Look around. Try to see the Three Sisters through the smoke. Do see the many brown fallow fields where there should be productive farmland. Check in with your neighbors whose wells are running dry and who are losing their homeowners insurance because of wildfire risk.

Any one of these conditions provides a compelling argument to support Measure 9-176, the Deschutes Soil and Water Conservation District’s request for a tax base in the coming election. But we are facing them all at once.

Soil and water conservation districts (SWCDs) were born in crisis, forming at the height of the Dust Bowl in the early twentieth century. Today more than 3,000 conservations districts across the United States work every day to conserve and enhance the natural resource base in the communities they serve.

SWCDs are local governments with a governing board elected by the people of Deschutes County. Unlike other local governments, we accomplish our mission through cooperation and partnerships with private landowners in the county rather than through enforced regulation and litigation. We provide technical, educational and financial assistance to help our landowners become better stewards of the land and water resources we all enjoy.

Through our partnerships and support from private landowners, federal, state and other local government, we have been able to develop on-farm irrigation efficiency that directly improves the landowners’ bottom line as well as stream flows in the Deschutes basin.

Deschutes SWCD develops wildfire risk reduction projects to protect forest homes as well as reduce the capacity of fire to threaten local communities. We improve and protect habitats for fish and wildlife as well as pollinators.

With cooperating landowners, we implement manure management and composting systems to enhance regenerative agriculture. The SWCD continues education for our landowners and the public at large to adopt best practices in water management and land stewardship, voluntarily.

But look around and you will see there is so much more to do. Just as the crisis of the Dust Bowl led to the formation of SWCDs, this new crisis of drought, fire and climate has led the board of the Deschutes Soil and Water Conservation District to ask our constituents to invest in our mission to conserve and enhance the natural resources of Deschutes County through a permanent tax rate of not more than six cents ($0.06) per thousand dollars of assessed value on your property.

We ask for your support to meet the challenges in resource management we see every day. And to give the people of Deschutes County a greater say in how projects are developed, prioritized and managed.

Because our efforts are currently funded from outside sources, the requirements of those funders do not always meet local resource concerns. For example, we cannot take funds for water quality projects and use them to treat noxious weeds. Though the weed problem may have a higher priority in some local communities.

Measure 9-176 is not an unusual request. We ask for the same support that a dozen other soil and water conservation districts in Oregon already have. Voters across the state have recognized the value and need to invest in clean air and water, healthy forests, productive farms and ranches, abundant fish in the rivers and wildlife across the land.

We ask your support in voting YES on Measure 9-176. Thank you.

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