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Article: Klamath Basin Water Dispute Offers Preview Of West's Future.(water supply to California farmers)
- Article from:
- California Planning & Development Report
- Article date:
- October 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 California Planning & Development Report. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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With its annual average of 11 inches of rain, the Klamath Basin is not technically a desert. Geographers usually use 10 inches as a cutoff. But if these wide open spaces of Siskiyou County and southern Oregon are not technically desert, they are pretty close.
So how did this arid region in the lava-strewn rain shadow of the Cascades become a productive agricultural center - one where third-generation farmers and ranchers are locked in a fierce struggle with the federal government over their economic future?
Frontier mythology would suggest the transformation of wasteland into farmland came about as the result of hard work, individual resourcefulness and ...