This page consists of links to meeting agendas, minutes of those meetings. See below the Strategic Plan for this Cohort Action Team; it consists of the team mission, the goals to achieve in pursuit of that mission, and concrete/ measurable objective to complete for each goal. Note that we are always in pursuit of our mission, that we can repeatedly achieve our goals, and that our objectives are what we do everyday.
Click here for the Meeting Agendas
Click Here for the Meeting Minutes
Click here for the Strategic Plan for this Cohort
Descriptions:
We seek to achieve a peaceful coexistence (balance) between water availability for agriculture (that uses 80% of all developed water!), and aquifers, wetlands, and waterways. Currently, many aquifers are in serious decline and will not recover in our lifetimes. What are some principles and practices for the efficient Beneficial Use of Water and the long-term sustainability of farming in Oregon? How do we decide what are the highest and best purposes for Oregon Water and what is a waste of Water?
How can small farms avoid being caught up in the issues in which large agricultural operations find themselves? Big Ag experiences critiques on its Water use and on serious negative impacts to Water quality. Small farms use very little water, many are organic, and often they provide local food: their Water use is not exported. But free use of Oregon Water for large agricultural operations results in exporting products outside the region resulting in “Virtual Water Exports.” Much Water use occurs in areas of Oregon where aquifers are in decline; in some of these areas, large agricultural operations irrigate water-thirsty crops destined to feed livestock in China and Japan and feed horses in Saudi Arabia. All Water use must be in the public interest; how is this practice in the public interest?
For 15,000 years, Indigenous Peoples stewarded Water in Oregon; however in the past 200 years settlers have devastated aquifers and rivers. What shall we do to reverse the inexorable trend toward Water scarcity and loss of farming?