Yesterday I returned from a 10 day fishing trip to Brazil and have a number of posts to catch up on. Here’s a start. While away, I was contacted by a reader asking my opinion on the Deschutes Soil & Water Conservation District’s ballot request to get additional taxpayer funding. In short, I think they do good work, and could support additional funding in the future with a few changes, but there are issues voters should be aware of. For more on this see below and two recent opinion columns in the Bend Bulletin from current DSWC board members. One argues against additional taxpayer funding, the other is in support.

In short, the DSWC provides funding and resources for landowners in the areas of water conservation, wildfire risk reduction to “timber resources”, soil conservation, invasive weed control, etc. These are all good things.

From my perspective, however, there are problems. First, on-farm “water conservation”, the majority of the DSWC’s work, does not equate to increased flows in the Deschutes River, contrary to claims made by others. Piping private lateral irrigation canals and installing efficient sprinkler systems will “conserve” water, but any saved water will be available to the irrigator for their additional use. There is no requirement that the conserved water be kept instream.

In fact, the returning of any water to the river is controlled by the irrigation district, not the irrigator. Irrigation districts have caps on how much water can be returned to the river and those caps were met a long time ago. Central Oregon Irrigation District, for example, limits the amount of water that can be returned to 3% of their total water right.

Additionally, the DSWC is controlled by a board of directors the majority of whom must own at least 10 acres of land. This is not representational of Deschutes County or the average irrigator in the county. If taxpayers are going to increase funding of the DSWC, shouldn’t the board better reflect the taxpayers of the county?

Finally, while I am an environmentalist, I am also a fiscal conservative. I believe that people should bear the cost of making improvements on their own property. Two years ago I spent weeks with my chainsaw and pole saw in hand clearing trees and otherwise making my land more fire resilient and paid to have large piles of junipers and limbs disposed of (Fagen Tree Service did a great job with that). In fact, I think improvements like efficient water use, soil conservation, fire risk reduction, etc., should be mandated rather than being optional.