Audubon California's Brigid McCormack writes this week in the Eureka Times-Standard about how the drought is harming birds in the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most important places for birds in North America:

Even though it is one of the most spectacular landscapes in the continental Unites States, the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge is perhaps one of the most underappreciated and unknown natural places in the West. Relatively few Californians are aware of this state treasure and few in Congress or the Administration seem willing to step up to help it.

That's unfortunate, because the Lower Klamath needs help. Drought has reduced water deliveries to a trickle and left the refuge parched, forcing migratory waterfowl and other birds to crowd onto what little water there is on nearby Tule Lake. This type of overcrowding often results in the fast and easy spread of disease, and already biologists are documenting the deaths of thousands of birds from avian botulism.