Red Lodge Clearinghouse

The dams, owned by PacifiCorp, have no fish ladders on the lowest three and are widely blamed for destroying salmon runs in the river and in the Pacific Ocean. Under the new strategy, the agreement provides sweeteners for various interest groups to get them to cooperate, including supporting the tribes' request for $21 million from Congress over the next four years to buy 90,000 acres of private forestland, about 2 percent of the $1 billion estimated cost of the Klamath Basin settlement.

Last week, about 50 people stood outside the Klamath County Courthouse protesting the tribes' land deal and other portions of the agreement.

"They sold it and now we're going to buy it and give it back to them?" said Glenn Howard of the Klamath Basin Alliance, a group of private landowners, referring to the federal policy 50 years ago under which members of the Klamath Tribes got cash and their reservation was converted to a national forest.

The tribes see the forest property as a cornerstone to reconstituting a resource-based economy and helping ensure eventual tribal self-sufficiency.

Before any part of the agreement can be enacted, approval of the tribes, Klamath County commissioners and others is required (Greenwire, Jan. 16). In addition, the deal is contingent on PacifiCorp agreeing to decommission its four hydroelectric dams, which it has not agreed to yet (Matthew Preusch, Seattle Times, Jan. 22). -- SG

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