The Horizon

All the latest updates on our work defending rural lands, creating livable cities and towns and preserving wild lands and water throughout Central Oregon

Rivers & Springs, Water CO LandWatch Rivers & Springs, Water CO LandWatch

A River in Peril

The Oregon spotted frog highlights where the Habitat Conservation Plan falls short.

The Northern spotted owl may be the most controversial animal in the Pacific Northwest. The owl was pushed into the national spotlight in the early 1990s…

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Rivers & Springs CO LandWatch Rivers & Springs CO LandWatch

How does the HCP affect Whychus Creek?

The Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) is an enforceable agreement between irrigation districts and federal agencies meant to reduce the harmful effects of irrigation, but the plan currently put forth is woefully inadequate to address the health of the River, the needs of our farmers and the welfare of fish and wildlife.

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Rivers & Springs CO LandWatch Rivers & Springs CO LandWatch

Deschutes River Habitat Conservation Plan Fails to Restore River, Fish, Frogs

A final habitat conservation plan and environmental impact statement announced today by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Upper Deschutes River, Whychus Creek and Crooked River largely preserves existing management of the river in the near term and fails to adequately help threatened bull trout, steelhead and Oregon spotted frogs.

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Rivers & Springs CO LandWatch Rivers & Springs CO LandWatch

$1 billion for irrigation districts is an absurd plan

A recent guest column author argued that the solution for water shortages in the Deschutes River Basin is large canal piping projects for irrigation districts funded by the public, instead of much cheaper water market solutions. What he completely ignores is the cost of the large pipes, around $1 billion. In this economic crisis that is absurd. It will cost too much and take too long. Climate change, threatened fish and wildlife, degraded rivers and farmers without water security compel us to act quickly to solve this problem.

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Farm & Forest, Rivers & Springs CO LandWatch Farm & Forest, Rivers & Springs CO LandWatch

LandWatch fights to protect wildlife habitat in the Ochoco Mountains from another threat

The beloved Ochoco National Forest and its precious habitat for elk, wolves, native fish and other species is once again threatened. Just over one year after Central Oregon LandWatch’s coalition victory in federal court to protect the area, the “Black Mountain” project proposes 22 miles of new roads and damage to riparian habitat without sufficient regard for the species that would be impacted.

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Wildlife Habitat, Rivers & Springs CO LandWatch Wildlife Habitat, Rivers & Springs CO LandWatch

COID requests $42 million in taxpayer dollars to pipe 7.9 miles of canals

Central Oregon Irrigation District’s (COID) latest watershed plan would pipe only 7.9 miles of the more than 400 miles of its canals and cost a whopping $568,000 per irrigator. The cost would be more than four times the price of conserved water generated by other similar piping projects in COID in recent years.

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Rivers & Springs, Wildlife Habitat CO LandWatch Rivers & Springs, Wildlife Habitat CO LandWatch

Celebrating an enormous response to call for comments on the Deschutes

We worked closely with and directly supported the efforts of the community movement 30/30 for the Deschutes to advocate for a healthy river. Overall, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service received more than 1,700 comments from the public asking them to assure that an improved plan for the Deschutes River is developed!
 

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