Siskiyou Land Conservancy
Protecting California’s Wild North Coast and Rivers Since 2004

Predicting the Klamath Negotiation Disaster in 2008

In 2008, Siskiyou Land Conservancy Executive Director Greg King was leading the Northcoast Environmental Center to eventually reject the Klamath River deals that were negotiated over a three-year period, and were ostensibly designed tear down four dams on the Klamath River and provide the river with adequate flows for fish. This was never the intent of several of the players in the room — particularly Klamath River irrigators, the PacifiCorp power company and the Bush Administration — which was quite clear as the process moved forward. Unfortunately it was not clear enough to prevent many negotiators, who should have known better, from supporting the obviously terrible deals.

The Klamath deals have since unraveled, with the parties now back to where they were in 2005. King predicted the unraveling in 2008, in an op-ed article in the Portland Oregonian (and elsewhere). Check it out.