August 14, 2021
Last year, botulism infected around 30,000 birds migrating through Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
“It just seemed like one crisis after another,” said January Bill, a wildlife rehabilitator who runs a duck hospital located on the Lower Klamath Refuge.
Some of those birds survived with the help of Bill’s field hospital, but others didn’t.
Bill is co-founder of a nonprofit based in Humboldt, Calif., called Bird Ally X. The organization was founded to educate about wildlife rehabilitation techniques, as well as provide aid to bird populations impacted by natural or human-caused diseases.
In 2018 a Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge biologist contacted her to help with avian botulism outbreaks.
She works in a semi-large barn adapted into a field hospital on the Lower Klamath Refuge off of Stateline road. Rehabilitation equipment and a small staff kitchen fills the space. Light in the building is muted as it filters through green paneling on the walls.
There are two signs on either side of the entrance that read “Bird Ally X Botulism Response,” and “Duck Hospital.”
The hospital has to be torn down and set up every year, it is expandable based on the size of the botulism outbreak.
“Avian botulism is the number one cause of mortality worldwide,” Bill said. “Waterbirds respond really well to treatment. So, if we can help them get through it then why not.”
More klamath basin wells go dry as groundwater decline persistsAugust 7, 2021
The Klamath Watermaster’s list of dry wells in Klamath County started at 84 in July.
A month later, there are 185 wells registered, including wells as far north as Crescent and La Pine properties.
There are likely more unregistered dry wells in Klamath County. The watermaster’s office said they receive daily calls from well owners looking to register.
The Modoc County Sheriff shared a PSA on facebook explaining what to do if someone in Modoc county is without well water.
Well users in Klamath County are encouraged to register their dry well with the watermaster to receive water storage tanks and water deliveries from the state.
Tulelake is operating under a similar procedure, and asks water users to report dry wells to the Tulelake Irrigation District.
Brad Kirby, the manager for Tulelake Irrigation District said they’ve received 14 reports of dry wells. “We’ve delivered tanks to 10 of those; the others seem to be running intermittently,” he said.
Needless to say, wells are going dry Basin-wide.
“Not all of these (registrees) are people with dry wells, some just have low levels and want a backup plan,” said Dani Watson, watermaster of District 17 in Klamath Falls.
Klamath County is working with the Oregon Department of Human Services who is providing 500 gallon water storage tanks to people with dry wells.
County Commissioner Kelley Minty-Morris said approximately 75 tanks were delivered to water users with dry wells as of Friday July 30.
Domestic Wells run dry in many klamath basin homes “I don’t even know how to explain the gut wrenching reaction you have when you go to turn on the faucet and no water comes out. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Shanks said.
For almost three weeks, Shanks has been watering her animals from a water storage tank behind her house.
In order to conserve the tank water for the animals, she and her husband drive to her mother’s house, which is also in Malin, to shower and do laundry.
It is not uncommon for many of the rural properties to use their domestic wells both for house water, and to take care of a herd of livestock. In times of drought, some even use them to irrigate small amounts of farm land.
“It’s coming down to hard choices,” Shanks said, tearing up.
“With the way things have gone, I’m probably going to sell my herd. If I can’t water and feed them the way they need to be taken care of then they have to go. They just have to,” she said. Shanks has since put her herd of cattle on the market.
She thinks many of her neighbors are in the same situation. “You learn how long you can really go without a shower,” she said.
Shanks is right—many of her neighbors are in the same situation. Mike Ewing is a pump technician with Aqua Pump. Ewing installs pumps in the wells, and adds piping so the well will reach lower water levels.
“When we go out to service one well, there will be trucks from other pump companies down the road doing the same job… The wells going dry are all in certain areas,” he said.
In previous years, when he got a call from someone with a well problem, it could usually be solved by repairing the pump or adding additional piping.
That hasn’t been the case this year.
He said he receives around four to five calls a day regarding pump issues and over the past month, at least one call a day leads to a dry well. In that case, Ewing can’t do anything but refer the well owner to a drilling company.
“Usually when people call you show up and you’re a superhero. But, now they call, you show up, and there is nothing you can do,” Ewing said.
There is a lack of trickle-down irrigation water
Paul Simmons, the executive director of Klamath Water Users Association is not surprised to see these water shortages in such areas. He has been hearing about the well water shortage for at least a month now.
“The areas where it is happening are all along major canals that have been left dry this season,” Simmons said.
Since there is no irrigation water in the canals, farmers are not able to irrigate as much of their land, and Simmons said both of these factors inhibit groundwater recharge.
Ivan Gall from Oregon Water Resources agreed that the lack of surface water being irrigated throughout the project is contributing to the poor recharge rate of shallow well systems but, “stacking up multiple dry years does not help,” Gall said.
Without extensive and time consuming research, there is no way to tell where the groundwater level is in the Klamath Basin, and how far it’s dropped Gall said.
Some irrigation wells sitting at around 600-800 ft. below the ground have also spewed air instead of water as farmers use groundwater heavily in lieu of irrigation water from Upper Klamath Lake.
Low levels long term trend
The United States Geological Survey monitors well water levels in the Klamath Basin and other areas with various sensors that can detect water levels. They monitor private and irrigation wells with landowner permission. Some wells are special USGS wells that are installed just to monitor groundwater levels in the basin.
The recent measurements from the 40 wells they monitor in the basin “are some of the lowest levels we’ve seen and it looks like a long term trend,” said Terrence Conlon, a regional science coordinator for the USGS.
Klamath tribal youth reduce fire fulesJune 19, 2021
Last Wednesday in Chiloquin, a crew of seven Klamath Tribes youth, ages 19-24, completed their saw certification on land that belonged to Edison Chiloquin, the late member of the Klamath Tribes who chose not to sell his 580 acre property in 1954.
The Tribal Youth Ecological Forestry Training Program which is a five week paid training program that strengthens community by equipping young men and women from the tribes with land management knowledge and job opportunities.
Efforts are a collaboration between the U.S. Forest Service, Klamath Tribes, and the Lomakatsi Restoration Project. Lomakatsi is an Ashland-based nonprofit whose name means “life in balance.”
The program has been running for three years, but this is the first year there have been opportunities to participate in training sessions that provide certifications in skills like first aid, equipment usage, and fuel reduction techniques.
“It is a career pathway into natural resources, and these lands need it. There’s not a shortage of things to do,” said Marko Bey, the executive director of Lomakatsi.
As the crew worked in a ponderosa pine stand in Chiloquin, sounds of the motor-powered saws overwhelmed the forest. In between cuts, laughter and silly gestures were exchanged between crew members as they cleared brush and scoped out another tree to cut.
Mortimer was a swamper on Wednesday and said the crew has learned a lot of practical skills. Most didn’t know anything about cutting down trees, and had little to no experience using a saw he said.
He didn’t necessarily picture himself doing a job like this “I pictured myself outdoors but I don’t know about cutting trees,” he said, “I’m all about saving trees, but in the grand scheme of things cutting certain trees to save other ones is a better outcome.”
Most of the crew is from Chiloquin and watched last September as the 424 fire missed their homes and town by inches, “I think it’s just a good opportunity for especially young native men to have a foot in the door. There’s not a lot of opportunities here in Chiloquin for us. But this is a good path,” Mortimer said.
“I see myself in a lot of trouble before this. At first when Leah had contacted me about it, I was kind of nasty about it,” Dakota Burgdorf said.
Burgdorf was reluctant to join the program at first, but decided to participate when friends from the community told him they would be participating. Now, after five weeks, he realizes how many opportunities there are for him.
Another crew member named Anthony Bucahanan said he hopes to take the skills he's learned in the program and work to become a firefighter in the future.
According to Belinda Brown, the tribal coordinator at Lomakatsi, the program is most impactful because it is led by community members who have direct connections with tribe youth.
“It’s really the heart of the community and the people of the community that lead all of our initiatives,” she said.
This is the case with Parazoo, the crew leader from Chiloquin who brought most of the young men together. “My boy is on one of these crews,” she said, “I’ve seen some of these boys grow up, I’ve changed their diapers.”
Parazoo said they need confidence that they are qualified and ready for jobs like these, “and they’ve gained a lot of it in the program,” she said.
She was raised in Chiloquin and notes how the community has changed since she was young. She said there are more options for young people because of programs like these.
July 17, 2021
Judy Shanks starts her Basin Ambulance shift at 5 a.m. each morning. She likes to start and finish work early, so she can return to her Malin home in the afternoon and tend to her livestock.
But, lately, rather than going for a horse ride when she gets off of work, she is trying to find creative ways to get water to her horses, cows, and goats.
On June 24, the 118 foot domestic well that provides water to Shanks’ property ran dry.
Dozens of Wells Run Dry
In the last two weeks, the Klamath County Watermaster’s office received 82 complaints from people in the Klamath Basin experiencing water shortages in their wells.
Dani Watson, watermaster of District 17 in Klamath Falls, knows there are many more unreported situations.
Some households have been able to find water tanks and fill them from their neighbors irrigation pumps, or other family members' wells that haven’t yet dried up.
Water storage tanks are wide-based plastic cylinders with a hole in the top to fill water, and a few holes on the side to hook pumps into. They are bulky and not easy to transport--you have to bring the water to them.
Kelsey Steinberg’s house is one that is currently running on water from a 2,500 gallon tank which her brother refills about every two weeks. Steinberg lives on her family’s farm in between Merrill and Malin with her daughter and husband. Their domestic well went dry on July 2.
Steinberg said water tanks are not a sustainable solution to this problem for anyone. The water from her tank runs through the plumbing in her house. It is not potable, so her family has been buying plastic water bottles from the store.
“Wells are literally going dry on a daily basis, all within a two-mile radius of my house,” she said. Steinberg and many of her neighbors know this is a problem larger than their immediate neighborhood.
Steinberg said the well is about 100 ft. deep, and that they have never had any trouble with it.
Drilling a well costs anywhere from $12,000-$15,000 dollars depending on how deep the well is drilled. Steinberg is on a waitlist along with most of her neighbors who don’t expect to see a drilling company for another 2-3 months.
Misty Buckley lives south of Klamath Falls, and has been on the waitlist for a well drilling company after her well went dry on May 30. They recently told her it is going to be another 2-3 months.
Steinberg, Shanks, Buckley and many others experiencing shortages in their domestic wells commonly live near a canal or large irrigation pump and have wells between 80 and 200 feet deep, drawing from a shallow aquifer normally recharged by irrigation water in canals and on fields.
The supply shortage is prolonging the problem
“I put these drought wells in about 20 years ago on this day,” said Bob Bunyard, the owner of Klamath Pipe Center. He was called out to a farm near spring lake to extend piping an additional 20 feet.
Bunyard said this year is worse because on top of the drought and lack of surface water running to the farms, there is a pipe shortage as a lingering result of the pandemic.
Bunyard, and other pipe businesses in Klamath don’t even have the materials to fix the wells as calls continue to overwhelm phone lines.
Ewing, the technician from Aqua Pump, said he is also experiencing the same problem. “When you do find a pipe,” Ewing said, “the prices are tripled.”
Relief is on the way
Klamath County Commissioners are working with Oregon Emergency Management, and Oregon Department of Human Services to secure portable water in places where wells went dry.
“This is considered emergency water, people need to conserve as much as they can,” said commissioner Kelley Minty Morris.
“Oregon Emergency Management is helping guide the process to get tanks of water and storage containers delivered here that will then be distributed to people who have domestic wells that went dry,” Minty Morris said.
The county has ordered 320 water storage tanks. Due to supply shortages, the county will receive shipments in increments. The first one is expected to arrive late next week.
They are currently working to establish a distribution area where people can pick-up tanks and fill them with fresh water as well as a plan to refill tanks as people need them.
To ensure eligibility for a water tank, Minty Morris encourages people experiencing well issues to contact the Watermaster’s office where they will be added to a queue of people waiting to receive water tanks.
Brad Kirby, the manager of Tule Lake Irrigation District, received a shipment of tanks ranging from 550-2600 gallons on Friday for people experiencing well issues in Tule Lake.
Kirby encourages people to call the Tule Lake irrigation district and they will work with them to get a water tank delivered.
Shanks said she thinks by this fall a lot of people will leave the basin, “you've cut everything out of here, it’s not just our livelihoods but a lot of people's livelihoods,” she said.
Without agriculture’s contribution to community, Shank said there is going to be a domino impact on the community, “if it comes down to that, I’m leaving Klamath County, I’m ready to go somewhere else because our water situation is so bad,” she paused, “and there is no end in sight.”
“Cracking jokes is actually how we pass the time,” said crew member Landon Watah.
Jokes do not distract the young men from being vigilant in this high risk environment. They take a number of precautions, and are fully equipped with personal protective equipment to stay safe.
During the operation, three “swampers,” were tasked with organizing fallen logs and twigs into piles while the other group of four “sawers” felled skinny ponderosa pines to reduce fire risk.
“The people who pick up the fallen logs are called swampers, and the people cutting down the trees are called sawers. We switch off every day,” said crew member Robert Mortimer.
Mortimer, a 22-year-old from Chiloquin, learned about the program when Leah Parazoo, a crew leader with the Lomakatsi project came to his front door, “Leah came to my door and said, it's a great opportunity to open doors as well as get basic training,” he said.
“It's given them a lot of inspiration and that drive to want something,” she said.
The program utilizes peer to peer learning to facilitate collaborative workforce training. “This really gives them the opportunity to hear it, see it, and do it. And that experiential component is invaluable,” Brown said.
Fremont-Winema National Forest Heritage Program manager Steven Highland helped with some of the program training, "We are honored to be part of strengthening the connection for local youth to their natural and heritage resources in South Central Oregon and hope they are inspired to continue to build on that," he said.
The program is part of a large-scale 11 year forest restoration initiative in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy. Restoration aimed at enhancing wildlife habitat, and reducing the risk of severe wildfire has been implemented over 17,000 acres. The initiative has employed over 75 tribal members and affiliates.
Don Gentry, Klamath Tribes chairman believes in the positive impacts the program will have on the community, “Thankful that the Klamath tribes have been able to support this training which will be beneficial for our tribal members,” he said.
Brown said that healthy land leads to healthy people, “What this work is doing is not just healing the land, it’s healing our families,” Brown said.
despite opposition, chiloquin to build new sewage lagoonsJune 24 2021
Despite opposition from local residents and a long process of environmental appeals, the Klamath County Board of commissioners approved the City of Chiloquin’s new sewage waste treatment plan at their June 22 meeting.
They plan to install three sewage treatment lagoons along highway 422 in Chiloquin. Residents who live along the highway are upset about the location which is in close proximity to their homes.
The 211 acre property where the lagoons are being built is located northwest of Highway 97 near Highway 422.
The lagoons will replace the current waste treatment plant located on the Williamson River in Chiloquin. This facility is about 40 years old and does not meet Department of Environmental Quality standards.
The county initially approved a $135,000 budget for the project in 2017. The new plant is expected to cost around $3.2 million and will be funded mostly through grants.
The property is located on forested land that provides habitat for migrating elk and bird species.
The project has hit several roadblocks related to environmental concerns. Last year, the Land Use Board of Appeals requested that the city of Chiloquin do more environmental research on the project before moving forward.
“They wanted more evidence than was addressed in the report,” said Erik Nobel, Klamath County planning director.
The residents living on highway 422 are concerned about the lagoons' threat to property values, drinking water quality, wildlife habitat impact, smell, and most of all the upkeep and management of them
Most of the neighbors have emailed the county planning department, and shown up to meetings to voice their complaints. Despite their efforts, most said their complaints have gone by the wayside.
“They don't care about us peons out here. This isn't gonna affect them,” said Michelle Carson, a resident who has lived on her property for over 20 years and disapproves of the lagoons. Carson, like most of her neighbors, is frustrated with the lack of transparency about the project.
After the project was re-approved on Tuesday, residents were devastated. They plan to keep fighting the board's decision. Peggy Idonas plans to ask the Land Use Board of Appeals to evaluate the decision another time.
Most of the residents rely on well water for their drinking water, “We have very little water ourselves, we are on a system of wells that are directly related to the water table which could be impacted by where these things (the lagoons) go,” said Dusty Sutton.
He bought this property last year before the pandemic, and among environmental concerns, is worried the lagoons will depreciate the value of the homes in the areas. Sutton and Carson both said they are worried the lagoons will be left unkempt warranting accidental leaks.
The department of environmental quality will be responsible for monitoring well water, Nobel said. According to the proposal for the project, there will be a monitoring well installed near the lagoons to monitor well water quality. After the board of commissioners approved the project there is still “a whole gamut of permits that we’ll have to get with the DEQ,” Nobel said.
In addition to environmental concerns, the neighbors feel blindsided by the city's decision to install the lagoons. Some complain that the city has not been consistent in their communication about the project. Kurt Knabke and Ann Felbert, live across the street from the proposed lagoon site.
Knabke said the city posted a notice of the project on Ann’s door but not his, “we’re next door neighbors, it just doesn’t make sense,” he said.
The residents along Highway 422 were evacuated last September during the 242 fire and are still recovering. What was once dense ponderosa pine forest was thinned out and pruned to a crisp. The neighborhood enjoys its privacy, views of natural landscape, and backyard recreational activities.
“And that’s what makes it a double whammy,” Carson said. Anthony Benedettie said after the fire, “they didn’t even give us time to think.”
Bird Hospital Prepares for Tule Lake Botulism Patients
