Capital Press
EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
Friday, August 13, 2021
Volume 94, Number 33
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George Plaven/Capital Press
A portion of the 60-mile
Lost River, which feeds
Tule Lake, is dry because
of drought in the Klam-
ath Basin.
THE BIG DRY
Drought, water shutoff ‘tear at fabric’ of Klamath Basin
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
K
LAMATH FALLS, Ore. — County roads
stretch for miles past mostly dry, barren
fi elds near Tulelake, Calif., where Cody
Dodson farms alfalfa and grain with his
stepfather, Frank Prosser.
In May, Dodson learned the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation would shut off water to the
Klamath Project, a sprawling irrigation system that
serves 200,000 acres of farmland in Southern Oregon
and Northern California.
The decision was prompted by what is now classi-
fi ed as an “exceptional” drought gripping the region.
Federal regulators allotted no water for irrigators in
2021 so they could have enough to protect endan-
gered sucker fi sh in Upper Klamath Lake and still
provide enough in-stream fl ows for salmon and steel-
head in the lower Klamath River.
The result has been disastrous for more than 1,200
growers like Dodson, who are paying more to pump
what little groundwater is available to produce a frac-
tion of their normal crops.
“My plan is to make it one more year,” Dodson
said. “That’s all I can do.”
George Plaven/Capital Press
Cody Dodson, left, and John Prosser. “My plan is
to make it one more year,” Dodson said. “That’s all
I can do.”
Similar stories are unfolding across the basin,
where farmers and ranchers ask the question: How
much longer can they stay in business?
According to the latest USDA Census of Agri-
culture, the combined market value of agricul-
tural production in Klamath, Siskiyou and Modoc
counties was $498 million in 2017. This year, it’s
likely to be a fraction of that.
Meanwhile, populations of Lost River and short-
nose suckers — known by the Klamath Tribes as
C’waam and Koptu — continue their precipitous
decline. The species, endemic to Upper Klamath
Lake, are central to the tribes’ culture and way of
life.
While the USDA recently provided $15 mil-
lion in drought relief for the Klamath Basin, the
drought and the water shutoff pose an existential
threat for communities that depend on water for
their economic, social and cultural livelihoods.
The Capital Press spoke with irrigators and
a tribal leader to learn about how this year has
impacted them personally, and what the future
may hold, given the ongoing drought and water
shutoff.
See Drought, Page 10
Judge rejects challenge to B2H transmission line
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A federal judge has rejected arguments by
opponents of a 300-mile transmission line in
Eastern Oregon who sought to stop the project
for allegedly violating environmental laws.
U.S. District Judge Michael Simon has
determined the U.S. Bureau of Land Man-
agement approved a right-of-way across pub-
lic land for the project in compliance with the
National Environmental Policy Act and Fed-
eral Lands Policy Management Act.
The transmission line’s opponents are
“evaluating the opinion and assessing their
next steps” regarding an appeal, and the proj-
ect is also being challenged before Oregon’s
Energy Facility Siting Council, said David
Becker, attorney for the plaintiff s.
The Stop B2H Coalition and other plaintiff s
fi led a complaint in 2019 claiming the trans-
mission line between Boardman, Ore., and the
Hemingway substation in Idaho should have
been more closely scrutinized for impacts to
the greater sage grouse and other factors.
The proposal has also stirred controversy
for taking farmland out of production and dis-
rupting agricultural practices, such as aerial
pesticide spraying.
The lawsuit argued that BLM should have
updated its environmental analysis of the
project — known as a fi nal environmental
impact statement or FEIS — with new infor-
mation about sage grouse populations, which
EO Media Group File
A crew works
on a transmis-
sion line tower
outside Board-
man, Ore. A
federal judge
has rejected a
lawsuit seeking
to invalidate the
government’s
right-of-way
for the Board-
man-to-Hem-
ingway trans-
mission line
across public
land.
See Lawsuit, Page 11
Tyson seeks to wrest control of feedlot from Agri Beef
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Cody Easterday
Tyson Fresh Meats has gone to court
to forcibly acquire the Pasco, Wash.,
feedlot that bankrupt cattleman Cody
Easterday sold to a major competitor
last year after bilking Tyson out of $233
million.
Tyson is off ering $25 million — $9
million more than Agri Beef paid —
for the cattle feeding operation known
as North Lot. Tyson is asking a bank-
ruptcy judge to void the sale to Agri
Beef, arguing the deal shortchanged it
and other unpaid creditors.
“The $16 million purchase price was
woefully inadequate,” Tyson claims in
a complaint fi led Monday in U.S. Bank-
ruptcy Court for Eastern Washington.
The dispute leaves fi nal ownership
of the feedlot uncertain. Agri Beef Pres-
ident Matt Buyers said in a court fi ling
that the Idaho-based company bought
the feedlot in good faith in an arm’s
length transaction.
Easterday, 50, pleaded guilty in
March to defrauding Tyson out of $233
million and another company out of
$11 million by billing them for cattle he
never actually bought or fed. Easterday
delivered cattle to Tyson’s processing
plant in Pasco.
In a plea deal with federal prosecu-
tors, Easterday agreed to pay restitu-
tion. He is scheduled to be sentenced
Oct. 5 on one count of wire fraud.
Several Easterday farms in the
Columbia Basin have been sold through
bankruptcy court for $209 million to
Farmland Reserve Inc., owned by The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
See Easterday, Page 11
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