John Alexander walks along wooden planks on the marshy edge of Upper Klamath Wildlife Refuge. Between the bullrushes and willows, a 10-foot-high black mesh 鈥渕ist net鈥� is set up to catch songbirds that are singing all around us.
鈥淲estern Tanager 鈥� kind of in the back. 鈥楽weet, sweet, sweet, I鈥檓 so sweet.鈥� Yellow Warbler, long distance migrant. Beautiful, brilliant yellow bird,鈥� Alexander says, identifying the birdsong around us.
Alexander is the director of the Ashland-based Klamath Bird Observatory. He鈥檚 here with a group of research biologists surveying birds at the Upper Klamath Lake field station.
鈥淲e write their band number down and then they take information about the bird鈥檚 body condition, its size, how much fat is on it,鈥� he says.
They鈥檝e been collecting data here since 1997. Water levels are noticeably low in the lake this year, he says.
鈥淪ee where those sticks are laid up? That鈥檚 the normal water level this time of year.鈥�
In past years, he says, 鈥淚鈥檇 be waist deep in water, with chest waders on.鈥�
Upper Klamath Wildlife Refuge is one of six refuges in the Klamath Basin. These marshes provide temporary habitat and breeding grounds for countless songbirds and waterfowl that migrate as far as Mexico and Alaska.
鈥淭he basin as a whole in southern Oregon northeastern California in my opinion, and I think would be supported, is the lynchpin for migration habitat in the Pacific Flyway,鈥� says Amelia Raquel, a biologist with the sportsmen conservation group Ducks Unlimited.
When the refuges are dry, however, that habitat is gone.
In this highly managed basin, the refuges routinely end up being the lowest priority for water, after local tribes and endangered fish, and farmers who irrigate with water from the federally managed system known as the Klamath Project. Being at the end of the line can have devastating consequences.
Last year tens of thousands of birds died from avian botulism. The natural waterborne bacteria thrive in warm temperatures when water is low. This year鈥檚 drought is worse, so it鈥檚 prompting some creative solutions.
On a nearby dike that divides two wetlands in Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge, shallow water is being pumped from one side to the other 鈥� from the larger Sump 1A to the smaller Sump 1B. Raquel, with Ducks Unlimited, is working on the project with local farmers like Scott Seus, as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
鈥淲e鈥檙e taking what precious water is here and trying to accumulate it all into one spot to save 60-70,000 birds that perished last year that could be proportionately more than that this year,鈥� Seus says.
The hope is that by collecting the shallow water in one area, they鈥檒l ward off a major botulism outbreak.
Refuge managers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined an interview request for this story.
While there鈥檚 more attention on the drought in the Klamath Basin this year, in reality, it鈥檚 not the only reason the refuges don鈥檛 have water, according to former refuge manager Ron Cole.
Cole worked at the refuges for the Fish and Wildlife Service for 26 years, much of it as a manager. He says the allocation of local water rights and the Endangered Species Act, which protects several species of nearby fish, have deprived the refuges of the water they need to create functioning wetlands, even during normal water years.
鈥淭hank God, we have the Endangered Species Act to help save these species,鈥� Cole says. 鈥淏ut we have to implement it in such a way that we don't create more of the same elsewhere.鈥�
The , on par with those of farmers who use Klamath Project water. One for Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge was created in 1905 for 35,000 acre-feet of water per year. But, Cole says, the federal agencies involved, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, could never agree on how to get that water to the refuge.
Going forward, whether in drought years or not, all the different groups in the basin need to find ways to work together with the limited water that exists if anything is going to change, Cole says.
When this refuge complex can get water, he adds, managers are good at creating habitat for birds and recreation for people.
鈥淲e do know how to do those things and it worked and it wasn't broke, but we broke it,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e broke it. That's the saddest part of all of it is we broke that refuge and I'd like to see us put some effort into fixing it.鈥�
