you shouldn't grow potatoes in this special place
In a riot of flapping wings and peevish honks, the birds exploded skyward. The setting for this predatory rite of spring is a wildlife refuge that Theodore Roosevelt created in 1908 as the nation's first federal sanctuary for waterfowl.
The sanctuary, however, is now shriveling for lack of water. Eagles and geese are performing their adversarial dance in a partially dewatered wetland that is less wildlife refuge than busted plumbing system.
It's a problem endemic to the elaborately engineered river systems of the arid West. In the Klamath River Basin, too many interests are chasing after too little water, with politicians posturing, farmers protesting, Native Americans suing, environmentalists pouting and judges laying down arcane operating rules that bureaucrats struggle to enforce and the public struggles to understand.
Lack of water in the wetland has helped shrink the annual migration here from more than 7 million birds to fewer than 2 million, according to Dave Mauser, a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Not even counting waterfowl in need of water, the oversubscribed plumbing system that is the Klamath Basin has a knack for generating national outrage.
It has attracted the personal attention of Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser, who has supported the rights of irrigation farmers.
Blaine Harden/Washington Post Apr.04.04
link Defenders of Wildlife
