16 U.S.C. § 460ss–1 — Establishment

(a) In general: The Secretary must designate the Klamath River basin's anadromous fish habitats and resources as the Klamath River Basin Conservation Area (called "the Area"). (b) Restoration program: (1) Establishment: Working with the task force created under section 460ss–3, the Secretary must design, set up, and run a 20-year program to bring the Area's anadromous fish populations back to their best levels and keep them there. This program follows the Klamath River Basin Fisheries Resource Plan and is called the Klamath River Basin Conservation Area Restoration Program. (2) Program activities: To meet the program's goals, the Secretary, working with the task force, must: (A) watch and coordinate research on the Area's fish populations, and check how well the activities in (B) are working; and (B) take necessary action to: (i) improve and restore Area habitats, and open up blocked habitats, to support bigger fish runs; (ii) fix damaged watersheds in the Area to reduce harm to fish and their habitats; (iii) improve existing hatcheries and rearing ponds to help rebuild natural fish populations; (iv) run an intensive, short-term stocking program to rebuild fish runs while protecting the genetic diversity of local fish stocks; and (v) improve fish migration upstream and downstream by removing obstacles and building ways around them. (3) Restoration work: As much as practical, this restoration work must be done by unemployed commercial fishermen, Indians, and other people whose livelihoods depend on the Area's fish. (4) Memorandum of agreement: To help carry out activities the Secretary doesn't have authority over, the Secretary must sign an agreement with the federal, state, local agencies, and Area Indian tribes that do have that authority. This agreement must spell out which activities each signer is responsible for, and include what's needed to make sure the program runs in a coordinated way.