Battle Over Water For Farmers Or Wild Fish In Southern Oregon Essay

Battle Over Water For Farmers Or Wild Fish In Southern Oregon - Essay Example Sides of the Oregon Crisis However in 2001, the Indian tribes, federal wildlife managers and environmentalist all came forth with conflicting claims to Klamath basin’s water, culminating in a fierce battle for water. The crisis began in the spring of 2001 when the National Marine and Fisheries as well as America’s â€Å"Fish and Wildlife Service† demanded that the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency in charge of water distribution from Klamath Reclamation Project, should cut off water supply to farmers so that the basin’s water could stay upstream to sustain the shortnose suckerfish and Lost River fish (Anderson, 2002). Following the cut off, infuriated farmers began to demand that the canals be opened to release water into their farmlands. Bowing to pressure, the Bureau of Reclamation went ahead and released water into farms (Becker, 1999). The crisis took another complicated turn in 2002 owing to three notable events; Firstly, in February 2002, the National Academy Of sciences released a report asserting lack of reliable premise for cutting off water to farmers in 2001 in order to sustain the habitat of endangered species† (Meiners & Shaw, 2003). Secondly, in the summer of 2002, there was an increase in water demand that exceeded the supply. And thirdly, the Bureau for Reclamation was still under pressure from farmers not to cut off their supply.