Governor Tina Kotek declared a drought in Crook and Jefferson counties through Executive Order 23-05, and directed state agencies to coordinate and prioritize assistance to the region. The Oregon Drought Readiness Council, a standing body composed of natural resource, public health, and emergency response agencies received input from Oregon’s Water Supply Availability Committee on regional water supply conditions recommending that the Governor declare drought in Crook and Jefferson Counties for the 2023 calendar year, pursuant to Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 536.740.

The Executive Order states, “Forecasted water supply conditions and precipitation levels are not expected to improve. Drought is likely to have a significant economic impact on the farm, ranch, vineyard, recreation, tourism and natural resources sectors, as well as an impact on drinking water, fish and wildlife, and important minimum flows for public instream uses and other natural resources dependent on adequate precipitation, stored water, and streamflow in these areas. Extreme conditions are expected to affect local growers and livestock, increase the potential for fire, shorten the growing season, and decrease water supplies.”

“While this is the first drought declaration of the year, Central Oregon has been facing persistent drought for years due to the ongoing impacts of climate change,” Governor Kotek said. “This is already looking like another challenging drought year… Moreover, our state needs to get serious about water resilience moving forward. Our communities, the agriculture sector and our fish and wildlife are all impacted by water scarcity, and we all have to be working together to address the challenges that we are facing today and into the future.”

Will her words influence the House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources and Water? Senator David Brock Smith (R-Port Orford) and Representative Virgle Osborne (R-Roseburg) co-sponsored HB 2248, which requires the Water Resources Department and Department of Environmental Quality to study the impacts of wildfire on water quality of streams and tributaries, and assess how the first rains after a wildfire affect the water. Representative Bobby Levy (R-Echo) testified that nearly 900 wildfires, over 2/3 caused by human activity, leaves damage to Oregon’s waterways the state needs to assess and repair.

It isn’t good enough to claim that climate change and wildfires are causing drought conditions. How the state plans and utilizes soil analyses goes further than reacting without strong scientific basis according to the Oregonians for Food & Shelter in opposition to creating a $4 million agency for a Soil Health Initiative in HB 2998. “Creating resiliency for Oregon’s agricultural sector is a much more complex issue than soils alone, and includes things like crop diversification, irrigation, and identifying tools and technologies needed to help growers adapt to a changing climate and increase production.” A wealth of information already exists regarding the characteristics of soils across Oregon, and their suitability for agricultural productions. They claim “the bill lacks broad application to the variety of production systems in Oregon and ignores existing and successful soil management approaches and services already adopted in the state.”

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The drought declaration by Governor Kotek unlocks a number of drought-related emergency tools for water users, including assistance to local water users. These tools can certainly help, but its a robust OSU extension and soil conservation district and individual farming technologies that have enabled farms to survive despite regulating to a one-size-fits-all mentality in regulations.


--Dollie Banner

Post Date: 2023-02-18 01:40:13

Last Update: 2023-02-17 01:56:44