Excerpt:
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.
Out of disregard for the needs of ordinary Americans and an apparent desire to eviscerate whatever was championed by his predecessor, Joe Biden, Trump has allowed Elon Musk to take a blunt hatchet to federal expenditures. The result in the Klamath — where voters overwhelmingly chose Trump in 2024 — is that many people feel fearful and betrayed…
