Autumn 2022

Water League’s First Newsletter

Let’s Get in League with Water!

Hello!

Welcome to the first edition of Water League’s newsletter.

Water League has been busy since we first gathered around a friend’s kitchen table last May, determined to secure an abundant Water future for Oregon.

Our mission is to engage the public in Water stewardship.

Check out our website for:

• Water League’s strategic plan and founding documents
• Our growing library of water topics – if you’re looking for it, it’s here: water law, history & scholarship; Scientific and news articles on increasing drought & aridification; Agricultural water concerns; and Management/ mismanagement of Water in the west. Many of these essays, journals, papers, and articles are gripping, fascinating, terrifying, and hard to put down!
• News about our engagement with the state on antiquated water policies and our support for a new paradigm/ relationship with Water for the 21^st century
• Proof that the public has a voice: together, our community changed the laws on water delivery to illegal cannabis grows (go to 48:12 in the video)
• And…We’re gearing up for Giving Tuesday!

YOU are central to our activities to protect Water for all Oregonians: flora, fauna, and humans.  We want to hear your ideas, concerns, and solutions.

We invite you to Get in League with Water!

Also…

A shout out to the Southern Oregon Pachamama Alliance Water Solutions Summit, who created a six-session, two-month event that honors Water and generates local solutions to address our relationship to Water. Water League recently joined the organizers to help carry forth the momentum; in early 2023, we’ll form cohorts around several solutions that arose from the summit. Contact chris@waterleague.org to get involved.

Here are some pictures from our recent stewardship activities. What kind of outing would you like to join us on? Let us know.

And… for those who are interested in greater detail about our first few months of accomplishments…

Water League began:

• Engaging the state on the rules strengthening groundwater conservation
• Mapped cannabis grows in the Illinois Valley to compare 2021 to 2022 Water use (we estimate a 40% reduction in the unlawful appropriation of Water this year!)
• We founded Water League and built the organization. This included establishing our mission and strategic plan of action, the business elements of the organization, board development, public relations, fundraising, branding & graphics – our logo is a water pitchfork 🙂
• Outreach to the local, statewide, and national press
• Engaging individual members of the public about their pressing needs in site visits
• Addressing the 100+ year-old antiquated model for Water management in the state of Oregon: put back Beneficial Use of Water in its rightful and lawful place above Prior Appropriation in an annual decision-making process about whether (or how much) Water should or should not be taken from streams and aquifers for water right certificate holders
• Attended a Crime Roundtable discussing Water theft and organized crime syndicates, highlighting the problem and solutions
• Creation of the Water League Library
• Participation in public and private meetings and making presentations on the topic of Water use, misuse, and the solutions to secure our common future with Water, including attending and assisting the Southern Oregon Pachamama Alliance Water Solutions Summit
• Building the ever-growing community of supporters who want to Get In League With Water
• Hosted a Riparian Area clean-up event along the Illinois River and harvested milkweed seeds for spring plantings
• Regularly attend and participate in regional and statewide agency meetings on the topic of surface and groundwater use, quality, and future planning — we’ll update you on what’s really going on
• Outreach to the Oregon Parks & Recreation Department about the poorly-considered use of pesticides in a well-used state park along the Illinois River
• Established our community support program Rainmakers – donors who wish to support Water League’s mission.

Have a great holiday season, and think of us on Giving Tuesday!

Tenaciously yours,

Christopher Hall, Executive Director

P.S.: Here are some parting thoughts:

• We are Water. The closest to Water we’ll ever get is living in our own body.
• Water is a living entity. Water is a proper noun.
• Calling Water a “Resource” perpetuates the idea that the “purpose of Water” is to be used for exploitation;
• We don’t use or exploit our friends and family members. People who behave like that toward other people are antisocial and deemed to be sociopathic under our medical system.
• Water is life; Water is all beings’ first medicine. How we treat Water is how we treat ourselves and others. This has been the understanding indigenous people have had for millennia; today, a growing number of people are rediscovering this understanding. It’s our best hope for our shared future with Water.