Endangered and Threatened Fishes in the Klamath River Basin:
Causes of Decline and Strategies for Recovery These two reports
from the National Research Council (NRC) present the interim and
final biological assessments of the impact of agricultural water
withdrawals and land-use activities on the Klamath River
ecosystem, particularly the indigenous wild populations of coho
salmon and lost river and shortnosed sucker. The report was
widely cited by agribusiness and Far-Right special interests as
"proof" that the need to protect minimum water flows was all
"eco-nonsense". Predictably, no one in these communities appears
to have read either report closely and neither did any of the
Bush Administration officials who raced to their defense. Within
6 months of the interim report's release, and after the Klamath
River had been drawn down to record low levels by water
extractions, it experienced one of the largest fish kills in
recorded history. Again, to no one's surprise the Bush
Administration and Far-Right media