DAVID CACKA DECLARATION MATERIAL: 

My name is David Cacka, I am a 47 year old fourth generation farmer that lives and works in the Malin area of the Klamath Basin. I have derived personal income and supported myself from farming since the age of 17 on land that has been in my family for 91 years. I also own and operate a pesticide application business that I started in 1993. I am a direct descendent of Czech settlers that were invited by the United States government to settle in the Malin area in the early 1900’s. I attended Malin grade school and Malin High school and graduated from Lost River High school, and attended Shasta Junior College for two years taking ag and aviation classes. I have been married for 28 years to Monica Cacka and have two children, Ursula Nunn and Joshua Cacka. I was born in Klamath Falls and have lived my entire life in the Malin area. I served three terms as the president of the Klamath Basin Growers Association, two terms as a director of the Malin Park Board, two terms as a representative to the National Potato Promotion Board. I am currently a commissioner representing the Klamath Basin on the Oregon Potato Commission, a director for the Klamath Irrigation District and a member of the Malin Christian Fellowship church. I have a commercial pilots license, a qualified applicators license for the state of California, a commercial applicators license for the State of Oregon and a pest control operators license for both states of California and Oregon.

My great grandfather and grandmother, Ignac and Josephine Cacka, and their children purchased land and moved to the Malin area of the Klamath Basin from Odessa Washington in 1910. They had read about the Czech settlement and the opportunity of owning irrigated land in a Czech newspaper. The land that they farmed in Odessa was a dry land farm, and since their desire and expertise was in irrigated row and field crops they seized the opportunity to move to the Klamath Basin. The land that they purchased was owned in the late 1890’s by Mr. and Mrs. Boddy. The story that was always told to me was that Mr. Boddy disappeared, thought to be killed by Indians or by the ranch foreman, Mr. Hartery, that eventually married Mrs. Boddy. They sold their ranch to the Lakeside Land Co. and eventually my great grandfather bought the property from the Land Company. My grandfather bought some of the land from my great grandfather in 1917 for the sum of 2000 dollars to start his own farming operation. In 1925 he took a year off and traveled to Czechoslovakia and married Anna Sparta. She immigrated to the United States and moved to Malin in 1926. After my grandfathers untimely death in 1935 my grandmother with the help of her children operated the farm until her remarriage. My father took over the operation of the farm in 1955 and farmed until his retirement in 1995.I am presently farming this same land today. The farm rental I pay to my parents is the source of their retirement income.

Living in this area all my life I was always interested in the history of Malin and the surrounding area. The “old timers” and my grandmother had hundreds of accounts of the trials and tribulations and the joys and sorrows of developing this land. My grandmother was born and raised in one of the richest agricultural areas of Czechoslovakia. She told me when she was riding from the train station from Klamath Falls, in Mr. Kalina’s Model T Ford, to Malin and when she saw the pot holes full of stinking water, sand dunes, sage brush and ten of thousands of jack rabbits, she said to me, “If I would have had the money to buy a ticket to go home I would have immediately.”

Because of prejudice the surrounding communities would not do business with the early Czech settlers. The early settlers realizing because of that, they had to develop a self sufficient community with a stable environment for the good of families. They built their own cheese factory, their own flour mill, built stores, brought in a doctor for medical care, built churches. a theater and a roller skating rink. Czech farmers donated land and developed one of the biggest and most beautiful parks and community swimming pool in eastern Oregon.

Settlers worked long and arduous hours of reclaiming, clearing, leveling land to bring it to a productive state. My grandmother told me that in 1948 she traveled back to where she grew up in Czechoslovakia to visit her parents and siblings. The land she came from no longer had any beauty or hold on her. The farm in Malin that she had been living on and had helped develop for the past 22 years was “the most beautiful place on earth.” After that trip she never returned to visit her family again. The farm in Malin was home. They had taken the jack rabbit infested sand dunes covered with sage brush and turned it into a productive farm.

My wife’s family moved to the Klamath Basin in 1924 and began farming is 1925. This farm is still in the family and is being farmed by one of her uncles. Her dad started a meat packing business in 1950 and operated that business until his retirement in the mid 1970’s.

The reason I have given you this brief historical account of my and my wife’s family is to try to convey the way people see work and community in this area. Most people that live here are God fearing hard working people that want to farm and make enough money so they can pass on their farm and community to their children. Farming is done for the smell of freshly turned earth, freshly dug potatoes, new mowed alfalfa, the seeing of a pair of Mallards landing in a irrigation ditch at sundown, or the crow of a rooster pheasant at sun up, as it is for monetary gain. And it is the delivery of irrigation water that makes all that possible. People in this community believe in God, honor, and country. They believe in the constitution, hard work, and take immense pride that they have contributed to this country by producing food and fiber so a nation could prosper and grow.

Farming has always been a risky business. Producers are always at the mercy of weather changes that could affect yields and volatile markets that they have no control over. But these are inherent risks that they can identify and cope with. But since I992 in this Basin I have seen an insidious malady infect the lives of this area. This malady has entered our community under the disguise of the endangered species act. Water, the very life blood of this community has become a pawn for an agenda that most people do not understand. Water, the very reason that my great grandfather came to Malin. Water that used to sit on the land that my great grandfather farmed, that was removed from that land and impounded in upper Klamath Lake by a dam built and paid for by Klamath project irrigations, to be returned to the land for beneficial use. Since 1992 I have witnessed the slow deterioration of my community both physically and mentally. Every year since it has been harder and harder to make long range plans in farming and related businesses. I have witnessed the break up of families because of added stress. Banks and lending institutions have become harder to deal with because of the water uncertainty. I have seen businesses close and people leave this community because of this.

Sons and daughters have left the farm because of uncertainty. My son is one of these casualties. He grew up taking pride in his work and contribution to the farming operation, looking forward to the day he would become the fifth generation of the Cacka family to farm the same land. But because of the actions of certain agencies within the federal government, this dream is gone. He has moved away to another state and had to take employment in a totally unrelated field. This is a all too common story in the basin, a complete generation has been lost from the farm, a generation that had ties and a love for the land.

In my farming operation I own 80 acres of land and lease an additional 420 acres of land. Land some of which is owned by my father, some of it owned by a elderly widow lady, and some by other retired individuals that are direct descendants of the original settlers. Each of my landlords rely on the rent I pay to live. In my operation I raise potatoes, grain, and alfalfa. I have employed one full time employee and up to nine seasonal employees in my farming operation and as many as two seasonal employees in my spray business. I have had yearly operating expenses in my farm operation that have run as high as 400,000 dollars. All of this money has been spent and contributed to the economy of the Klamath Basin. My spray business grosses 70,000 to 80,000 dollars a year which also is spent in the Klamath Basin.

Because of the uncertainty of water precipitated by the theft of it by bureaucratic agencies, my operation has been unable to make any long range planning which is a vital component to a successful operation. And now because of the theft of all the water, water that was made available by the hard work of the early settlers and promised to them, I am going to have to idle and not farm land that has been in continuous production for 91 years. I will not have any employees, I will not be able to support the local businesses or contribute to the local economy. My spray business will not operate and I will also lose that entire income. I will not be able to service my debts and will be forced into bankruptcy. Because of this theft I will lose the gross income potential of approximately 450,000 dollars.

 I am just one small farmer of many hundred that operate in the Klamath Project. The theft of this water is going to devastate my family and my community, a death blow we will never recover from if this is allowed to continue. We have a large Hispanic population that has moved into the area in the last twenty years that depend on agriculture for their income. Like my Czech ancestors did 90 years ago, they are raising families, buying homes, developing businesses, and a sense of community and heritage. The theft of our water is taking all of this from them also.

One year without water in the Klamath project is unacceptable. The small farm communities, the farmers, the people and the businesses that support them will be gone forever. Lives are going to be completely devastated. My farm that has been in my family for 91 years will not survive. This land that is productive for both man and wildlife will become a wasteland of boarded up houses and noxious weeds. The dirt will blow with the same ferocity of the dust bowl in the 1930’s. If this theft and injustice, perpetrated by those that have no ties with this land or community, is allowed to continue, the blood of my great grandfather, my grandfather, my father and myself dripping onto the plow will mark the death of this great and noble experiment that began in 1776. Without protection of our property rights, and the right to own property there is no freedom only serfdom, which many generations of Americans have fought vehemently against.