/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/opb/AEGIWBVNZFDC3K3BUXXW5BCWHQ.jpg "Race to the bottom: How Central Oregon groundwater sells to the highest bidders")
Editor’s notice: That is the third story in a sequence about how Oregon officers managing groundwater provides have fueled crises and inequities, leaving the state ill-prepared to satisfy the rising challenges of drought and local weather change.
When Susan Burdick hunted for a Central Oregon house to purchase in 2006, she checked out dozens of listings with out touchdown any of them. Then one night time, the realtor referred to as a couple of property round 5 miles southwest of Redmond. Burdick hopped within the automotive.
Susan Burdick feeds goats Rose and Miley at her house in Deschutes County, Ore., on July 1, 2022. The inhabitants is booming as groundwater is declining.
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
“That is it,” she remembered pondering.
The 5-acre tract was simply what she’d been in search of: a modest nation house with loads of area for her priorities — horses, canines, chickens, goats and a backyard.
“It’s not fancy,” she stated. “However, it’s my little paradise.”
Then her effectively ran dry in 2020.
Burdick had no working water for weeks as she waited for a drilling firm with a monthslong backlog. She was finally saddled with greater than $30,000 in prices.
“It was a nightmare,” she stated. “And the story simply will get worse.”
Burdick is among the many Oregonians paying the worth of declining groundwater within the state’s fastest-growing area. Over the previous 10 years, Deschutes County residents have deepened a median of 29 wells per 12 months. Final 12 months, that shot as much as 60, and to date this 12 months the issue is worse. In the meantime, improvement is booming, with greater than 1,100 new wells drilled since 2020 alone.
State regulators have lengthy taken a timid method to safeguarding groundwater for home wells, which aren’t regulated like bigger business or agricultural makes use of. Individuals who complain about dry house wells are sometimes instructed that the one recourse in state legislation is to maintain digging deeper.
Aiken Properly Drilling operators bore a home effectively at a brand new rural house website about ten miles east of Bend, Ore., July 5, 2022.
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
Even within the higher Deschutes, some of the regulated river basins within the state, lawmakers and officers have targeted on appeasing reasonably than reigning in rich builders who’re allowed to purchase groundwater rights in a single place after which extract that water from miles away, the place aquifer ranges are dropping at alarming charges.
The groundwater issues within the dry, excessive desert of the higher Deschutes aren’t a shock. Greater than a decade in the past, state and federal scientists charted the pattern and predicted it will proceed.
Nonetheless, Burdick can see the mud rising from development on a luxurious improvement a mile or so down the highway from her house.
Public land surrounds the Thornburgh vacation spot resort website in Central Oregon’s Deschutes County, the place a development is underway amid authorized challenges to the challenge’s water rights.
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
Over time, the plans for the almost 2,000-acre Thornburgh resort have included three golf programs, non-public lakes, greater than 400 in a single day lodging items and almost 1,000 single-family properties. Deschutes County officers accepted that land use regardless of staunch public opposition.
A lot of the pushback stems from how a lot water the greened oasis would require. And since all water in Oregon is publicly owned, a state company regulates how and the place it’s used.
In 2013, regulators initially agreed Thornburgh could be allowed to pump as much as almost 6 million gallons per day from wells. Yearly, the resort might take as a lot water as the town of Prineville, inhabitants 10,000, reported utilizing final 12 months. Below this allow, as much as a 3rd of Thornburgh’s water might go to golf programs.
However when development didn’t occur in a five-year interval, that opened the resort’s water allow as much as a authorized problem. And so much has modified since 2013. The state is learning extra of the crises it’s created by approving too many wells, and officers are grappling with plan for local weather change and inhabitants progress. In response to these modifications, water regulators have promised to be extra cautious about groundwater.
Caught on this shift, Thornburgh developer Kameron DeLashmutt has been pursuing a special technique for getting water — shopping for and transferring tens of millions of {dollars} value of current water rights from elsewhere within the basin, to the resort.
“I’ve super quantities of water rights,” he stated. “We’ve got water safe.”
DeLashmutt stated he’s within the technique of scaling again the water footprint, calling Thornburgh “probably the most environmentally pleasant, most ecological challenge that’s ever been constructed within the West.”
Plans for the Thornburgh resort through the years have included three golf programs, non-public lakes, greater than 400 in a single day lodging items and almost 1,000 single household properties on almost 2,000-acres.
MacGregor Campbell / OPB
One of many water rights DeLashmutt hopes to maneuver to the location begins on a historic tree farm simply outdoors Bend metropolis limits, greater than 13 miles from Thornburgh.
The tree farm grew to become a subdivision of multi-million greenback properties round 2016. Its builders carved 50 tons onto greater than 500 acres, changing many of the land into parks.
Throughout development, the town of Bend’s water utility absorbed the brand new subdivision, aptly referred to as The Tree Farm.
However as Bend’s service space grew, the town didn’t get dibs on the property’s groundwater provide. As an alternative, the water proper went up for public sale, and the town was outbid.
The Tree Farm developer, Brooks Assets, solicited sealed gives in 2020. (Editor’s notice: Brooks Assets, in addition to its board chairman Mike Hollern, are monetary supporters of OPB.)
“As a developer, this isn’t new for us,” stated the corporate’s President and CEO Kirk Schueler.
A whole lot of land in Central Oregon has been added to municipal programs, he stated, leaving water rights to be offered individually.
On this case, Bend’s bid of $225,000 wasn’t sufficient. Schueler declined to share the profitable determine or particulars in regards to the consumers.
State information present two entities are within the technique of divvying up parts of the Tree Farm’s water proper. One in all them, KC Improvement Group, hopes to make groundwater the centerpiece of “Central Oregon’s solely non-public water ski group,” in line with its advertising web site.
Pumping would fill two lakes, one in every of them the size of six soccer fields, positioned about 3.5 miles away from the unique Tree Farm effectively.
A privately owned water ski lake on the Tanager subdivision close to Bend has sparked years of lawsuits between neighbors, and an ongoing authorized problem towards state regulators who accepted transferring a groundwater proper for the lake in 2021.
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
The opposite purchaser is DeLashmutt’s firm, Pinnacle Utilities, which seeks to maneuver a lower of the water proper to Thornburgh’s website briefly, and pump as much as 30,000 gallons a day for the subsequent 5 years of development on the resort.
Via the Tree Farm’s public sale, each Thornburgh and the non-public water ski lake acquired approvals, with regulators noting in a single evaluation that below Oregon legislation, groundwater rights are moved to new places with out contemplating what’s within the public curiosity.
Close to the place Thornburgh lies, the water stage in monitored wells has been shrinking greater than a foot per 12 months for many years, state knowledge present.
“The declines are beginning to turn into important,” Oregon Water Assets Division Deputy Director Doug Woodcock stated. “And it’s not going away.”
From the Bend space, northward to Redmond and Lake Billy Chinook, state hydrogeologists have stated local weather modifications and pumping by people are driving as a lot as 90% of the downturn. The piping of irrigation canals is believed to play a smaller function in some areas.
It might take a long time or longer for rain and snow falling within the Cascade mountains to seep underground and circulation right down to aquifers in valleys, in line with U.S. Geological Survey Analysis Hydrologist Stephen Gingerich. Research have lengthy proven how this slow-moving groundwater system is intimately linked to springs and rivers gushing on the floor.
The Deschutes basin is the one place in Oregon the place particular guidelines require individuals who drill new municipal, industrial, or irrigation wells to mitigate their impacts on streams, often by shopping for water rights elsewhere and retiring them. This 20-year-old mitigation program additionally caps the whole quantity of recent groundwater rights the state can approve, fueling a scorching market for individuals who can afford to purchase into the area’s restricted provide.
However the laws haven’t stabilized water ranges underground.
Finally, in line with a 2021 state memo, the declines will catch as much as a few of the area’s iconic spring-fed floor waters — just like the Deschutes and Crooked rivers.
The Higher Deschutes River close to Bull Bend outdoors La Pine, Ore.
Brandon Swanson / OPB
The memo set off alarms that in some areas inside 5 to 10 years the aquifer might meet the authorized definition of “excessively declined,” a benchmark that will push regulators to impose cutbacks.
These warning indicators are in a area the place increasingly individuals are transferring. Deschutes County’s inhabitants spiked greater than 25% during the last decade. Statewide, regulators are promising to impose stricter guidelines on new groundwater improvement, probably as early as subsequent 12 months.
There are indicators Oregon could also be altering course on how freely individuals can pump, after mismanagement has created crises in rural communities, like Harney County in Japanese Oregon. However even there, the place an excessive amount of pumping threatens fundamental survival wants, regulators haven’t reined in current water rights or stopped individuals from transferring water rights to extract groundwater in areas the place wells are going dry.
A former OWRD planner, Concord Burright, not too long ago instructed state auditors that the company’s method has left many Harney County residents “utterly jaded by any makes an attempt to have their voice heard within the water rights switch course of,” and that “the general public course of is basically damaged.”
In fast-growing Central Oregon, Thornburgh could also be a testing floor for a way far regulators are keen to go to right a permissive previous, and the way they may reply to rich pursuits that search to exert political strain.
Not too long ago, the Oregon Water Assets Division had denied a number of functions for Thornburgh to drill wells, calling them “detrimental to the general public curiosity,” and saying “water will possible not be obtainable throughout the capability of the useful resource.”
However regulators modified their minds when Thornburgh scooped up the Tree Farm water rights.
When a neighbor to Thornburgh sued the state to dam the switch, DeLashmutt stated in an interview his improvement was being victimized by the “ongoing weaponization of water legislation by the challenge’s opponents.”
He argued that the resort wouldn’t hurt neighboring wells, in line with consultants it employed in 2005.
“There’s a fantastic massive bucket down there, and we’re taking a cup out of it,” he stated.
However due to the issues, Delashmutt stated in an electronic mail that he’s promising Thornburgh can pay to “tackle and proper effectively points it induced,” inside a two-mile radius of the location.
Advanced procedural maneuvering is nothing new for one in every of Thornburgh’s staunchest opponents, Nunzie Gould. She lives just a few miles from the location and has been diligently opposing its numerous land and water permits since 2004.
“We might all simply hold drilling our wells deeper, however that’s not an answer to how we handle water right here,” Gould stated.
Her protest is at present stalling Thornburgh’s 2013 allow, and she or he’s the plaintiff blocking the Tree Farm water proper sale, for now.
“It’s not about me. It’s about how we steward our public assets,” she stated.
On a blistering June day, Gould hiked across the public lands bordering the development website, speaking about native historical past, and what occurred right here earlier than Oregon’s water belonged to the general public.
Nunzie Gould has lengthy been an lively opponent of plans for the Thornburgh vacation spot resort in Deschutes County. “Ecologically, it isn’t sustainable,” she says. “Wells are going dry.”
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
“This land was speculated to be settled, however water by no means got here,” Gould stated, taking shade below a juniper tree, and pointing towards a maze of dry ditches that date again greater than a century.
She sees these relics as a warning of her present battle towards Thornburgh.
Within the early 1900s, non-public builders lured white settlers to this space by promoting issues like “free water,” and an “immense water provide.” A developer named William Laidlaw promised his firm would divert a stream to construct an enormous canal system and switch the excessive desert inexperienced. This irrigation challenge could be “top-of-the-line within the West,” in line with a 1907 advert within the Bend Bulletin.
However whilst Laidlaw and his shareholders turned giant income from consumers, the corporate delivered only a fraction of the promised water. It continued to promote extra land for improvement.
The battle finally fueled a political motion to guard “the little individuals,” in line with historian Martin Winch. It set the backdrop as Oregon lawmakers handed the state’s water code in 1909, codifying water as a public useful resource for the primary time.
As for Laidlaw’s swindle, these taken in by it had been so upset they reportedly hung effigies of the developer — twice — and so they modified the identify of the city he platted from Laidlaw, to Tumalo.
“There’s lengthy been a promise of water as a advertising instrument for settlement and improvement right here,” Gould stated.
“One of many key variations between then and now could be the extraction of groundwater.”
Gould research a map of Thornburgh which is being constructed close to her house, June 22, 2022. She has spent almost twenty years opposing the plan. “It isn’t about me,” she says. “It is about how we steward our public assets.”
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
Confronted with Gould’s newest authorized roadblocks, Thornburgh’s legal professionals acquired extra inventive. This 12 months, they recruited seven state lawmakers to again DeLashmutt’s trigger.
In Could, the legal professionals proposed a deal, one that will leverage the developer’s portfolio of senior water rights towards state officers’ eagerness to assist determined farmers.
Thornburgh legal professional Janet Neuman despatched a Could 16 letter to the director of the state Water Assets Division, Tom Byler, and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown with a proposal to get round Gould’s lawsuit.
“The aim of this letter is to recommend an extra motive for lifting the keep, one which has substantial public profit, whereby DeLashmutt and Pinnacle Utilities are keen to permit tens of millions of {dollars} of water rights they personal, for use by drought-stricken farmers freed from cost,” Neuman wrote.
The supply appeared to tie the resort’s controversial groundwater battle to an uncommon commerce: a one-time donation of unrelated floor water rights to assist farmers going through spoil about 40 miles away from the resort, in Jefferson County’s North Unit Irrigation District.
The resort’s lobbyist, Rocky Dallum, approached quite a few state lawmakers in regards to the concept. The Legislature controls the Oregon Water Useful resource Division’s finances, and the governor appoints its director, who serves at her pleasure.
“Hopefully you’d be keen to speak with OWRD, the Governor (who’s at present in search of methods to assist farmers in drought) and others,” Dallum wrote to a number of lawmakers concerned in water policymaking.
On Could 26, 5 representatives and two senators despatched Byler and Brown a letter of their very own. It advocated for water swaps as a option to relieve drought-stricken areas and lists only one particular case quantity: Thornburgh’s.
“It has come to our consideration {that a} proposal has been made on a short lived water proper switch,” the letter states. “Measures equivalent to this proposal have the potential to unlock important volumes of water,” the lawmakers continued, saying they “stand able to assist water sharing that may assist hold farmers in enterprise throughout extreme drought.”
The primary draft originated with a Democrat from Washington County, Rep. Ken Helm.
In a uncommon show of bipartisan settlement, it was co-signed by 5 Republicans and one different Democrat, together with Republican minority chief Vicki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, Rep. Daniel Bonham, R–The Dalles, Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, and Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend.
Kropf later backpedaled and distanced himself from the letter. Owens and Helm defended it, denying it was primarily based on supplies supplied by Thornburgh’s lobbyist on Could 16.
“We noticed a possibility to get the water assets division to attempt to understand, ‘How can we be extra versatile in water administration?’” Owens stated.
Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, on the Home Chamber flooring on the Oregon State Capitol in 2021 in Salem, Ore.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
The water division didn’t reply to the lawmakers’ letter, in line with Byler.
“We perceive it to be an acknowledgment of the extreme drought challenges within the basin and an encouragement to seek out modern options, not a request for a response ” the OWRD director stated in an announcement.
Solely after these legislators championed Thornburgh’s proposal as a mannequin for voluntary water-sharing did a serious drawback turn into apparent: The farmers who would supposedly profit had been the final to know.
Farmers within the North Unit Irrigation District promote much more crops than anyplace else in Central Oregon. The water for these crops comes piped and channeled from the higher Deschutes Basin. In truth, about 90% of all of the water individuals use on this basin will get diverted via a sequence of reservoirs and canals serving eight irrigation districts.
When dry occasions hit, North Unit farmers are the primary to lose entry to this water resulting from their junior water rights. Nonprofits and state and federal lawmakers have lengthy been brokering agreements to make it extra palatable for irrigation districts with senior rights to share — together with public funding for greater than $125 million in infrastructure tasks since 2017.
However DeLashmutt’s supply of free water didn’t sit effectively with North Unit’s government supervisor Mike Britton.
He stated the particulars reached him second hand, solely after lawmakers took a place. He questioned the logistics of the supply and the motive.
“I believe [Thornburgh] might be utilizing North Unit as a pawn within the course of,” Britton instructed OPB a number of weeks after the proposal surfaced.
“Anyone discovered that North Unit is in a dire state of affairs, and individuals are grabbing at the whole lot they’ll to avoid wasting their livelihoods and be capable of farm,” he stated.
A wheel line irrigation system crosses a discipline in Jefferson County, close to Madras, Ore., in Could 2022. Years of water shortages have challenged farmers within the North Unit Irrigation District.
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
DeLashmutt denied any try at a quid professional quo with state officers.
“I suppose you can attempt to flip me into a nasty man, however given the details, I’ve acquired water, it’s value some huge cash and I’m keen to let individuals that basically want it, use it,” he stated.
On June 27, greater than a month after lawmakers grew to become concerned, Thornburgh lobbyist Dallum assured Britton in an electronic mail that the resort “is just not in search of compensation, consideration or any place on the event.”
At this level, the irrigation district signaled it will settle for a one-time water donation, with some caveats.
“We’ve made it clear we would like no affiliation with Thornburgh,” Britton stated in an electronic mail.
He was additionally uncertain the state’s administrative course of would transfer quick sufficient to see any further water this summer season, which marks a 3rd consecutive 12 months of extreme drought.
North Unit Farmer Cate Havstad-Casad sees Thornburgh as emblematic of deeper injustices embedded in state water legislation, and the laws implementing it.
Her household grows natural crops and raises animals close to Madras. This season they’re anticipating a 75% discount within the quantity of water their properties are entitled to on paper.
“We sincerely hope that there’s some widespread sense that’s going to take a look at the inequitable distribution of water, and work to redistribute it,” Havstad-Casad stated.
She testified earlier than lawmakers final 12 months, pleading for reforms.
Cate Havstad-Casad holds frozen meat produced by her household farm in Jefferson County. After years of specializing in natural greens, water shortages are driving Havstad-Casad and her husband to make a expensive shift to grazing and meat manufacturing, she stated. Could 11, 2022.
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
Like Oregon, many Western states use a system for dividing up water referred to as prior appropriation. Individuals who management the oldest water rights get their share first when provides are scarce. It doesn’t matter if somebody is utilizing the water to develop meals, keep a personal water ski lake, or construct a golf course resort.
“The message that it sends is it doesn’t matter if farmers disappear,” Havstad-Casad stated.
Even illicit hashish grows are thought-about a “useful use” by Oregon water regulators, as long as the property they’re on has a legitimate water proper for irrigation. To irrigate, state officers stated, means merely to use water to advertise progress.
Oregon’s high water managers have steadily blamed outdated legal guidelines for the implications of mismanagement.
However some authorized consultants argue state regulators have extra energy than they’re keen to make use of.
College of Oregon legislation professor Adell Amos previously served as a federal land and water assets legal professional for the U.S. Division of the Inside. She stated present state legal guidelines go away a number of discretion with the state company.
“It’s not that the legislation is ideal,” she stated. “However there’s a number of unexercised authority there to deal with these points within the face of local weather change.”
For example, regulators do have to contemplate public advantages once they take a look at functions to maneuver or change floor water rights. However when builders wish to transfer a groundwater proper, like what Thornburgh and the water ski lake house owners are doing, it doesn’t set off the identical kind of evaluation.
Profession water managers in Oregon have the facility to deliver groundwater proper strikes extra inline with how the state treats floor water, in line with Amos.
“The highway is de facto broad,” she stated. “It’s a must to politically select the place you wish to be on that highway.”
Two turkeys observe North Unit Irrigation District farmer Cate Havstad-Casad round at her household’s farm close to Madras on Could 11, 2022.
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
General, she stated, there’s unresolved stress in how Oregon officers interpret the legislation to steadiness a public water provide towards non-public property rights.
“It makes us a straightforward goal,” she stated. “If you happen to’re a strong curiosity that wishes to denationalise water and pump groundwater, why wouldn’t you choose a state the place that is all muddled?”
With regards to making certain rural residents have entry to groundwater for his or her properties, the burden is more and more falling to taxpayers.
This summer season, the state started funneling greater than $5.5 million to sure householders with failing wells.
“We get a number of calls a day about dry wells,” stated John Cox, the lending director on the Central Oregon group help group NeighborImpact. “It’s simply unprecedented.”
Final 12 months, Cox stated the nonprofit serving three counties made loans to switch 18 wells for low-income households, at a complete price of greater than $400,000.
Aiken Properly Drilling’s Neil Fagen is splattered with moist sand as he works to construct a home effectively east of Bend, Ore., July 5, 2022.
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
This 12 months, an infusion of state grants are anticipated to go additional, however with every effectively challenge averaging a price of $23,000, Cox predicted the cash “will probably be gone very quickly.” And there’s no certainty the Legislature will reauthorize the funding in 2023.
In July, water regulators shot down one other one in every of Thornburgh’s requests for wells.
DeLashmutt has stated he’s assured that he’ll be capable of get the water he needs.
And the resort is poised to develop. DeLashmutt is within the technique of making an attempt to purchase 400 acres of state property contained in the resort’s current footprint, with the Oregon State Land Board anticipated to take up the difficulty once more in August.
Burdick, the house owner whose effectively went dry a couple of mile away, is anxious.
The primary time she paid to drill deeper, the water that got here again up wasn’t the identical high quality as earlier than. It flowed darkish yellow from the faucet, she stated.
Susan Burdick exhibits an image of what her faucet water regarded like after she paid to construct a brand new effectively at her house in Deschutes County, Oregon in August 2020. Months later, she paid to drill deeper with a purpose to enhance the water high quality. July 1, 2022.
Emily Cureton Prepare dinner / OPB
She needed to pay extra to maintain drilling. And now, she stated, she will be able to’t afford one other spherical. She lives with a severe sickness and makes ends meet on a set revenue. She’s skeptical of the developer’s guarantees to pay to deepen peoples’ wells.
“I simply don’t know the way lengthy it’s gonna take for my straw to not be lengthy sufficient,” she stated. “Thornburgh has the cash to run the longest straw of any of us.”
She described herself as a conservative, somebody who often votes for Republicans and who strongly helps non-public property rights.
However, she stated, there must be limits: “You’ll be able to’t simply hold sucking water out of the bottom and let all people else lose.”
A rebound basket with 3.5 seconds left in overtime allowed Santa Clara to escape with an 82-81 overtime win over Oregon State in men’s basketball Thursday night.
The Beavers, looking for their first road win of the season and their third since 2021, just missed when Tyeree Bryan’s tip-in with 3.5 seconds left was the difference.
Oregon State, leading 81-78, had two chances to rescue the win.
Adama Bal, fouled while shooting a three-pointer with 10 seconds remaining, made his first two free throws but missed the third. But Bal outfought OSU for the rebound, then kicked the ball out to Christoph Tilly, whose three-point shot glanced off the rim. Bryan then knifed between two Beaver rebounders, collecting the ball with his right hand and tipping it off the backboard and into the basket.
OSU (12-5, 2-2 WCC) came up short on a half-court shot at the buzzer.
The loss spoiled what was a 12-point second-half comeback for Oregon State, which led by as many as four points in overtime.
Parsa Fallah led the Beavers with 24 points and seven rebounds. Michael Rataj had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Isaiah Sy scored 12 points and Damarco Minor 11.
Elijah Maji scored 21 points for Santa Clara (11-6, 3-1), which has won eight of its last nine games.
The game was tied at 32-32 at halftime following a first half where OSU trailed by as many as 12 points. Fallah and Minor combined to score the final eight points as OSU finished the half on a 10-2 run.
The game began to get away from the Beavers again as Santa Clara built a 60-48 lead with 9:43 remaining. Sy got OSU going with a three-pointer, as the Beavers whittled away at the deficit. OSU eventually grabbed the lead at 67-65 with 5:19 left on another three by Sy. It was a defensive brawl for the rest of regulation, as neither team scored during the final 1:58.
Oregon State never trailed in overtime until the final three seconds. A Sy three with 1:29 left gave the Beavers a four-point cushion. After the Broncos later cut the lead to one, Fallah’s layup with 17 seconds left put OSU up 81-78.
Oregon State returns to action Saturday when the Beavers complete their two-game road trip at Pacific. Game time is 7 p.m.
–Nick Daschel can be reached at 360-607-4824, ndaschel@oregonian.com or @nickdaschel.
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Cal Mukumoto answers to the Oregon Board of Forestry, a citizen board appointed by the governor that helps oversee and implement forest policy. His resignation was announced Thursday during a board meeting by Chair Jim Kelly.Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Oregon State Forester Cal Mukumoto has resigned.
Mukumoto’s resignation was announced Thursday by Board of Forestry Chair Jim Kelly during a meeting of the board. Mukumoto answers to the board, a citizen panel appointed by the governor that helps oversee and implement forest policy.
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Children are a top priority for the moms in the Legislature and a big reason why many of them are there.
Take Emerson Levy, a renewable energy attorney in Bend. When she ran for the Legislature for the first time in 2020, she was motivated by her 4-year-old daughter, June. A self-described policy nerd, she wanted to support good policies in Salem, particularly those to protect children.
“I felt this huge obligation to my young daughter,” Levy told the Capital Chronicle.
Levy lost in 2020, but she won in 2022 and now she’s headed back to Salem after winning a second term representing the Bend-based 53th District. She is among several mothers in the Legislature, both Democrat and Republican, who juggle the demands of raising children while representing their communities in Salem. Some even have other jobs as well.
Serving in the Legislature is supposed to be a part time job, with 35-day sessions in even-numbered years and 160-day sessions the others, but the work spills into the rest of the year.
“The Legislature may be part time, but our constituents are not part time,” said state Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, a mother of four who represents Corvallis in Salem. “Nobody has part-time constituents.”
Being a legislator in Oregon has become a full-time job, with jam-packed “legislative days” in Salem outside sessions to discuss policies and hear from state officials, experts and Oregonians. Lawmakers also serve on task forces and spend time leading up to sessions working on policies. And they need to be available to constituents, to listen and respond to their needs.
Being a mom is also a full-time role. Balancing both is challenging and time-consuming and the legislative job is not well paid.
But Oregon’s legislator moms are passionate about their roles and fighting for issues that impact Oregon kids the most.
Levy said her daughter drives her policy work and one of her top priorities is school safety.
Her first year in the Oregon House, she championed funding for silent panic alarms that directly call 911 if there is a school shooting. That provision was passed last year as part of House Bill 5014 on school funding. It included $2.5 million for these alarms, which helped avert even more bloodshed at a September shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. The provision is a “funded non-mandate,” which means school districts decide whether to install them.
“Then we can learn from them before we bring it fully statewide,” Levy said.
Levy, who’s a Democrat, has also backed bills to improve health insurance, which can be costly for families and others. Levy and Gelser Blouin, also a Democrat, along with Republican Rep. Cyrus Javadi of Tillamook, sponsored the Co-pay Fairness Bill this year to ensure that insurance companies consider financial assistance from pharmaceutical manufacturers towards patient deductibles. The bill, House Bill 4113, unanimously passed the Oregon House and Senate last March.
In states that haven’t passed such legislation, so-called “copay accumulators” do not count towards deductibles, leaving some patients with extremely high medical bills.
“Co-pay accumulators are one of the cruelest programs I’ve ever encountered,” Levy said.
They especially impact people with rare diseases like hemophilia or lupus, who often don’t have a generic drug option. The bill, which was signed by Gov. Tina Kotek, banned the programs on Jan. 1.
Navigating health care bureaucracy is something Levy has personal experience with because her adult brother has Down Syndrome.
“Being June’s mom and being the sister of a disabled brother informs everything I do,” Levy said.
Education is also a big focus for moms in the Legislature.
“Kids are the future,” said Rep. Emily McIntire, an Eagle Point Republican who represents the 56th House District in Jackson County. “And setting up a firm foundation for our children is going to help us exponentially in the long run.”
She is serving on the House education and higher education committees and is a member of the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education, putting her in a good position to support school spending. An example: She backed a $10.4 billion increase in 2023 to the State School Fund, which funds the state’s secondary schools.
McIntire, whose children are now 16 and 22, is also in legislative leadership, serving as the House Republican assistant leader. McIntire said she was on the Eagle Point school board when local Republicans asked members if they would run to represent the district in the Legislature. She said she felt a calling, ran and won and is now serving her second term on the board while being elected to a second legislative term.
“Everything I look at is through a lens of what’s best for kids,” she said.
Gelser Blouin is also passionate about education. Her oldest son, who has a rare developmental disability called Koolen-de Vries syndrome, is a big influence on her work. She has worked on bills on special education and focused on behavioral health, especially for children with disabilities.
Her Senate Bill 1557, which passed in last year’s session, makes it easier for children with severe emotional or behavioral disturbances to access Medicaid funds to provide extra support at school and at home.
“These kids have really complex needs. They’re struggling to stay at home with their families. They might be struggling to stay in school. Maybe they have a mental illness or have had contact with the juvenile justice system. Right now, many of these families know that they need help before that big crisis happens,” Gelser Blouin said.
Her bill passed both chambers in 2024 with no opposition, and she plans to introduce a related bill in this year’s session.
She said she believes that understanding the issues from the perspective of being a mom is vital.
Representative Annessa Hartman, D-Gladstone, who has two daughters who are almost 11 and 13, agrees.
“I’m constantly thinking about how [each decision] will impact them in their future,” Hartman said.
Hartman works for the Native American Youth and Family Center, a Portland-based nonprofit that supports the Indigenous community, and belongs to the Snipe Clan of the Cayuga Nation, which is part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy based in New York. Her background has a major influence on her work. In crafting policies, she considers the “Seventh Generation Principle” of considering the impact of a decision on future generations.
“That’s embedded in my personal beliefs and teachings,” she said.
Her focus in the Legislature has been on championing issues around domestic violence and sexual assault, two issues that have had a severe effect on indigenous women in particular.
At home, Hartman often asks her girls what they think about what they’re seeing in school — whether it’s poor handwriting or behavioral issues. She said their insight helps shape better policy.
“When I’m sharing that perspective, whether it’s my own caucus or committee, I say, ‘This is what my kids are seeing.’ It’s a powerful tool,” she said.
McIntire also consults with her children on policy matters.
“When I’m home on the weekend and I have a house full of teenage boys, I’ll ask, ‘What do you guys think of this or of that?’” she said.
Commuting to Salem adds hours to the workday of mom legislators — and other lawmakers. Gelser Blouin has a 45-minute drive from Corvallis to Salem, and she did that every day when her children were young.
As for Levy, she spends 2.5 hours driving from Bend to Salem, while McIntire drives 3.5 hours one way from Eagle Point. Like most lawmakers, they rent apartments in Salem during the session.
Levy said she wouldn’t be a representative if it weren’t for her husband, Sean Levy, who is the general council for St. Charles Health System and manages all the school pick-ups and drop-offs.
“And dinner!” Levy said.
A former stay-at-home-mom, McIntire also relies on her husband for support. When she first joined the House in 2022, she struggled to stay in contact with her kids, who were then 12 and 19.
“The hours of session are so overwhelming,” she said. “I don’t know that I would have been able to do this if my kids were younger.”
Gelser Blouin, who had three under the age of five when she entered the Oregon Senate in 2005, said she paid friends and relied on family for child care. This was especially necessary as her kids entered middle and high school, when they needed to be driven to after-school activities, she said. Gelser Blouin said she focused on quality time with her kids when she was home in the evenings and weekends.
Gelser Blouin also brought her kids to the Capitol. Her son, Sam, has always loved movies and movie production, so she brought him to legislative days when lawmakers discussed a film and video tax credit. Levy and Hartman helped organize a “Kids Caucus” during spring break last year, an idea that came from Hartman’s daughter, Marley, then 12. The event, organized in part by Hartman and Levy, was for all the children of lawmakers so they could meet one another and be on the floor while their parents were working.
Some children of lawmakers follow a similar path, and many are civically engaged.
Gelser Blouin said all four of her kids are voters and are involved in community activities. Her 24-year-old daughter Nicole is even pursuing a career in politics: She currently works as U.S. Representative Val Hoyle’s legislative aide in Washington D.C.
“That’s the job she’s wanted since middle school!” Gelser-Blouin proudly said.
Though Levy’s daughter, June, is still young at age 9 now, she seems poised to be a politician — or maybe a political strategist. June wisely noted during her mother’s reelection campaign that “it’s gonna be harder this time.” That turned out to be true, with Levy facing a more aggressive campaign with her opponent running negative ads.
June is also Levy’s toughest critic.
“Anytime she sees trash on the street or people that need housing, it’s absolutely my fault,” Levy said. “I should be working harder.”
Moms in the Legislature and others say that one of the downfalls of being a legislator in Oregon is the low pay: $43,434 in 2025. That’s not enough to support a family.
“There’s no way you could raise four kids on one legislator’s salary,” Gelser Blouin said.
Two years ago, three female legislators — two of them moms — quit because of the pay. At the time, their salaries were $33,000 a year.
Lawmakers set their salaries and are reluctant to boost them too much out of concerns that voters might consider that self-serving. So legislators referred a measure to November’s ballot to create an independent committee to set the salaries of legislators and other statewide officials but voters opposed that.
McIntire believes the low salary limits the type of person who can serve.
“If you want it to be a citizens’ Legislature, then you should be able to have all citizens able to do it,” McIntire said.
Others, including Sen. Gelser Blouin, agreed.
“Most of us that are in elected positions in state government make less than the staff that reports to us,” Gelser Blouin said.
But the moms have made their jobs work, thanks to help from their husbands and others. And they said the difficulty in trying to make the world better for their children is worth it.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
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