The Klamath Water Users Association, along with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and other plaintiff appellants asked a Ninth Circuit appeals panel Wednesday morning to reverse summary judgment from a case that confirmed the bureau and other actors must comply with the Endangered Species Act when operating the Klamath Irrigation Project. Managed by the Bureau of Reclamation, the Klamath Irrigation Project supplies water to over 225,000 acres of farmland and two wildlife refuges in the Klamath Basin along the Oregon-California border. The project, however, decimated the local Chinook and Coho salmon population, which the Yurok tribe rely on to survive. Dams are currently being removed from the upper Klamath Basin, allowing the river to flow freely for the first time in 100 years. In a victory for the fish and the tribe, U.S. District Judge William Orrick ruled in 2023 that the federal government must follow its own laws, such as the Endangered Species Act…