Shortly after the last presidential election I wrote a post that questioned the future of the Deschutes Basin Habitat Conservation Plan. There have long been calls to eliminate the Endangered Species Act, something that President Trump suggested in his first term. Short of that, if the Environmental Protection Agency is eliminated, gutted, or largely defunded there could be no enforcement of the ESA mandated DBHCP. I was told by many that this could not happen. Well, here’s a recent article from Oregon Public Broadcasting that suggests the same. The article also highlights divisions within the local irrigation community. The irrigation districts clearly want to continue to receive federal funding for canal piping, funds that have now been frozen, while some individual irrigators just want the ESA to go away. Either way, for now at least, it is not business as usual.