That's the question that now has farmers, fishermen, environmentalists, local Native-American tribes, and the federal government locked in what is shaping up to be an epic battle in northern California and Oregon. It's a controversy that brought thousands of farmers and their supporters out to a dramatic protest in Klamath Falls, Ore., on Monday.

Fifty farmers — each representing one of the 50 states — lined up along Main Street in a ceremonial "bucket brigade" to protest the federal government's decision to cut off an irrigation project that is the primary source of water for 250,000 acres of mostly family-owned farmland in the Klamath River Basin.

The farmers, who have been tilling the region's soil for generations, claim they're being pushed to the back of the line behind an effort to save endangered salmon and sucker fish — while facing extinction themselves.

Before a crowd of 12,000 supporters, 86-year-old homesteader Jeff Prosser, a World War II veteran who won his land in a government homestead lottery — dipped a bucket into a lake fed by the Upper Klamath Lake, and passed the symbolic water to his son John.

John Prosser then passed the bucket to his daughter Katie, 11, who handed the bucket to her six-year-old brother, James. From James the bucket passed down a chain of farmers almost a mile, where it was poured into the irrigation system's empty main canal.

"We must never feel that it is OK to say that a sucker fish is of more value under law than a farm family," said Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, one of about 20 politicians who had arrived in Klamath Falls to support the rally.   

In the Klamath Basin, a fertile farming region on the California-Oregon border, about 1,500 family-run farms and ranches depend on a federal irrigation project that has pumped water into their fields from the Klamath River for more than a century. But in the face of severe drought conditions and a lawsuit brought by a coalition of environmentalists and commercial fishing interests, the Bureau of Reclamation was forced by court order to shut down the pipes.

It marked only the first time in generations of drought battles that the Klamath Basin farmers have been denied water. It was also the first time, according to the Reclamation Bureau, that a farming community anywhere in the area has been forced to stop farming. 

According to the court ruling, the Reclamation Bureau violated the Endnagered Species Act by continuing to supply farming irrigation without first studying the needs of the fish, and cannot deliver water to the irrigation system until they come up with a plan to protect the fish. Farmers say the ruling will destroy a 100-year-old agricultural community and way of life. 

On Friday, California Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency in the region.

Farmers vs. Fish

Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon, and the Klamath River that plunges from Oregon down through California to the ocean, are home to two endangered species of fish — sucker fish and coho salmon. The suckor fish play a vital role in the heritage of the areas' three indigenous Indian tribes, who have fought ardently since 1986 to protect the Upper Klamath, while the region's commercial fisherman depend on the salmon in the river for their livelihood.

Both fish species have been dwindling in recent years, and last Monday a federal judge ruled the plight of the fish was a higher priority than the plight of the farmers. 

"We need that water for our fisheries, just as much or more than the farmers," Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations told the Los Angeles Times. "Our communities have been systematically strangled."

Spain told the Times that the salmon deplation has cost the fishing industry 3,700 jobs. Farmers, he said, can get by during rough times on federal assistance, but the fish "only have one river."

The fight for the Klamath water has been brewing between the farmers and those that want the fish protected for some time, staved off by several seasons of heavy rains. But environmentalists believe agriculture has taken too much for too long. Scientists have cautioned the salmon would be wiped out if the Klamath River's water volume didn't double, and said the suckers in Upper Klamath Lake also need increased water levels.

However, the Klamath Basin farmland was created 100 years ago by damming and dyking marshlands and lakes, and some suggest that environmentalists are less interested in protecting the fish than they are in buying up the land to return it to its natural, wetland state.

Addressing Monday's rally, California Rep. Wally Herger said he suspects that the true agenda of environmental groups is to drive down the price of the farmland. 

"It's really bankrupting the farmers in order to buy this land at bargain rates," Herger said. 

In April, a suit brought by fishermen and environmentalists resulted in a court order against the Bureau of Reclamation that oversees the region's hundreds of miles of irrigation. The farmers were completely cut off.

Farmers claim they are being forced into bankruptcy and complete ruin, and that their withering, dusty fields have forced about 3,000 farm laborers to seek work elsewhere. The businesses that support farming — equipment stores, seed retailers — are also seriously threatened. Schools could even be in danger of closing if farming families are driven from the area to make a living elsewhere.

In California, Gov. Davis has released $5 million to increase ground-water access, while Oregon has been issuing permits to dig new wells. The federal government has issued $1.5 billion to plant cover crops and erect wind barriers to keep the now dry, dusty soil from literally blowing away.  But the locals are not much interested in government assistance. Farmers without income are not helped by low-interest federal loans.

In fact, some farmers have already faced defeat. More than 50 farmers have signed with land trusts to sell 20,000 acres of their land.

The region's vast network of bird estuaries have also been cut off from the water. The wetlands, which are the remnants of other rivers and lakes that have been drained and diked to create farmland, are a major stop for migrating birds and are home to the largest bald eagle population in the lower 48 states. 

- Fox News' Marni Zambri contributed to this report