Office
of the Secretary |
Contact: Hugh Vickery |
For Immediate
Release: March 28, 2003 |
202-501-4633 |
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The Interior, Commerce, and Agriculture departments today released their "work plans" outlining short and long-range actions being taken to ensure the farming community in the Klamath Basin has access to sufficient water while complying with environmental law and respecting Tribal trust obligations. The three departments also published a summary of many actions they have taken in the past. All the documents are available on the Web at www.doi.gov/klamath "President Bush is committed
to working with all the stakeholders in the Klamath Basin to provide
water for the people who live and work there, including farmers, fishermen
and tribes, while also restoring the basin's ecosystem," said Interior
Secretary Gale A. Norton, who chairs the cabinet-level Klamath River
Basin Federal Working Group, established by President Bush in March
2000. The documents outline numerous steps taken by the federal government in the past year: o Initiation of comprehensive,
basin-wide conservation and restoration planning. Interior Department agencies that are active in the Klamath Basin include the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs and U.S. Geological Survey. Agriculture Department agencies involved in the basin include the U.S. Forest Service and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. The Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service also plays an important role in the Basin. The work plans will be modified
in the future as changes occur in available funds, public objectives,
drought and resource conditions in the Basin, and scientific information.
Each agency will make any modified work plans available on the Web.
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