Jane Braxton Little spoke with our Mike Lynes about Audubon California's continued to fight to secure water for birds at the  Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge complex, in light of the recent agreement to remove the Klamath Dam:

Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly.

Most of us support their survival in equal measures. So, no doubt, do the conservation groups that were part of two recently approved deals to remove four dams and restore more than 400 miles of habitat along the Klamath River.

But in the settlements signed last month, fish trump birds. Both the pact to remove the dams and one to protect Klamath Basin farmers snub the wildlife refuges that provide habitat for 80 percent of the waterfowl along the Pacific Flyway.

The agreements, which cap decades of often acrimonious efforts to restore the iconic river, leave the 310-square-mile Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge complex high and dry. While the Klamath agreements offer the best hope for the survival of endangered salmon, they offer nothing for the refuges already chronically shorted on water supplies.

“They’ve always been treated as second-class recipients of water,” said Mike Lynes, Audubon California’s director of public policy.

Read the entire opinion piece here.