The summer sun was sinking in the sky and casting a warm glow over the marsh as Klamath tribal member Garin Riddle and his family paddled their kayaks through the browning patches of wocus plants floating in the water near Southern Oregon鈥檚 Upper Klamath Lake.
鈥淚 see one!鈥� 9-year-old Knala Riddle cried out. She plunged her hand under the surface of the water and pulled out a green bulb about the size of a plum.
鈥淒ad, is this good?鈥� she asked, holding it up for him to see.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 decent size,鈥� he said, pulling a bulb of his own from a thicket of plants underwater.
In August of 2023, the Riddle family invited 鈥淥regon Field Guide鈥� to film their annual wocus harvest in one of the few remaining wetlands where they can still safely gather this first food, along the Rocky Point canoe trail.
In the spring and early summer, the , also known as pond lilies, have bright yellow flowers on them. By August, most of those flowers have turned into seed pods.
Gathering these wocus pods is a tradition Garin Riddle inherited from his ancestors, who have eaten their highly nutritious seeds for thousands of years.
鈥淭here鈥檚 something beautiful about those first foods,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like it sparks a reawakening of your genetic memory. Like you remember who you are. 鈥� Our people have been gathering in these spots right here that we鈥檙e at right now since the beginning of time.鈥�
Before gathering, Garin Riddle said a prayer and the family sang a song, and the singing continued on the water as their boats floated quietly and birds flew overhead.
鈥淲e always sing songs when we鈥檙e gathering,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 truly believe鈥� that when people consume the foods that we gather, that they consume that good spirit that it was gathered with.鈥�
But , wocus plants have gotten harder and harder to find as about 80% of the wetlands in Southern Oregon鈥檚 upper Klamath Basin were drained for agriculture. In more recent years, water shortages and pollution from surrounding farms have and fueled that could make wocus seeds unsafe to eat.
鈥淚鈥檇 say 90-95% of what we used to have as far as wocus around here in the Klamath marsh 鈥� is non-existent anymore,鈥� Garin said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all farmlands. So the majority of our most precious, staple food that we had that would sustain us through the winters and all the other times is gone.鈥�
A tradition in jeopardy
Wocus thrive in fairly shallow water in healthy wetlands. The marsh where the Riddle family gathers wocus bulbs are near the headwaters of the Klamath River, where cold, clear water bubbles up from underground springs.
But as that water makes its way downstream, it gets hot and overloaded with pollution from nearby farms.
Starting in the early 1900s, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation drained many of the lakes that used to provide habitat for wocus and replaced them with a massive irrigation system and of new farmland. In aerial views of the region, square tracts of green, irrigated land are visible in areas that used to be Lower Klamath Lake and Tule Lake.
Upper Klamath Lake remains, and the surrounding farms use its water for irrigation.
鈥淭his is no longer a lake as it once was. It鈥檚 more treated today like a bathtub,鈥� Jeff Mitchell, chairman of the Klamath Tribes Culture and Heritage Committee said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e constantly filling it and lowering it and filling it and lowering it.鈥�
Dams, dikes and irrigation ditches move water from the lake to farms and ranches across the upper Klamath Basin. Now, Mitchell said, only a few places have the right amount of water for wocus plants.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e drained that type of habitat where wocus once thrived,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here was wocus all along this lake and the fringes 鈥� it was simply filled with wocus along the sides. All of these aquatic plants are like little factories that clean the water.鈥�
To protect their longstanding wocus gathering tradition and the habitat it depends on, the Klamath Tribes have advocated for that used to dominate the Southern Oregon landscape and provide rich wildlife habitat that experts often describe as 鈥�.鈥�
Last month, the tribes teamed up with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited and private landowners to breach a dike on the uppermost section of Upper Klamath Lake and .
Tribal leaders say it鈥檚 encouraging to see private landowners helping to repair the ecological damage that worsened over the course of the 20th century as lakes and wetlands were transformed into farms and ranches. But they still have a lot of work to do.
In restored wetlands, wocus plants often need to be reintroduced. A process for growing these plants from seed , along with some new underwater planting methods such as dropping the plant in a biodegradable pot into a wetland.
Scientists say restoring wocus will provide valuable habitat for shortnose and lost river suckerfish, also known as , which are another important first food for the Klamath people. But they鈥檙e , and tribes since 1986.
鈥淚 actually grew up with part of my diet being wocus,鈥� Mitchell said. 鈥淚t was part of our lifestyle here in the basin, being hunters and gatherers. Everything we have comes from the land. We don鈥檛 have to plant anything. We don鈥檛 have to till the ground. It鈥檚 all here for us.鈥�
Many farms take water from Upper Klamath Lake and send it back filled with extra nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, that fuel toxic algae blooms in the summer.
鈥淥n most of this lake right now, I wouldn鈥檛 gather wocus,鈥� Mitchell said. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 feed it to my family.鈥�
Can Klamath farmers help restore wetlands?
Mitchell is hoping that some of the farms around Upper Klamath Lake can be part of a solution that cleans up the water in the lake and provides the kind of habitat wocus plants need to survive.
In recent years, farmer has been putting this idea to the test.
To reduce phosphorus in the water on his farm, he turned one of his barley fields into a permanent wetland 鈥� and even transplanted some wocus into it.
As he walked along the edge of his new wetland in August 2023, he was delighted to see all the native wetland plants that sprung up after the farm field was inundated with water.
鈥淎ll these plants? We did not plant them,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he seed bank was here.鈥�
He grabbed a fistful of grasses.
鈥淭his stuff right here, this fluffy stuff, is called panic grass,鈥� he said, breaking off the tops of the grass and spreading the seeds in the palm of his hand. 鈥淭hat is all seeds. 鈥� pintail and teal cocaine right here. They love this stuff. It鈥檚 pretty exciting.鈥�
As much as he鈥檚 enjoying his wetlands, he didn鈥檛 do all this just for fun.
His farm depends on sending water into Upper Klamath Lake before planting, and the water on his farm was polluted with phosphorus, a nutrient in the soil.
鈥淲e were told we couldn鈥檛 pump in the lake anymore,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd that really messed up our operation. We didn鈥檛 want to stop doing that. So we tried to come up with a way and one of the ways was wetland.鈥�
Wenner is one of a growing number of Klamath Basin farmers who to create wetlands on their farms, and his results were dramatic. Phosphorus levels in the water on his farm dropped from four times higher than the allowable limit to a level that was safe to pump back into Upper Klamath Lake.
鈥淚n 18 months of being a wetland, it was sucking the phosphorus out so we had legal water,鈥� Wenner said. 鈥淚t wanted to fix itself. It wanted to be a marsh, and it became one.鈥�
Wenner is also creating temporary wetlands that move around from field to field in between plantings. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service鈥檚 has put wetlands about 15,000 acres of farmland, on both private land and federal leased land.
The program has helped provide habitat for migratory waterfowl in recent years, as chronic droughts and water shortages in the upper Klamath Basin, with scarce water supplies being distributed to endangered fish and farmers.
Wenner looked out at a field that would soon be flooded with water.
鈥淎s far as you can see, this will be duck food,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to use the wetlands not only to provide food and habitat for waterfowl but it鈥檚 going to enhance our farm.鈥�
Flooding the fields kills weeds and allows Wenner to grow food without chemicals once the water is drained.
鈥淭his will be very productive ground when we transfer it out of wetlands,鈥� Wenner said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l get a better yield, and it will be organic.鈥�
Wenner said adding wetlands to farms is a win-win for farmers and the surrounding landscape.
鈥淲etlands are what drove the system here for millennia,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is the answer for the Klamath Basin.鈥�
Restoring first foods
After gathering wocus bulbs, the Riddle family spread their wocus seeds out on a screen to dry. They鈥檙e shiny, multicolored and still smell a bit like the marsh they came from.
鈥淭here鈥檚 some amber ones, some tan ones, there鈥檚 a deep purple one right here,鈥� Aurora Riddle said, spreading them out on the screen.
There are still many steps to go before they can eat the seeds 鈥� either ground up as a flour and incorporated into muffins or pancakes or with milk in a bowl like oatmeal 鈥� but they will be highly prized because they鈥檙e so rare.
Garin Riddle said he hopes putting wetlands on more farms in the Klamath Basin will help restore first foods and the Klamath people who depend on them.
鈥淭here are some very good people out there that are using those federal funds to be able to bring back wetlands,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f we just give it a little chance, give it a little water, give it a little hope 鈥� a lot of times the creator will take care of everything else.鈥�
In the meantime, he said, his family will continue to gather wocus in keeping with their tradition.
鈥�It鈥檚 not a choice of mine to be able to do these things,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a choice of mine to sing songs and to gather wocus and to take my children out there. It鈥檚 not really a choice. It鈥檚 a responsibility of mine.鈥�