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Canoe Trails in the Klamath Basin
A kayaker enjoys the serenity of the Upper Klamath Lake Canoe Trail.
Exploring Upper Klamath Lake and Klamath Marsh by canoe or kayak can be a path to environmental stewardship
By Damian Fagan
Upper Klamath Lake is the largest body of water in Oregon by surface area—approximately 25 miles long by 8 miles wide, but with an average depth of only 14 feet. The lake is the remnant of Lake Modoc, a Pleistocene-aged lake (11,000 years ago to about 2.5 million) that covered over 1,000 square miles, stretching from Fort Klamath to Tule Lake, roughly 10 times the size of today’s Upper Klamath Lake.
Historically, native tribes such as the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooscan lived along the lakeshore, harvesting fish, waterfowl, mammals and plants from the waters and surrounding lands. Peter Skene Ogden of the Hudson’s Bay Company was probably the first European to view the lake, which he called “Dog Lake” because he traded for dogs with the native people.
Today, portions of the lake, and adjacent Agency Lake, are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of a greater Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge complex. Though some roads and trails provide recreational or wildlife-viewing opportunities, the best way to experience these marshlands is by boat.
Launch points for the Upper Klamath Lake canoe trail include Rocky Point public boat launch and Malone Springs (the nearby Rocky Point Resort and Crystal Creek Mountain Lodge both offer private launch points). Both are located off the Westside Road, also known as the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway. The canoe trail totals about 9.5 miles and may be broken into four segments that offer options to explore portions of the wetlands between the two public launches.
“We float from Malone Springs to the Rocky Point public boat launch, which is about three hours,” said Mark Cobb, owner of Sky Lakes Wilderness Adventures, one of several outfitters that provide tours or boat rentals.
Malone Springs is named after pioneer James Malone (1852-1939) who homesteaded in nearby Langall Valley in 1874. From Malone Springs, boaters may opt to head upstream along Crystal Creek to the narrow waterway’s headwaters near the Crystal Creek Mountain Lodge. The lodge and Sportsman House are Airbnb rentals with kayaks provided for guests to use from the private launch point.
Floating along the forested edge, several other springs join the flow. These habitats provide superb birding for waterfowl, as well as warblers, grosbeaks, blackbirds and flycatchers singing from the bulrushes, willows, aspens and conifers. Muskrats, beaver and river otters are also possible species to encounter along this stretch. Though the beeline from Malone Springs to Rocky Point is about 4 miles, several watery routes split off from the main trail and provide more paddling opportunities. Paddlers who reach the lower portion of the canoe trail where it joins Pelican Bay should be prepared for windy conditions that can make this more open-water section challenging, if not dangerous.
In addition to wildlife, one of the unique botanical inhabitants of these cold-water springs are cobblestone-sized looking gelatinous colonies of blue-green
algae or cyanobacteria in the Nostoc genus, known as mare’s eggs or troll jelly. Needing cold, low-nutrient water, mare’s eggs thrive in springs along the west side of the lake and should be viewed from a distance and not disturbed.
On the east side of the basin, paddlers may explore the Wood River Wetlands and Agency Lake from the Petric County Park boat launch off Highway 427 (Modoc Point Road), just over 5 miles from Chiloquin. Donated by the Petric Family in 1971, boaters follow a series of channels to access the area from a well-maintained launch.
“It’s a pretty awesome spot because there’s a lot of bird life in there, as well as beavers and otters,” said Cobb, the guide.
To the north, Klamath Marsh National Wildlife Refuge usually offers another opportunity to explore a wild marsh by canoe between July 1 through Sept. 30. However, according to Mike Johnson, Klamath Marsh NWR refuge manager, there is very little water in the Wocus Bay at the current time; thus, the canoe trail will not be viable this summer.
Upper Klamath Lake National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1928 (and Klamath Marsh in 1958) to protect portions of these unique marsh habitats surrounded by the southern Cascades and forested foothills.
Unfortunately, an estimated 80% of the original marshlands have been converted into agricultural or croplands.
Water rights and protection of endangered fish species such as the shortnosed sucker and Lost River sucker are often at odds with each other, and dam removal on the lower Klamath is a long-term process aimed at restoring salmon runs into the basin. Though the area’s environmental issues are diverse and numerous, a great way to learn about and experience the basin is by just getting out there and paddling through the “tules.”
Damian Fagan
Signage marks the canoe trail in Upper Klamath Lake.
Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges
Dam Drought
The Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan was approved in December with the goal of increasing instream fl ows in the river. Then another drought year happened.
By Jack Harvel
A water pipe sits in a ditch before it was buried by Central Oregon Irrigation District to replace open-air canals. Canals can lose up to half of their water in transit through seepage into the ground and evaporation, piping advocates say.
Last summer the Wickiup Reservoir dried to just 1% of its capacity, the lowest it has been since it was built in 1949. In an average year the reservoir, which stores Deschutes River water, would be at about 25% of its capacity at the end of irrigation season, with just over 63,000 acre-feet. Last year’s shortage illustrated a decade of drought and generous allocations of water rights.
This shortage continued this year, and the reservoir is holding just over 60% of what it was last year and less than 40% of what it usually stores in June. This challenge arrives just months after the approval of the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan for the Deschutes, submitted by eight irrigation district that reimagines what the Deschutes will look like.
“With the habitat conservation plan the focus is on increasing winter flows, and also bringing down the summer flows,” Deschutes River Conservancy Executive Director Kate Fitzpatrick said.
The natural unimpeded flow of the river runs at about 600 cubic feet per second in the winter and over 1,000 cfs at its peak in the summer. The DBHCP doesn’t seek to restore the river to its natural flow, but to support habitats for the Oregon spotted frog and Redband trout. The goal is to maintain flows between 4-500 cfs in the winter to support springtime breeding grounds for the frog, listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The Redband trout, meanwhile, is listed as a “species of concern.”
“Both need more water, but the Oregon spotted frog has very specific breeding flow needs in the spring, for example. And still has specific migration patterns in Crook and Whychus ,” Fitzpatrick said.
Enough water to go around?
Irrigation districts will have to coordinate more than they have in their over 100 years of existence to make sure there’s enough water to go around. The season could be especially difficult for junior water right holders. Oregon water laws are called prior appropriation, meaning primacy in water collection goes to the older districts.
“Basically, the first ones here got to apply to the state for water rights, and they were granted,” Fitzpatrick said. “North Unit has a 1913 water right and that is very junior. So by the time we got around to 1913 the state had actually given out more water rights to use the water than exists in the river in the summer months.” Fitzpatrick said she believes that the law of prior appropriation is the root of Central Oregon’s water problems today.
“All the reservoirs are low, the natural flow in the rivers are low, everything’s low due to the years of drought we’ve experienced so far and it’s been particularly hard for North Unit Irrigation District as the junior water right holder on the river,” said Mike Britton, manager of North Unit Irrigation District.
With the DBHCP, irrigation districts will have to find some ways to work together to meet flow goals.
“We have sort of an inter-district agreement to do conservation projects and through those conservation projects we take the conserved water and transfer it to a junior user,” said Shon Rae, deputy managing director of Central Oregon Irrigation District. “And those conservation projects would be a bunch of different ways.”
Improving infrastructure
One of the main ways irrigation districts are attempting to increase capacity is through improving water infrastructure, such as replacing openair canals with underground piping, on-farm sprinkler upgrades and lining canals to reduce seepage.
“That’s really the district’s main strategy to meet the flow commitments under the habitat conservation plan,” Fitzpatrick said. “For the first time ever under that plan the districts have committed to meet flow targets. So, they’re going to triple the flows in the next five years, and then continue to increase the flows from there for a significant amount of restoration work.”
Water rights in the basin are skewed heavily toward irrigation, with those districts holding 86% of the basin’s water rights. Twelve % of water rights are reserved for instream purposes and 2% for municipal uses.
Piping projects are very expensive, but they save a lot of water, advocates say. It’s estimated half of the water either evaporates or drains into the ground while traveling in open canals.
“Especially in this watershed in these volcanic areas, because there’s so much seepage if you want to get, say, five buckets of water delivered via a canal from point A to point B, you might have to release 10 buckets of water, because five of them are going to go into the ground,” said Gail Snyder, founder of Coalition for the Deschutes.
The other tool irrigation districts are using is water marketing, where they temporarily lease or buy water rights from individuals and give that water back to the river or to a junior irrigation district struggling to meet demand.
“We’ve had an annual industry and water leasing program for a long time, and this year it’s generating 60 cubic feet per second, and leasing about 4,500 irrigated acres in stream,” Fitzpatrick said. “What we’re hoping to do is to build on that with districts to really open up opportunities for irrigation district patrons to lease water, leaves more water and lease it between districts and to the river.”
The worst of the impact will likely be felt in the Northern Unit, which relies on the Wickiup Reservoir for a lot of its water. The area has many farms that grow high-production crops like alfalfa, mint and carrot seed.
“We’ve done some projects recently, and in the past, to develop and stretch our water supply, but being the junior right holder, we’ve not really been able to,” Britton of North Unit said. “We don’t have a lot of options. My conservation projects in reaching out to our other irrigation districts, really at the end of the day, that’s the only way we can survive is to get help from others.”
Trouble in the Klamath Basin
For local farmers, things could be worse. In the Klamath Basin, farmers purchased property next to the Klamath Irrigation District’s headgate and have expressed their intent to force it open, after federal officials ordered Klamath Lake retain the water it had to protect endangered fish. The protest started as a local affair among farmers who would
lose significant income, but attracted the attention of People’s Rights, an organization formed by Ammon Bundy in 2020. Bundy is most well-known for occupying the Malheur Natural Wildlife Refuge in 2016, leading to a shootout with federal agents that killed occupier LaVoy Finicum, who was allegedly reaching for a pistol.
The two farmers that bought the property adjacent to the headgate, Grant Knoll and Dan Nielsen, have thus far pursued a legal route, but as Oregon Public Broadcasting reported, the farmers haven’t had much success.
“Your merits of what you’re trying to argue never get heard,” Knoll told OPB. “So the frustration is building because we want to use the legal system and if the legal system’s failing you, what’s next?”
In 2001 Klamath was ordered to halt irrigation deliveries to protect an at-risk species, though the federal government ultimately relented and allowed limited water deliveries. With as severe a drought as Klamath Lake is facing, it’s unclear if that will happen this time.
