Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang
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Wocas
Upper Klamath Lake's 61,500 or so acres of surface area make it Oregon's
largest fresh-water lake and one of the largest in the United States. Although
its area is large, it isn't deep - 50 feet at most, with an average of 14. This
natural lake's drainage basin is 3,800 mountainous square miles. Klamath Lake is
a remnant of ancient Lake Modoc that occupied all the basin during the
Pleistocene. Lake Modoc extended from the present lake east through the Langell
Valley, south to the Modoc lavalands. As climates and conditions changed, Lake
Modoc receded. Except for Upper Klamath Lake, much of what is left has been
drained, maimed, sumped and pumped. Farmland reclamation and irrigation have
been important European enterprises since the beginning of the 20th century.
The Native Americans, the Klamaths and Modocs, had other enterprises at the
lake. They fished in the tributaries, ate duck eggs in season, built mats and
abodes from the tules, and collected wokas from the marsh. Wokas, known to us as
western yellow pond-lily or Nuphar polysepalum was the Klamath's major source
of starch.
What we know of wokas and its preparation learned from the observations of Frederick
Vernon Colville, Honorary Curator of Plants at the US National Herbarium. Colville spent several
days in August 1896 and again in 1901 on the Klamath Indian Reservation.
Women of the tribe collected enormous quantities of pond-lily fruits in July
and August then extracted seeds from fruits of different ages. Mature fruits
naturally break open and expel seeds in a mucilaginous mess. Less mature fruits
were piled to dry. Fruits on the outside dry. Fruits inside the pile rot. The
women then extracted seeds from each pile, dried the seeds, ground them to
loosen the seed coat, then winnowed the seeds by tossing in a breeze to blow
away the chaff. Seeds were parched by heating in thick cast-iron skillets.
Colville thought fresh-parched wokas tasted delicious, like parched corn. I
once had a student from Klamath Falls who learned how to make wokas. He brought
me some ground meal. Much to my amazement, it was delicious. Better than any
breakfast food I've ever tasted. Better, I suspect, than algae from the lake.
Klamath Lake is naturally rich in organic materials and nutrients that have
accumulated in the lake for millennia. In addition, run-off from adjacent
agricultural lands and pastures each year since the arrival of Europeans adds to
the accumulation each year. Shallow, nutrient rich lakes like Klamath support
enormous numbers of organisms. You may have already read on page 145 about
Klamath's little green bugs, midges, actually, that appear by the bijillions in
the summer. And there are the lake's famous algal blooms that turn parts of the
lake into a stinking mess. The culprit is the blue-green Amphanizomenon. Amphanizomenon
numbers start out low in the spring, then build to as many as 30,000 filaments per
milliliter. Then they die. Their decomposition uses up oxygen in the lake and
fills the air with an altogether unpleasant aroma. Some forms of this blue-green
also produce an endotoxin similar to the toxin that causes paralytic shellfish
poisoning. I wouldn't eat the algae.
Because of the lake's large size and natural inclinations, heroic cleanup
efforts probably would be very expensive and not very effective. So, close your
eyes, hold your nose, save your money, and don't inhale midges. Do, however,
enjoy the lake for what it is - an enormously productive aquatic ecosystem that
supports lots of waterfowl, trophy trout and a rare delicious breakfast cereal.
--
Dr. Frank Lang
