Oregon: Farms to Forest Program reclaims water rights for streams & trees

To Lawrence Martin, a 12-acre patch of his 104-acre ranch is a
personal study of what not to do to some pieces of streamside forest
land. His father, Jimmy Martin, cleared the land of large Ponderosa
pine 50 years ago and turned it into marginal farm land. Over time,
the porous soil underachieved at hay production while its thirst for
irrigation water helped suck Evans Creek dry in summer. “I think
things are put here for us to use, not abuse,” says Martin, 69.

“To
me, this ground has been abused.” Now Martin is in the midst of
returning this land to the forest of his youth while helping keep more
of Evans Creek in Evans Creek. In the process, Martin has created a
template for other Southern Oregon landowners to follow should they
want to transform tired farm land and help feed streams. The Oregon
Water Trust and the Oregon Department of Forestry have joined forces
in what they call the Farms to Forest Program to help landowners like
Martin plant new timber stands on old farm land, allowing the old
irrigation water to remain in streams. The nonprofit trust is in the
process of finalizing a 29-year lease to transfer part of Martin’s
water right for in-stream use to help improve water quality and
habitat used by wild salmon and steelhead. To help keep the water-less
land valuable, state foresters used their Forest Establishment Program
to plant 4,320 pine and Douglas fir seedlings and help jump-start
their growth without requiring creek water. “It’s an innovative idea,
a lumping of incentives that helps landowners, the land and streams,”
says Jeffrey Kee, who manages the Oregon Water Trust program.

To
Martin, it’s a way to recreate the pine stand of his youth for future
generations of Martins to play in and then one day to log. “I wish it
was back like I remember,” Martin says. “It’s not. So I’m trying to
put it back into something that’s of future value for my family.”
Since 1993, the trust has been actively securing in-stream water
rights to boost flows in tributaries like Evans Creek, which have more
irrigation water-rights appropriated to them than there is water in
them. The trust pays willing landowners to deed their water right into
the stream. But for many landowners, that provides only half of a
solution. “It just begs the question, ‘If I removed my irrigation from
the land, what am I going to do with that land?’ ” says Jim Cathcart,
manager of state forestry’s Forest Resource Trust. “It turns out that
forestry is a good answer.” Cathcart’s program helps participants
create forestry plans and plant seedlings. When the trees are cut
later at a profit, the landowner pays back the cost of state
forestry’s initial investment.
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090118/NEWS/901180332
— Posted to http://forestpolicyresearch.com via gmail to posterous and
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