Klamath Basin farmers will see their normal irrigation cut by more than half to save salmon.
In an effort to help threatened coho salmon survive the drought, a new plan will give Klamath Basin farmers just 30% of normal irrigation water.
The 1,300 farms on the Klamath Reclamation Project will start receiving irrigation in mid-May, six weeks later than usual.
A new plan for protecting threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River made a little more water available for farms, but even this much depends on normal rainfall in coming weeks, [U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor] said.
He added that he hopes to get irrigation up to 50 percent of normal by spending $5 million to buy water from wells and pay some farmers to leave their fields dry. Farmers will also be eligible for $2 million in federal aid — $1 million on the Oregon side and $1 million on the California side.
Read the full story at The Bulletin.
{biztweet}Klamath irrigation{/biztweet}
