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.

As frontline defenders of Central Oregon’s rural lands, water, and wildlife and as proponents of sustainable, attractive, prosperous communities, another of the arenas in which LandWatch actively engages is legislative advocacy. We track bills, conduct background research, work with partner organizations, meet with legislators, provide testimony, and participate in crafting legislation. We work to support and strengthen good bills and to oppose, defeat, limit, or mitigate bad bills.

Recently, we were lucky enough to welcome Gavin Burke to the Central Oregon LandWatch board of directors. He brings with him years of expertise as an entrepreneur, and a passion for Central Oregon that will help propel us into the future.

Things are moving quickly with the City of Bend's Core Area planning process, which aims to create an Urban Renewal District in the Bend Central District and surrounding areas by August of this year.

The Central Oregon Conservation Network – a group of 12 environmental advocacy organizations that work in our region – recently decided to support a GO Bond that will be on the ballot in May because it will diversify Bend’s transportation network.

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.

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.

The BCD is positioned as a crossroads within the broader Bend community-- a rail line, the Highway 97 parkway, and large streets like Third Street and Greenwood connect many parts of the city. The BCD is also a crossroads for a diversity of people, from ethnic and racial diversity to socio-economic diversity.

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!
 

I am excited to announce that in June of this year I will be stepping down as the Executive Director of LandWatch, an organization that I founded 35 years ago when Whychus Creek was under threat of piping and clear cutting of its banks. 

For decades LandWatch has fought efforts by developers to build homes on Skyline’s private timberland, and for decades the working forest has balanced timber production with recreational and ecological values. But now that balance is under threat as the forest has been placed on the market for $127 million.

We are grateful to announce that this year, the Brainerd Foundation will generously match your year-end gift up to $35,000 to help keep Oregon lovable, and make it even more livable.

The City of Bend is in the process of determining what projects would be funded through a potential transportation bond measure, and they are proposing to slash funding for Midtown Pedestrian Crossings in half from the initial recommendation.

Join us for Pint Night at Worthy Brewing tomorrow, December 3rd! One dollar from every pint sold after 4pm goes directly back to LandWatch so that we can fight to protect what we all love most about Central Oregon.

Central Oregon LandWatch will be submitting substantial comments on the HCP's inadequacies and how it could be improved. In addition to Rivers Conservation Director Tod’s Heisler’s 15 years of experience with this basin, we have a team of experts commenting on on various aspects of the plan, including: hydrologists, water managers, wildlife specialists, and attorneys.

Birds are excellent indicators of environmental health and ecosystem integrity,” state the authors of the study; this staggering decline in numbers, along with similar broad population crashes in amphibians and insects, reflects an accelerating unraveling of the fundamental fabric of the natural world.

Central Oregon LandWatch has for years worked to preserve the last remnants of a critical wildlife corridor that was threatened by a planned expansion of Caldera Springs Destination Resort south of Sunriver. After LandWatch’s legal action blocked an initial proposal to expand across the 600 acres of forested elk and Mule Deer habitat, we successfully negotiated redesign of the resort site plan.

On Tuesday, Tod Heisler spoke with an impassioned crowd of more than 80 river advocates who attended our event, Last Chance for the Deschutes, at Worthy Brewing. He reflected on the dire state of the river and discussed real solutions that have been omitted from the irrigation district's proposed Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP).

Honey I Shrunk the BCD drew hundreds of neighbors, business owners, developers and community leaders to reimagine the Bend Central District together in a fun and exciting setting last week!

Join LandWatch at Worthy Brewing to hear from Tod Heisler, our Rivers Conservation Program Director, to learn about the threats to the Deschutes River Basin, the "solutions" proposed by the irrigation districts, and what we can all do to preserve the River for the next 30 years and beyond.