be able to better manage livestock grazing along the stream channels. We would prefer that cattle do not have direct access to the stream. That would protect the riparian area. We also provide off-stream watering. If the cattle are not allowed in the stream, then we need to provide an alternate water supply so we put in water facilities. We also do riparian planting if that is called for, if there’s a lack of that. Also instream structure: a lot of our stream environments are very simplified. Because there isn’t a lot of vegetation growing along those streams, we have to artificially add wood structure to provide habitat for fish, for cover and spawning and hiding areas.

Miller: Is it sometimes hard to get private landowners to want to collaborate?

Buettner: Yes, for the Klamath Tribes it’s been challenging, in part because recently the tribes went through an adjudication process where they determine who has the priority for water use in the Klamath. In 2013, the Klamath Tribes received senior water rights for instream flows to protect fish and wildlife. So the tribes have the most senior water, and of course we’ve experienced some severe drought conditions the last several years. With the severe drought and the tribes’ senior water call, there’s been very little private land irrigation allowed. That has been a major change from what had occurred prior to the adjudication when ranchers were able to basically use whatever water they had water rights for.

Miller: Meanwhile, it seems likely that the drought is going to continue. We keep hearing reports about a terrifying summer. How much can you prepare for a drought as an environmental scientist as opposed to just dealing with it when it comes?

Buettner: Our main focus now is to develop projects that result in drought resiliency. By restoring some of these stream habitats and marsh habitats, that will set us up for better conditions when a drought occurs. Of course that is more of a long-term goal. But, if we do these projects – stream restoration, marsh restoration – then we’ll be in a better position to get through the drought in having less severe impacts to all of the water users in the area.

Miller: Well, Mark Buettner, thanks very much for joining us today. I appreciate it.

Buettner: Thank you.

Miller: Mark Buettner is an environmental scientist with the Klamath Tribes.

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