Updates on the Klamath Basin Program.

Sustainable Northwest is continuing to work closely with local community members in the Klamath River Basin to restore salmon habitat, provide water for wildlife refuges, and create water certainty for family farms and ranches.

Local farmers, ranchers, residents, tribes, and members of the business community are building on their hard won trust and are working together to develop implementation plans for the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreements (KBRA).

These Basin residents have come together to form a local organization - PROSPER (The Partnership to Restore Stability and Prosperity to the Region) - to engage the local community in a conversation about a new future for the Basin.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), released on September 21st by the Department of the Interior, points to benefits from restoration and dam removal.

The DEIS finds that:

• Restoration program could add more than 4,600 jobs to the regional economy over 15 years including around 1,400 during the year of dam removal.

• The reliability in water supplies that would be gained will boost gross farm income and add between 70 and 695 jobs annually to the agricultural economy.

• Restoration will help address tribal trust issues for the Klamath River Basin Tribes and will be beneficial to water quality, fisheries, and traditional cultural practices.

• There will be benefits to commercial salmon fishermen. Eleven coastal counties in Oregon and California could see gains of more than 400 jobs as a result of improved fishing conditions.

We are currently working hard to secure Congressional support for redevelopment and restoration in the Basin economy and ecology.

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