Jefferson Soil & Water Conservation District

Jefferson County
Request: $3,030,000

The JCSWCD pursues natural resource stewardship through collaboration, assessment, and project implementation. We work with farmers, ranchers, and other conservation partners. In 2022, we distributed $3 million in Legislature-authorized emergency funds to 88 landowners to help reimburse costs of cover cropping and weed control on almost 25,000 acres (41%) of unirrigated ground in the North Unit Irrigation District (NUID). Also paid for by emergency funding, we worked with over 60 people to develop the Jefferson County Agricultural Drought Resiliency Plan in 2023. We have been implementing that plan for croplands and ranchlands ever since, since we are in the 8th year of drought. This year we expect 20,000 acres to be unirrigated, and wildfires burned 200,000 acres of our rangelands. We just convened a meeting of 6 neighboring SWCDs and 3 watershed councils in Northcentral Oregon to start a coordinated effort for wildfire recovery and resilience.

Jefferson SWCD is requesting funding for

- Continued facilitation of the Croplands Working Group, which is working on upgrading irrigation efficiency, identifying alternate cash crops, encouraging cover cropping, and reducing weeds on fallow fields

- Implementing projects recommended by the Working Group

- Inventorying irrigation infrastructure upgrade needs in the portion of NUID around Culver

- Facilitating the NorthCentral Wildfire Resiliency Group until we can get specific funding for a long-term plan

- Seed to replant disturbed ground due to firelines and firefighting staging areas this fall/winter to prevent erosion from winter storms.