Imagine a fire on a hillside starting and it’s in your backyard. In the dry summer heat, the flames quickly grow and multiply, consuming the dying cheat grass, sagebrush and everything else on the hill. Fire doesn’t give a damn for fences, public land versus private, homes versus open ground. It just consumes.
A helicopter with a bucket drop arrives, and makes a pass over the water. But it’s a long trip back to another water source, likely Upper Klamath Lake, and only God knows how much more the fire will consume.
This is where Klamath Drainage District, and the Klamath Project for that matter, make a difference.
On July 2nd, that scenario took place. Had it been 2021 instead of 2022, the dry canal wouldn’t have done any good and perhaps some homes would have been in immediate danger. But this year, even with the scant Klamath Project, there was enough water in the KDD canal next to the fire to allow the helicopter to quickly drop water on the fire.
While federal scientists, environmental advocates and Tribal interests point at the Klamath Project and KDD as “irrigating the desert”, they fail to see the actual good agriculture in the Klamath Basin provides.
The hundreds of miles of canals, ditches and drains provide a replacement for the wetlands that were drained to allow the Klamath Basin to contribute to feeding a hungry nation and world. When the Feds at the urging of the NMFS decide to drought the Project, human health and safety are greatly impacted, as we’ve seen over the last two years.
If not for KDD’s canal, we can only speculate on the damage that fire could have caused and who it could have harmed. Luckily, it was there, full of water and able to aid the firefighters who were able to get the fire under control and protect a threatened neighborhood.
This is why when we say, “good for wildlife, good for Klamath Basin communities” we’re earnest in that statement.
What’s good for the Klamath Drainage District IS good for basin wildlife – and people.
