[Cross-posted at Hatewatch.]

When an agreement to finally remove four dams on the Klamath River in Oregon was announced earlier this month, it was largely greeted with broad approval in both Oregon and northern California, where citizens had been frustrated by the refusal of Congress to fund the removals as part of a Klamath Basin water accord that had been negotiated previously.

Everyone, that is, except the conservative and often far-right elements that have embroiled themselves in Klamath water issues since the turn of the century. They appear now to be organizing themselves around the fight to stop the removals from going forward.

Last week, a small gathering of self-described “Patriots” brought protest signs and a petition to the Siskiyou County Court House in Yreka, Calif., claiming that the new agreement was “null and void”.

Many of the speakers and participants argued that the original agreement – which had guaranteed water access to ranchers and farmers while also removing the dams, so that salmon runs could be restored to the upper reaches of the river – should never have been agreed to, and that Congress was right to refuse to fund it. They claimed that federal and state authorities who arranged the dam-removal agreement had no right to do so.

Among the activists promoting the event was Debbie Bacigalupi, a conspiracy theorist with a history of promoting claims that the United Nations is plotting to overthrow American democracy through its “Agenda 21” program.

Bacigalupi has been heavily involved recently in efforts by anti-Indian groups to repeal Native American treaty rights. She gave a speech last summer in Montana on how “Agenda 21” is part of a plot to use Indian water rights as part of a scheme to destroy state governments and federalize everything, including natural resources. She has described Agenda 21 as “communistic history in the remaking … [b]ut in America” and “a demonically inspired dynamic.”