National News Nobody s winning : Drought upends life in U.S. West basin Ben DuVal knelt in a barren field near the California-Oregon border and scooped up a handful of parched soil as dust devils whirled around him and birds flitted between empty irrigation pipes.
by Associated Press
Jul. 2 2021 @ 11:11pm
Gilbert Myers takes a water temperature reading at a chinook salmon trap in the lower Klamath River on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Weitchpec, Calif. Native American tribes along the 257-mile-long river are watching helplessly as fish species hover closer to extinction because of lower water levels caused by historic drought. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Nobody s winning : Drought upends life in US West basin
GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press
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1of45Jamie Holt, lead fisheries technician for the Yurok Tribe, maneuvers a boat near a fish trap in the lower Klamath River on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Weitchpec, Calif. A historic drought and low water levels are threatening the existence of fish species along the 257-mile long river. When I first started this job 23 years ago, extinction was never a part of the conversation, she said of the salmon. If we have another year like we re seeing now, extinction is what we re talking about. Nathan Howard/APShow MoreShow Less
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Jamie Holt, lead fisheries technician for the Yurok Tribe, maneuvers a boat near a fish trap in the lower Klamath River on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Weitchpec, Calif. A historic drought and low water levels are threatening the existence of fish species along the 257-mile long river. When I first started this job 23 years ago, extinction was never a part of the conversation, she said of the salmon. If we have another year like we re seeing now, extinction is what we re talking about.
Nathan Howard
Toxic algae are seen in a sample of Upper Klamath Lake water on Thursday, June 10, 2021, near Klamath Falls, Ore. Toxic algae blooming in the lake threatens the vital habitat for the endangered suckerfish.
Nobody s winning as drought upends life in US West basin
GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press
FacebookTwitterEmail 45
1of45Jamie Holt, lead fisheries technician for the Yurok Tribe, maneuvers a boat near a fish trap in the lower Klamath River on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, in Weitchpec, Calif. A historic drought and low water levels are threatening the existence of fish species along the 257-mile long river. When I first started this job 23 years ago, extinction was never a part of the conversation, she said of the salmon. If we have another year like we re seeing now, extinction is what we re talking about. Nathan Howard/APShow MoreShow Less
TULE LAKE, Calif.
Ben DuVal knelt in a barren field near the California-Oregon border and scooped up a handful of parched soil as dust devils whirled around him and birds flitted between empty irrigation pipes.
DuVal’s family has farmed this land for three generations, and this summer, for the first time, he and hundreds of others who rely on a federally managed lake to quench their fields aren’t getting any water from it at all.
As the farmland goes fallow, Native American tribes along the 257-mile-long (407-kilometer) river that flows from the lake to the Pacific watch helplessly as fish that are inextricable from their culture hover closer to extinction.