"Klamath Water Deal Ends Long Conflict"

"A century-old fight about water from Oregon's Klamath Basin ended Thursday with signed agreements that assure farmers water and power to keep their crops green, and lay out the removal of dams that have blocked salmon from hundreds of miles of spawning grounds.


For decades, American Indian tribes, farmers, salmon fishermen and conservation groups have fought in courts and centers of power about who gets the scarce water in the basin — the farms and ranches through irrigation or the salmon and suckers in rivers and lakes.

The groups gathered with state and federal officials in the Oregon Capitol beneath murals of heroic Western pioneers, Indians, farmers and salmon fishermen and amid Native American prayers and songs to sign two landmark agreements."

Jeff Barnard reports for the Associated Press February 19, 2010.