Almost all of Oregon’s coastal communities face water insecurity. Regionally steep terrain and shallow soils limit groundwater storage, so most residents get their water from in-stream intakes. These intakes are usually sufficient, but when populations triple due to summer tourism, the systems become strained.
Since 2020, we’ve been working with a broad coalition of partners to identify solutions to the coast’s drinking water challenges. Supported by a new grant program through the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), leaders across Oregon’s central coast are developing and implementing Drinking Water Protection Plans that identify threats to drinking water and opportunities to address them. Strategies include acquiring land in watersheds the public relies on, developing cooperative land management models, and investing in infrastructure to improve water storage and movement between communities.
These efforts are being uplifted across Oregon’s coastal communities, with Land Trusts at the table as transaction specialists who can support communities in acquiring land or protecting it through conservation easements. Central Coast Conservation Program Manager Margaret Treadwell explains that to improve water quality and storage capacity, forests in drinking watersheds must be safeguarded and allowed to mature through their natural cycles. “To put it simply, a healthy forest is a natural reservoir.”
We are honored to work alongside a diverse range of partners to tackle one of our region’s most pressing threats. Thank you to all of our supporters who invest in this important work with your annual memberships. Together, we can safeguard clean drinking water for Oregonians today and for generations to come.
Our new StoryMap, A Place of Constant Change, invites you to immerse yourself in this incredible landscape. Through stories, research, videos, and on-the-ground examples, this interactive experience traces the Siuslaw’s geologic history, the many people who have cared for this place across time, the changes that have shaped it, and the collaborative restoration efforts now underway.
Across the Pacific Northwest, forests capture and store water. In healthy forests, diverse tree canopies slow the rain as it reaches the ground. Then it
Since moving to Oregon in 2005, Anice Thigpen and Andrea Halliday have been caring for the land here. Now, they’re inviting others to join them through a special donation matching challenge in honor of Earth Day.
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