Has it been the case with current managers [of the refuges] that they are handicapped by long term leases given [to] agriculture that happened a decade, or two decades, ago?
They’ve been handicapped because [of] the peculiar law to the Klamath Basin. It’s called the Kuchel Act and it says that agriculture is allowed, but has to be consistent with wildlife purposes. In our minds, it was an acknowledgment that, in this century, agriculture so dominates the landscape that, without some of the food that’s provided as a residual byproduct of the agriculture, that wildlife would not have the food. But the abuses we’ve seen where agriculture has come to dominate most clearly the Tule Lake refuge, [which is] where waterfowl numbers have just precipitously declined to almost nothing. It has gotten skewed that way because the agricultural interests were in control of the rural community. When I was in college, the Tule Lake – Lower Klamath [refuges] served as a wildlife mecca and everybody still assumes it is. I’m still surprised to find articles that state it has six million birds. Yes, it did in 1960, but in 1997 the six million that used to peak in the refuges is now only one million. It was in the lore, and people kept repeating the number without thinking. So I call [the writers] up and say “Where did you get that number?” The leases are a problem because where they have agricultural lands around Tule Lake, we don’t have marshes anymore. With Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge you have a sump, which is a reservoir, and then you have ag lands. The casual observer first coming to the refuge would not imagine that those agricultural lands were even on the refuge because they look like rows of potatoes and sugar beets. Not what you’d think a national wildlife refuge should look like, therefore it’s about as productive [for wildlife] as any other agricultural field.
Has it been the case with current managers [of the refuges] that they are handicapped by long term leases given [to] agriculture that happened a decade, or two decades, ago?
They’ve been handicapped because [of] the peculiar law to the Klamath Basin. It’s called the Kuchel Act and it says that agriculture is allowed, but has to be consistent with wildlife purposes. In our minds, it was an acknowledgment that, in this century, agriculture so dominates the landscape that, without some of the food that’s provided as a residual byproduct of the agriculture, that wildlife would not have the food. But the abuses we’ve seen where agriculture has come to dominate most clearly the Tule Lake refuge, [which is] where waterfowl numbers have just precipitously declined to almost nothing. It has gotten skewed that way because the agricultural interests were in control of the rural community. When I was in college, the Tule Lake – Lower Klamath [refuges] served as a wildlife mecca and everybody still assumes it is. I’m still surprised to find articles that state it has six million birds. Yes, it did in 1960, but in 1997 the six million that used to peak in the refuges is now only one million. It was in the lore, and people kept repeating the number without thinking. So I call [the writers] up and say “Where did you get that number?” The leases are a problem because where they have agricultural lands around Tule Lake, we don’t have marshes anymore. With Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge you have a sump, which is a reservoir, and then you have ag lands. The casual observer first coming to the refuge would not imagine that those agricultural lands were even on the refuge because they look like rows of potatoes and sugar beets. Not what you’d think a national wildlife refuge should look like, therefore it’s about as productive [for wildlife] as any other agricultural field.
