Why We Need a Water Trust

Despite Oregon's reputation as a perpetually rainy place, for many months of the year in many parts of the state the water in our rivers and streams is over-appropriated - more rights to divert water have been issued than there is water in the stream. When periods of naturally low flows coincide with withdrawals, many streams suffer from inadequate streamflows and some are dewatered entirely. When natural streamflows are modified by diversions, the ecology of the stream system, watershed and basin is affected as well. The altered flow may no longer be sufficient to provide habitat for anadromous or resident fish, and water temperature rises, sediment accumulates and water quality diminishes. When all water is siphoned from a stream making passage impossible, fish may be unable to reach their spawning and rearing habitats. Every plan for recovery of salmon and steelhead runs recognizes the importance of water quantity and streamflow enhancement to restoring and preserving aquatic habitat, fisheries and ecological systems.

Though it may seem obvious now that "rivers need water" and "fish need water," it is only relatively recently that scientists, government agencies, policy makers and the public at large have addressed the need to provide water for rivers and fish. Rivers and fish need water in-the-stream, which is commonly referred to as "instream flow." However, even though it now seems desirable to use water in this way, there are fundamental obstacles to simply leaving water in the streams for fish.

Water is a scarce resource, especially in the arid American West. As reflected by the over-appropriation of our water resources, meeting competing demands of agriculture, municipal and other traditional out-of-stream uses could consume our entire surface water resources in certain places at certain times. Irrigation alone accounts for 82% of total surface water withdrawals in the state. It is not an easy task to reallocate our scarce water resources in a way that accommodates more recently recognized needs for instream flows.

The Freshwater Trust restores streamflow by compensating willing landowners to leave all or a portion of their water right instream in lieu of using it for out-of-stream purposes. We also can receive donations of water rights. These measures can range from short-term to permanent transactions. We focus on water rights with early priority dates and use existing laws to put water back into Oregon's rivers and streams.