Solutions to Water Resource and Environmental Challenges: Perspectives from the Agricultural Community in the Crooked River Watershed

This research explores how an agriculture-based community in the Crooked River Watershed of Central Oregon responds to a series of water resource and environmental challenges, some associated with projected climate change, amid increasing pressure to change management practices to better accommodate environmental needs. A key part of this research assesses the collaborative capacity of the community to work together toward solutions to these challenges. This semi-arid watershed is vulnerable to a changing climate, with current climate models predicting significant changes in seasonal flows that will negatively impact existing water and agricultural systems and management practices. In addition, the agriculture community in this area is currently struggling to deal with a multi-year drought situation and is under pressure from regulators and other Central Oregon stakeholders to change their management practices to better accommodate environmental needs. This research addresses the following questions: How is the agricultural community in this area responding to these challenges? What are their ideas for responding to the challenges such that the agriculture community maintains, or even improves, its viability, productiveness, and integrity of its values, while also balancing its needs against societal demand for stronger environmental protection?