In the Media

Twelve years ago, an overwhelming majority of voters approved a constitutional amendment dedicating 15 percent of lottery revenue to state parks and watershed enhancement efforts. But the funding provision isn’t permanent. It will disappear in 2015 unless voters renew it. The Legislature is obligated to put the question on the ballot in November 2014.

Squinting into the sun Saturday morning, Ken Bicart surveyed the flotilla of inflatable crafts edging into the current of the Deschutes River at Riverbend Park, and tried to get a little betting action going.

At Race for the River, a new event the conservancy will hold Aug. 7, the mission is fun.

The Deschutes River Conservancy will host Race for the River, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 7.

Brad Wymore had it down to a science. At a fish sorting facility Thursday morning at Lake Billy Chinook, he scooped up a net's worth of young salmon and slipped them into a tub of water and anesthesia.

With forecasts calling for even more snow in the Central Cascades through early next week, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced Wednesday it would extend the studded tire deadline again, now until April 17, to help drivers deal with potentially difficult conditions.

Irrigation districts in the region were busy this past winter. While the water was shut off for the season, the Central Oregon Irrigation District, Three Sisters Irrigation District and North Unit Irrigation District have replaced a little less than a dozen miles of open canals with buried pipe.

The Deschutes River Conservancy believes that restoring streamflow through canal piping is vital to addressing the long-term health of our local rivers and streams.

While the snowpack in the Cascades finished the winter below average in size, a cool and wet spring has helped to minimize some of the water-related problems that officials earlier predicted for irrigators, fish and fire managers.