Public Law 99-552, the "Klamath Act," was adopted by the Congress on October 27, 1986 for the purpose of authorizing a 20-year-long Federal-State cooperative Klamath River Basin Conservation Area Restoration Program for the rebuilding of the river's fish resources. Congress observed correctly that "floods, the construction and operation of dams, diversions and hydroelectric projects, past mining, timber harvest practices, and roadbuilding have all contributed to sedimentation, reduced flows, and degraded water quality which has significantly reduced the anadromous fish habitat in the Klamath-Trinity River system."

The Act creates a 14-member Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force and directs the U.S. Secretary of Interior to cooperate with the Task Force in the creation and implementation of a "Klamath River Basin Conservation Area Fishery Restoration Program."

The Task Force members are appointed by, and represent, the Governors of California and Oregon; the U.S. Secretaries of Interior, Commerce and Agriculture; the California counties of Del Norte, Humboldt, Siskiyou and Trinity; Hoopa Valley, Karuk and Yurok Indian tribal fishers; anglers and commercial fishermen.

The Act also creates an 11-member Klamath Fishery Management Council to "establish a comprehensive long-term plan and policy ... for the management of the in-river and ocean harvesting that affects or may affect Klamath and Trinity River basin anadromous fish populations." The Council is comprised of essentially the same interests as the Task Force, except for those four Basin counties which hold seats only on the Task Force.

CALIFORNIA'S NEW ANADROMOUS FISHERIES PROGRAM

Like Congress, the California Legislature has recently expressed its concern over the continued decline of the state's native salmon, steelhead and other anadromous fish resources. In a 1988 urgency act, Senate Bill 2261, the Legislature directed the Department of Fish and Game to draw up basin-by-basin plans for the conservation and restoration of the state's remaining anadromous fish. The long-range plan presented here is intended to fulfill the planning requirements, for the Klamath River Basin, of the new statewide anadromous fisheries program.

ANADROMOUS FISH OF THE KLAMATH RIVER BASIN ARE VALUABLE

The Klamath Act declares that the Basin's streams "provide fishery resources necessary for Indian subsistence and ceremonial purposes, ocean commercial harvest, recreational fishing, and the economic health of many local communities." The proof of this statement is the substantial reliance on Klamath River fish and fishing by the Hoopa Valley, Karuk and Yurok Indian tribes, commercial salmon fishermen from both California and Oregon, and the visitors and fishermen-serving businesses throughout the vast Klamath region.

A financial analysis of the prospective Restoration Program was performed as part of this long-range plan. The analysis, which appears as an appendix to the plan, was based on values recently developed by the State of California's Advisory Committee on Salmon and Steelhead. Those same values provided the economic basis of the State's new SB-2261 fisheries program.

Both the financial analysis and the earlier Advisory Committee economic study point up one characteristic of fishery restoration efforts that is especially important to rural areas of underemployment like northwestern California and southern Oregon: fishing brings new money into such areas and that money remains in the region, moving from fishermen to small businesses to their workers, longer than for most resource-based activities. Even modest improvements to fish populations during the early stages of the Klamath Restoration Program will bring significant benefits to the very communities for which Congress expressed its concern.

THIS PLAN AND THE ONE BEFORE IT

The U.S. Department of Interior completed a "Klamath River Basin Fisheries Resource Plan" in 1985. It was that plan that Congress had before it when it discussed the proposal that became the Klamath Act. The 1985 plan covered the entire California portion of the Klamath River watershed, including its main tributary, the Trinity River. Recognizing that the Trinity River Fish and Wildlife Management Program was well-launched, Congress deleted Trinity restoration from the proposed Klamath Task Force's duties.

When it was organized in July, 1987, the Klamath Task Force recognized the need to update the information presented in the 1985 plan and, considering the deletion of the Trinity, to review the earlier plan's restoration approach. This long-range plan is the result of that review.

HOW THIS PLAN WAS DEVELOPED

Public involvement was emphasized in the development of this plan. The Task Force held public "scoping" meetings in Eureka and Yreka, California, and Klamath Falls, Oregon attended by more than 200 interested citizens who came forward to share some 700 suggestions, expressions of concern, need and so forth. Copies of a draft plan were mailed in June, 1990 to 100 State, Federal, and local government agencies and public interest groups for their review and comment. Copies of the draft were placed, as well, in 30 libraries and other public places in California and Oregon, and public meetings to review the draft were held in a half-dozen communities throughout the Basin in late summer, 1990.

Other anadromous fishery restoration programs in Canada, Washington, Oregon and elsewhere in California were reviewed in a search for good models of science, management and public participation.

With the help of an inventory of fishery and stream restoration projects undertaken in the Klamath Basin in recent decades prepared by the Task Force's team of technical advisors, the planning team made field inspections of nearly 400 instream work sites involving fishways, barrier removals, bank stabilization, log and boulder weirs, spawning channels, and fish rearing facilities.

Throughout the planning process emphasis was given to writing, discussing and refining clear statements of the Task Force's goals, objectives, and policies for the Restoration Program. The goals are presented in the plan's opening chapter; the objectives, policies and, in some instances, project priorities, are presented at the end of each principal chapter discussion (for example, Chapter 3, Habitat Restoration); and, finally, all are gathered into a "step-down" structure in which they may be maintained, amended and easily updated. The step-down structure is found at the end of the concluding chapter.

THE DIRECTIONS THIS PLAN TAKES

This long-range plan for the Klamath Restoration Program not only updates the 1985 plan, it virtually replaces it by redirecting its principal thrusts. Overall, this plan:

Emphasizes the need for both fish habitat protection and fish habitat restoration from a total watershed, not simply an in stream, perspective.

Recognizes that instream structural treatments (which are a major feature of the 1985 plan) improve fish habitat in specific, necessarily limited ways, and that they are not a cure-all for the underlying causes of fish habitat degradation.

Recognizes that the success of the Restoration Program will depend largely on the ability to the Task Force to secure the support and good will of the Basin's landowners and water users.

Stresses the importance of education and public information in promoting public understanding of, and sustained support for, the Restoration Program.

Calls for ongoing assessments of stream habitat and fish populations necessary to gauge the Program's effectiveness and to make timely adjustments in its investment priorities.

Argues that each distinct population group of anadromous fish remaining in the Klamath River Basin should be protected from over-harvesting, poaching or loss of its habitat, since each serves as a building block essential to the long-range success of the Restoration Program.

Identifies those anadromous fish population groups scattered throughout the Basin that appear to be distinct from fish produced at the Iron Gate and Trinity River hatcheries and commits the Task Force to monitoring these populations closely and advising the Klamath Fisheries Management Council on ways to prevent their existence from becoming endangered.

Analyzes the public policy environment in which the Restoration Program operates at this initial stage, and makes clear that the Task Force will aggressively seek policy improvements when they are found to be needed to protect the Basin's fish resources and the Program's investment in them.

THE NEXT STEPS

This plan will strengthen the work of the Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force and the Restoration Program's day-to-day managers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Following its formal adoption in early, 1991 the Task Force and the Service staff will discuss each policy in the plan to determine precisely what steps must be taken, and in which budget years, to assure that each is carried out. The Task Force refers to this process as "operational planning."

The Task Force's operational plans will provide the public an even clearer understanding of how the Program's energy and funds will be applied to its objectives and how landowners, fishing groups, cooperating agencies and potential contractors can best assist the multi-year restoration effort.

A FINAL WORD ABOUT THIS LONG-RANGE PLAN

Fishery restoration is a relatively new area of human endeavor. There are few proven fishery restoration planning models from which to draw guidance. The process by which this plan was developed takes the following traditional approach to planning:

- Identify the key issues.
- Make accurate, substantiated findings about the issues.
- Select long term goals.
- Choose shorter-term objectives.
- Develop policies which address the key issues and which will help attain the goals and objectives.
- Identify specific actions that will implement the plan.

A plan that is useful is, by definition, one that can be implemented. The implementation of the plan starts a dynamic process called "adaptive management," also referred to as "learning by doing." The important thing is to have clearly stated goals, objectives and policies so that everything you do can be related directly to a specific part of the plan. When something works, note it and do more of it. When something fails to produce results, note that, and cease expending funds on it.

We hope that this long-range plan for the Klamath River Basin Conservation Area Restoration Program will prove an effective model from which to borrow wherever people set about to rebuild their natural stream and fishery heritages.

WHERE TO FIND SUBJECTS IN THIS PLAN

Chapters--------------------Subjects

1. Introduction ------------Purpose, Act, Council, Task Force, SB-2261, Fish Users, Plan Development, 1985 and Other Plans, Goals

2. Habitat Protection-------Watersheds, Timber Harvesting, Mining, and Management Agriculture, Urban Encroachment, Water Development, Stream Diversions

3. Habitat Restoration-------Instream Structures, Riparian Zone, Watershed Rehabilitation, Biological assessment, Evaluation, Education, Limiting Factors by Subbasins

4. Population Protection ----Fish Population Identification, Population Trends, Harvesting, Poaching, High Seas Nets, Predators

5. Population Restoration-----Hatcheries, Small Facilities, Diseases, Broodstocks, Stock Transfer, Genetic Integrity, Fish Rescue, Economic Considerations

6. Education------------------Public Schools, Community Education, Communication Fishermen, Ranchers, Loggers

7. Program Administration------Task Force Operations, Staffing, Funding, Information Sharing, Agency Jurisdictions, Coordination, Project Selection Process

8. Conclusions-----------------Principal Findings, Conclusions, Step-down Summary

Bibliography-------------------References, Contacts, Photo and Illustration Credits

Appendix A --------------------Klamath River Basin Act

Appendix B --------------------Evaluation of Prior Klamath Basin Stream, Fishery Restoration Efforts

Appendix C --------------------Financial Feasibility of the Klamath Restoration Program

Appendix D --------------------Environmental Assessment