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

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Recovering Deschutes Basin Steelhead — Part 2

In less than a century, the impacts of irrigation, hydropower projects, and other human activities throughout the Deschutes Basin have disrupted the natural water systems and environmental conditions that sustained abundant steelhead populations for millennia.

In order to take steps toward habitat recovery, it is important to understand how we’ve fundamentally changed these waterways.

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Recovering Deschutes Basin Steelhead — Part 1

The steelhead trout is one of the Pacific Northwest’s most iconic species of fish.

In this series, we’re exploring the history of steelhead in the Deschutes Basin, the impacts irrigation and development have had on this species and their habitat, the actions water managers and regulators are proposing to address threats to this species, and whether they go far enough to restore the critical habitat this iconic species needs and deserves.

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Planning For More Than Piping

Addressing water shortages in the Deschutes Basin requires a comprehensive Water Management Plan that integrates infrastructure improvements and market-based incentives to efficiently allocate water for both agricultural and environmental needs.

The Deschutes Basin Water Collaborative, through the state’s Place-Based Planning process, is developing this plan to ensure balanced water distribution and overcome existing systemic issues, emphasizing the need for immediate and coordinated action.

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Addressing water waste in Central Oregon

It’s clear there is an appetite amongst irrigators for solutions to wasteful irrigation practices, improved irrigation infrastructure, and policy reform to allow easier reallocation of water to those who need it the most.

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Our water distribution system is based on fiction

It doesn’t take an expert to see the growing conflict over the scarcity of water supplies in Central Oregon, intensified by drought and the impacts of climate change. But the Oregon spotted frog is not to blame for our water woes, nor are the farmers whose livelihood depends on water for crops.

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Guest column: Is Central Oregon the West's water future?

Central Oregon recently made national headlines when The Washington Post hailed local water infrastructure projects as “the future of the American West.” Indeed, improving the efficiency of our century-old water infrastructure is key to ushering in a modern era of water management–but it’s far from a panacea.

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