Around Central Oregon, irrigation canals are filling with water again as growing season begins.

The North Unit Irrigation District started its diversion from the Deschutes River in Bend on Wednesday, sending water toward cropland near Madras, and the Tumalo Irrigation District diversion starts April 15. Other districts around Central Oregon are already supplying water or are about to start.

While some districts started releasing water early following the last three dry months in Central Oregon, there should be plenty of water this summer, said Jeremy Giffin, Deschutes Basin watermaster for the Oregon Water Resources Department in Bend.

“The outlook looks really good,” he said. “The reservoirs are filled up nicely.”

The two major reservoirs feeding the Deschutes and Crooked rivers are brimming with water, according to data Saturday from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Wickiup Reservoir on the Deschutes was 100 percent full with just over 200,000 acre-feet of water, and Prineville Reservoir on the Crooked was also 100 percent full with more than 148,000 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot is enough water to submerge an acre of land a foot deep.

Also on the Deschutes River system, Crane Prairie Reservoir is 90 percent full with more than 49,000 acre-feet, and Crescent Lake is 83 percent full with more than 72,000 acre-feet.

Also on the Crooked River system, Ochoco Reservoir is 71 percent full with more than 44,000 acre-feet, and Haystack Reservoir is 86 percent full with more than 4,800 acre-feet.

“Everything is looking great,” Giffin said late last week.

The situation for the natural reserve of water in the Cascades and Ochoco mountain snowpack isn’t as bright, with a dry March leading to dropping snowpack measurements.

As of Sunday the snowpack for the Upper Deschutes and Crooked River basins was 76 percent of normal for this time of year, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service. At the start of the month, it had been at 89 percent of normal for that time of year and at the start of March it was at 91 percent for that time of year.

Snowfall Sunday could help bolster the snowpack numbers, Giffin said.

As much as a foot of snow fell in parts of the Central Oregon Cascades on Saturday night and Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Snowmelt refills the reservoirs, and the agency is forecasting below- to near-average runoff this summer. Giffin has said the reservoirs are benefiting this year from holdover from last year, and it would take more than one dry year to lead to a shortage of water for irrigation.

In the agriculture fields surrounding Madras and Culver, growers have already started planting carrots, said Richard Macy, a board member and farmer in the North Unit Irrigation District.

“There seems to be plenty of water,” he said.

On the farms around Tumalo, hay growers and other water users are clearing weeds out of the ditches they use to bring water from the irrigation canal to their fields, said Kenneth Rieck, assistant manager for the Tumalo Irrigation District. As the canals start to fill with water, or are already full, he cautioned people not to play on their banks or swim in them as the weather gets warmer.

In regards to the water supply, he said there shouldn’t be any shortages in the district.

“It is not going to be a bad year,” he said. “It is not going to be a great year. It is just going to be an average year.”