5 results for tag: integrated water resources strategy
Wins on the Road to Clean Water
Thanks to you, state officials have updated Oregon’s roadmap for managing our water systems to prioritize healthy people, ecosystems, and a sustainable future for Oregon.
A Roadmap for Managing Our Water
UPDATE: The Oregon Water Resources Department received 250 comments from individual Oregonians on the Integrated Water Resources Strategy - that's 12x more than when the strategy was originally developed! Thanks to your advocacy, the Department heard the message loud and clear: prioritize clean and plentiful water for all Oregonians. Stay tuned for updates on how the final strategy lives up to your demands.
It’s hard to think about drought when it’s still raining in June, but Oregon is about to enter its dry season. Although this year’s snowpack looks strong, experts predict that climate change will bring more drought in the future. That’s ...
Speak Up for Water!
If you care about clean and abundant water, we hope you will make your voice heard at an open house this June. At these open houses, the three state agencies responsible for protecting Oregon’s water and making sure we have enough water to go around will:
share information on initiatives to prepare for drought, protect water instream for fish, reduce pesticide runoff, and more
ask for public input on what to prioritize as they update the state’s Integrated Water Resources Strategy (IWRS)
Sure, “Integrated Water Resources Strategy” is a wonky name, but the IWRS is a critical plan for ensuring that Oregon’s waterways are clean and ...
Drought is “The New Normal”
By Samantha Murray, photo by Lacey Jarrell
Last week, some of the nation’s best and brightest water scientists, lawyers and policy-makers convened in Eugene, Oregon to think big about drought in the West. And the take-home message was that these dry periods are not going anywhere. In fact, they are more likely to grow in frequency and severity, thanks to climate change.
Since populations have shifted over the years to the most arid parts of the country and much of our food comes from those same places, experts believe we’d be better off looking at drought as a “familiar common enemy" that unites us, rather than a natural disaster that ...
Making Water Work
Water is one of Oregon’s most valuable resources. And increasingly, it’s becoming one of its most threatened. Summertime water rights are maxed out in many areas of the state, impacting business development, agricultural production and native fish, with climate change and population growth predicted to further stress Oregon’s water supplies in the future.
Oregon Environmental Council interviewed growers and irrigation experts about ways to advance water efficiency in agriculture—which uses 79% of the state's water withdrawals—while strengthening Oregon's agriculture sector. Our recommendations are included in the report, Making Water ...