The Trump administration ruined what should have been a good spring in the Klamath River basin. By abruptly laying off federal personnel and freezing payments for already authorized programs and projects, the administration replaced a budding sense of hopefulness in the basin with fear and uncertainty, and tore at fragile bonds years in the making among upper basin ranchers and farmers, federal, state and local governments, nonprofits and Native tribes. In a region where conflict over water has simmered for the last quarter-century, trust was already fragile. Now it is smashed to smithereens. Through the 21st century the Klamath has lurched from crisis to crisis, usually related to the extended drought that has hovered over the basin most of that time. What distinguishes the current debacle is that it has no relation to natural phenomena. It’s entirely man-made — and entirely unnecessary.
–Written by Jacques Leslie, author of “Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment.”

Other dam removal news:

• Lost Coast Outpost (Eureka, Calif.): Farm bureaus in Russian River counties issue plea to President Trump to keep the Potter Valley dams in place
• The Daily Signal: Opinion: Farmers, not bureaucrats, deserve control of California’s water: a farmer’s call for stability​