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
Are we due for a larger Deschutes County Commission?
Central Oregon LandWatch recently added our name to the long and growing list of supporters of Ballot Measure 9-173. The measure will appear on the November ballot for consideration by all Deschutes County voters, and asks whether the size of the Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners should be expanded from three to five commissioners.
LandWatch feels strongly that the answer is “yes,” and here is why.
A win at the Land Use Board of Appeals!
A win at the Land Use Board of Appeals! Stopping industrial sprawl between Bend and Redmond.
A Joint Letter to Deschutes County
12 organizations submitted a joint letter on the ongoing Deschutes County Comprehensive Plan update. We’re asking Deschutes County to do better to protect our land, water, and wildlife.
Press Release: Recommended approval to limit new destination resort development
On March 23, the Deschutes County Planning Commission voted 3 to 1 in favor of recommending approval of Central Oregon LandWatch’s application to amend the county’s zoning code to limit new destination resort development.
The Bend to Redmond Corridor
Industrial sprawl between Bend and Redmond? Not on our watch.
Sign up for a "Meeting in a Box" with Deschutes County!
Weigh in to help guide Deschutes County over the next 20 years.
A 710-acre rezone? We’re standing with the ranchers
An application to rezone 710-acres from farmland to rural residential is scheduled for a hearing next Tuesday.
Remand Hearing Update on Thornburgh Resort
The appeals continue over a proposed destination resort at Cline Buttes near Redmond. Unfortunately, despite the outpouring of public concern in the remand hearing, a hearings officer approved the resort's current development application in October.
A decision that threatens wildlife habitat
Deschutes County recently approved a 19-lot subdivision on the Deschutes River Canyon rim near Terrebonne. This site is a former mine and unpermitted hazardous waste dump site. The County denied a nearly identical application in 2015 because it did not comply with the Flood Plain zone and that zone's protections for fish, wildlife, and riparian habitat. This time around, the County decided the opposite, and approved dense development along riparian habitat.
Good News for Central Oregon Agriculture and Wildlife Habitat!
Once again, our visionary statewide land use planning program has helped us push back against development pressure to protect our most valuable natural resources for now and future generations.
Why we support the Westside Transect Zone for Deschutes County
Thanks in large part to our advocacy, the Westside Transect is a new concept for Central Oregon that is being used to plan development on Bend’s western edge where we are at most risk of wildfire sweeping into town from the Cascade Mountain forests.
Stop: Trouble For Wildlife Ahead
Central Oregon LandWatch is the ONLY watchdog organization protecting wildlife habitat and migration corridors in rapidly growing Deschutes County.
Important win to protect farm and range land
Our win closes a local loophole that was allowing more development than is typically allowed on farm and ranch land.
Court rules in favor of LandWatch & Wildlife AGAIN
After the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals ruled in favor of wildlife earlier this year, Deschutes County went back to court to challenge their ruling. In a recent ruling from the Court of Appeals, LUBA's decision was affirmed, upholding protections for wildlife in the deer winter range!
LandWatch Files Appeal to Protect Riparian Habitat
Central Oregon LandWatch is the only group on the front lines in defense of Deschutes County’s wildlife habitat code protections. Last week, we filed an appeal of an alarming change to the county’s Flood Plain Zone to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.
Groundbreaking new protections proposed for 717 acres west of Bend
Last night, LandWatch advocated for wildlife habitat and protection from wildfire risk adjacent to Shevlin Park by supporting an application for a new zone in Deschutes County. The proposal to create a Westside Transect zone will extend to the county the 2016 UGB concept of tapering density as the city boundary nears the forest where there is higher risk of wildfire.
Do you value Central Oregon's agricultural lands?
The process to reevaluate agricultural lands threatens to classify them as “non-resource”, and prioritize them for development.
A win for wildlife! Upholding protections for mule deer when they are most vulnerable
Last year when Deschutes County proposed amending the code to weaken winter range protections, LandWatch's members and allies, including the friends of the Tumalo Wildlife Corridor, voiced their strong support for protection of winter range habitat and the species that depend on it.