Federal officials nixed an offer by Fallon farmers aimed at restoring this year’s waterfowl hunting season at the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge near Fallon. Farmers wanted to donate their share of water in Donner Lake near Truckee, Calif., to the refuge for hunting, but Bureau of Reclamation officials said the gift probably would violate federal policy. “I’m really uncomfortable with the politics of this,” bureau area manager Elizabeth Ann Rieke told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “It would set a very significant precedent.” She added she also was concerned the plan would spark a legal fight with the tribe, whose reservation is located at the Truckee’s mouth 30 miles northeast of Reno. Newlands Project Manager Lyman McConnell, whose agency serves the farmers, said tribal members shouldn’t be concerned about how Donner Lake water is used because it doesn’t belong to them. “It’s privately owned water stored in Donner Lake. I realize they want all the water for Pyramid Lake, but it’s like saying all the water in the Truckee system belongs to them.” Under farmers’ plan, their Donner Lake water would have flowed down the Truckee River and been diverted by canal into the Carson River Basin, where Fallon and the refuge are located.
