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--> --> Associated Press Bureau of Land Management police officers stand guard at the A Canal headgates following the closing of the headgates Thursday morning in Klamath Falls. Farmers keep protesters from storming headgates By Jeff Barnard Associated Press KLAMATH FALLS - Farmers fighting to restore water to a federal irrigation project in the drought-stricken Klamath Basin persuaded protesters not to storm headgates as they were reclosed Thursday to reserve water for endangered fish. "We know we can't win the water by somebody going over that headgate today," local businessman and farmer Bill Ransom told protesters who have been camped out at the headgates. "We'll just continue to put pressure on several fronts." Now is the time to build on public sympathy while pressing the U.S. Department of Interior to restore full irrigation supplies next spring, he said, as armed federal officers stood by to keep the headgates from being reopened. Based on federal reports on the needs of endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River, the Bureau of Reclamation last April shut off irrigation water to 90 percent of the 220,000 acres of the Klamath Project. The network was started in the 1907 to irrigate the Klamath Basin. Angered by the shutoff, farmers forced the headgates open four times, the last time on July 4. After a check of the lake level last month showed there was more than the amount set by federal biologists for the fish, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton ordered 70,000 acre feet released in hopes of quelling rising tensions. With the excess water used up Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation hit a button at 5:10 a.m. that electrically cranked shut the bank of six headgates regulating flows into the A Canal. As bureau personnel dismantled gears to prevent the headgates from being reopened, a scattering of protesters yelled catcalls through the pre-dawn darkness at armed U.S. Bureau of Land Management rangers standing guard. Retired railroad conductor Stan Thompson of Keno backed his pickup up to the fence with a ladder and a length of chain to make good on promises to take back the headgates. But Thompson backed down after talking to Ransom and Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger, saying he was respecting farmers' wishes to avoid confrontation. Ransom said organizers had conferred on strategy with protesters from Jarbidge, Nev., who fought the U.S. Forest Service over closure of a backcountry road to protect endangered bull trout. Jarbidge protesters took part in a convoy of trucks to the Klamath Basin this week from Montana, Nevada and California. "What they advised us is there is a proper sequence of doing things," said Ransom. "We've got some pretty strong actions coming up and we want to do it right." Malin farmer Gavin Rajnus said he felt protests in July helped persuade Interior Secretary Norton to order a review of the science behind the federal order setting minimum water levels for the endangered fish, as well as the release of the 70,000 acre feet of water. "I think if we (force open the headgates) again, public opinion might not be so supportive," Rajnus said. "But if a decision (from the Department of Interior on long-term water deliveries) doesn't come down fairly soon, it is not out of the question and not out of place." Representatives of farmers, tribes, federal agencies and environmentalists are holding monthly mediation sessions under the supervision of a federal judge to explore long-term resolutions to the water fight. They are trying to balance agriculture against the Klamath Tribes, who hold the Lost River sucker and shortnosed sucker sacred, and the Yurok Tribe and coastal fishermen, who depend on Klamath River salmon. In a visit to the protesters' encampment on Thursday, Bob Hunter, an attorney for the conservation group WaterWatch, said one key to reducing irrigation demand is stopping a program that leases 22,500 acres of the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge to farmers and instead devoting it to water storage and waterfowl habitat. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing