GRANTS PASS - Faced with an alarming crash in West Coast salmon fishing, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden is asking three cabinet secretaries and a White House official to lead a summit this fall to kick-start government efforts to help Klamath Basin fish and farms.

A stalwart defender of farmers during the 2001 shutoff of federal irrigation water to 1,000 farms to protect endangered fish, the Oregon Republican said Monday that efforts need to get back on track to restore certainty for Indian tribes and fishermen who depend on salmon as well as farmers who depend on irrigation water.

“I think we are at a key tipping point,” Walden said from Washington, D.C. “A huge majority of people are saying 'Let's sit down and try to figure out how to work this out - find a solution that will give us certainty whether you are a tribal family, a coastal fishing family or an inland farming family. But we need the government to say:

Here is a list of things you need to do.”'

The region became a flashpoint in 2001, when drought triggered the shutoff under the Endangered Species Act of federal irrigation water to the Klamath Reclamation Project.

Farmers and anti-government protesters faced off with federal marshals for months over headgates that kept the water for endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River.

The Bush administration threw its support behind farmers, and the next year restored full irrigation to the project. But months later more than 35,000 chinook salmon died from gill rot diseases in low and warm water conditions after returning to the river to spawn.

More than $100 million has since been spent on habitat restoration, increasing water supplies, fish screens, aid to farmers and improvements to irrigation efficiency. But the continuing decline of wild chinook salmon to the Klamath River this year forced federal fisheries managers to practically shut off commercial salmon fishing off Oregon and California.

Plentiful rains have eased worries over water supplies for now, but a federal court ordered increased minimum flows for salmon that had been planned for 2010 to begin immediately, setting the stage for another showdown between fish and farms whenever drought returns.

Walden sent a letter Friday to the secretaries of Interior, Commerce, and Agriculture, and the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Spokesmen for the Department of Interior and the Council on Environmental Quality said the offices had received the letter, but no commitments had been made.

As a starting point for discussions, Walden suggested the 2003 National Academy of Sciences report, which suggested voluntary steps to restore habitat, including removing some dams, would be more effective at helping endangered suckers and threatened salmon than taking water from farmers.

One environmental group expressed skepticism, but members of farming, fishing and tribal organizations said the time was right to make the kinds of agreements that lead to significant progress.

The Klamath Water Users Association has been reaching out to Oregon salmon fishermen and Indian tribes, but continues to be wary of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, an environmental group, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association, which represents California salmon fishermen. Both groups have been active in court to get more water for salmon.