Protect and Restore Free Flowing Oregon Rivers

At WaterWatch, our work is focused on protecting and restoring the streamflows that power our state’s world-class rivers and streams, which in turn provide habitat, foraging grounds, and migratory corridors for a variety of fish and wildlife including salmon, steelhead, beavers, otters, bears, and all varieties of insects, frogs, birds, and other species.

Our work to protect and restore Oregon’s rivers is also vital to related conservation efforts to protect our state's iconic forests, deserts, wetlands, coastline, and other natural areas important to Oregon fish and wildlife, people, and economies. That’s why WaterWatch was proud to join with over 70 conservation, hunting, fishing, forestry, farming, ranching, and business stakeholders in a coalition that successfully passed the 1.25% for Wildlife bill during the short legislative session earlier this year.

Signed into law by Governor Tina Kotek on April 10th, the bill levies a modest 1.25% tax on transient lodging, which will provide dedicated funding for fish, wildlife, and habitat conservation primarily by funding the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s work to implement its State Wildlife Action Plan. With ongoing threats at both the state and federal levels, fish and wildlife have been pushed to the brink by habitat loss, climate change, and overdevelopment. In Oregon, at least 300 at-risk species and their habitats are in decline and in danger of being pushed further toward extinction. Now law, the 1.25% for Wildlife Initiative will provide critical funding to protect our state’s most vulnerable fish and wildlife species, and fuel the work needed to protect Oregon’s landscapes and the rivers that run through them.

Congratulations to our friends at Oregon Wild and the Western Environmental Law Center for their diligence, tenacity, and enthusiasm in leading this broad-based coalition effort. We also owe a heartfelt thank you to our community of WaterWatch members and supporters who weighed in with their legislators to help pass this bill and ensure the governor signed it into law.

Healthy habitats, flourishing fish, and wildlife benefit all Oregonians. In an era where we could all use some good news, take a moment to join us in celebrating this monumental win.

DEFENDING OREGON’S WATERS

In addition to our advocacy to pass proactive policy bills and sound agency budgets, WaterWatch defends against the myriad of bad water bills that inevitably show up every session. Over the past 40 years we have stopped hundreds of bad bills which, if passed, would have gutted important environmental laws and further compromised our rivers and aquifers. The 2026 session was no exception. Of note were two very bad bills that

WaterWatch led opposition to defeat — HB 4006 and HB 4049.

HB 4006 — DEFEATED

This dangerous Columbia River bill would have exempted Umatilla Basin irrigators who wanted to divert surface water on a 51-mile stretch of the Columbia River from important transfer laws that every other farmer in Oregon must abide by. It would have allowed a significant increase in water volume pulled from the Columbia with no regard of the impact on salmon, increased irrigated agriculture over a 700,000 acre footprint (roughly the size of Rhode Island), risked greater nitrate contamination to the area’s groundwater, and declared inter-governmental entities to be “districts” statewide. Among other concerns, this would have given irrigators the ability to condemn both private and state lands. While the bill did not pass into law, we expect it will return in some form in 2027. 

HB 4049 – DEFEATED

This bill would have weakened existing statutory standards in the Harney Basin that govern Voluntary Agreements (VA) that can be approved by the Oregon Water Resources Commission (OWRC) to operate in lieu of an order or rule curtailing groundwater pumping in a Critical Groundwater Area. The bill did not move forward after the state agreed to revamp the Harney Basin VA guidelines. While not ideal, this kept the language out of statute, which allows the OWRC to more easily adjust the guidance document in the future.

Defeating these bills took enormous effort, not only to educate legislators about the devastating policy implications, but also to daylight misinformation spread by bill proponents. With 2027 gearing up to be more of the same, we will again need your help to reach out to your legislators.

Links:

• WaterWatch of Oregon Summer 2026 Instream Newsletter