PORTLAND, Ore. - At the Oregon-California border, the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuges risk drying up again this summer. Conservation groups have written a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, asking him to step in before that happens. More than two dozen groups are asking Salazar for guarantees of sufficient water for the refuges.

The long-running struggle to share scarce water in the Klamath Basin pits agriculture against defenders of endangered fish and migratory birds in this major stop on the Pacific Flyway. Bob Sallinger, conservation director for the Audubon Society of Portland, says the southern Oregon wetlands have not received a full water supply since 2006, and the situation is critical.

"We're talking about huge numbers of breeding birds that won't be able to breed. We're talking about huge numbers of migratory birds that see the Klamath as an absolutely critical stopover point on their migratory pathways, that won't find that there. And you know, these are the places that we set aside for wildlife."

In 2010, the Interior Department allowed Tule Lake to go dry, transplanting some endangered fish to another lake. The groups contend that was done without a chance for the public to weigh in. They're asking Salazar to prevent similar action this year, and to mandate a specific minimum amount of water to keep the marshlands viable.

Even with recent rainfall, refuge managers say heading into spring, the area is the driest it has been in 70 years. Sallinger says the groups are questioning the policy of leasing so much public land on the refuges to farmers.

"Huge amounts of water are diverted and as a result, the refuges don't get enough water. When the water is returned to the refuges and to the river, it's often polluted - contaminated with pesticides and herbicides and other pollutants - from the agricultural operations."

Sallinger says 80 percent of the wetlands have been drained or converted to farmland, and the birds using the remaining marshes are down from 7 million in the 1950s to about 1 million today.

The letter to Salazar can be viewed at http://bit.ly/GTHkXN.



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State and federal agencies are collaborating to increase the use of prescribed fires in the Northwest.

Prescribed fire is the controlled use of burns to minimize the larger risks of wildfires and smoke. It is seen as an increasingly important strategy as wildfire seasons pose greater threats to the Northwest.

Casey Sixkiller, Northwest regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said authorities want to work together to maintain forest habitats.

"Prescribed burn is one of the best tools we have for making our forests more resilient against catastrophic wildfires and they help to manage and target hazardous fuels and make for healthier forests," Sixkiller explained.

Sixkiller pointed out the EPA is involved because wildfire smoke poses risks to people's health. The collaboration is between federal agencies, departments in Oregon and Washington, and tribal governments.

Sixkiller noted the collaboration needed a formal agreement to move forward.

"That is what we've been able to do here with this agreement," Sixkiller emphasized. "To get federal land managers and states and us all in the same room, making sure that we're all on the same page about what success looks like."

Sixkiller added the collaboration has another advantage: It helps drive engagement with communities potentially in the path of prescribed burns.

"They have the confidence that the effort that's gone into planning that activity has been thought out from soup to nuts," Sixkiller acknowledged. "And that they have a seat at the table and are being engaged and their concerns are being addressed as we go forward with that activity."


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A new study in the journal Nature Communications by Montana researchers said suppressing small wildfires is leading to larger, more intense and damaging blazes.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, about 98% of wildfires are fully suppressed before they grow to 100 acres; most of them within 72 hours. In Montana, the latest data show crews kept 95% of wildfires in Montana to no more than 10 acres in 2022.

Mark Kreider, a doctoral candidate in forest and conservation science at the University of Montana and co-author of the report, said the strategy leads to what is known as fire "suppression bias."

"Removing more of one type of fire than the other, what we're left with is bias towards the higher intensity fires, these more extreme fires," Kreider explained.

Montana state policy calls for crews to extinguish fires as quickly as possible, even small ones. Kreider pointed out researchers recommend letting low-intensity fires burn where possible to reduce the risk and damage potential for larger, hotter-burning and more catastrophic blazes.

Kreider acknowledged as the population grows along the urban-wildland interface, letting fires burn is not always possible, but argued it might be the best strategy for heading off catastrophic fires later.

"Especially in the western U.S. where people live close to forests, fire suppression is very important and we still must do it," Kreider noted. "But this research helps to show when possible in places where it's safe to do so, we really may benefit from allowing more low and moderate intensity fire to burn."

The National Interagency Fire Center said the number of acres scorched by wildfire has doubled since the 1980s, and the cost to battle the fires has risen to nearly $3 billion a year.


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The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has awarded $3.1 million for 13 projects to reduce wildfire risk to communities and improve forest health.

The funding money is part of the $15 million Montana Forest Action Plan, which takes a big-picture approach to reducing the risk of wildfires.

Wyatt Frampton, deputy division administrator of forestry and trust lands for the Montana Department of Natural Resources, said the money will be used to foster fire-management cooperation between state and private landowners across 3,200 acres of forest.

"Through a variety of activities, such as prescribed fire, logging, mechanical thinning, hand activities as well as tree planting," Frampton outlined.

The 13 most recent restoration projects are spread across the state, including in Lewis and Clark County, the Bitterroot and the South Swan Valley.

Frampton said the DNR is aiming to create a cohesive fire-reduction plan across Montana's landscape, which has until now been inconsistent because of different sets of land-management practices.

"Right now when we see a patchwork of treatments across some of the landscapes in the state, from a fire-management perspective, it doesn't create a clean or effective barrier for trying to stop the fire in that area," Frampton explained. "Where, if we had a cohesive landscape-level treatment, that would help."

Frampton added having a statewide cohesive fire-management plan would also allow the DNR and other agencies to slow the spread of potentially destructive insects in Montana's forests.


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