♪ [music] ♪
- [Craig] Water is part of our everyday life in Central Oregon.
Hey, thanks.
In fact, we all rely on water for the food we eat,
for our wildlife, for our local economy, and our electricity.
Across the country and around the world, water is one of the most important
resources that we have. But with so many people, animals, businesses,
cities, habitats all relying on this precious resource, when one group doesn’t
use it responsibly that could lead to big problems for everyone.
But hey, this is Oregon. Always raining, plenty of water, right?
Oh, right. This is Central Oregon. The high desert, and deserts are,
well, dry which makes our water supply even more important to use responsibly.
So who’s using water here in Central Oregon? And what are we doing to make sure
there’s enough water for everyone, including you and me?
We all rely on farmers for our food, and farmers rely on water.
Water for irrigation is managed by dams. So it can be stored when it’s not needed,
then released when farming season is underway. It’s released from the river to
irrigation canals, and then right to the farm and their irrigation systems.
It may sound simple, but it’s not. Hey, hey, wait up.
- [Kevin] Without irrigation you can’t grow much Central Oregon.
It’s just too dry of a climate, but with the irrigation, agriculture can be a
really productive lifestyle.
Water is our most valuable resource on the farm without question,
and so we minimize any sort of waste and conserve water in any way we can.
On our farm, all of our carrots are drip irrigated, which saves us about 50% of
water compared to overhead sprinklers or overhead pivots.
- And he can control and monitor that irrigation from his computer or even his
cell phone. That’s pretty cool. Farmers have to figure out just how much water
they need while still leaving enough water in the river for all the other users.
Tourism is the single largest industry in Central Oregon. So it’s no secret that a
lot of folks come here to play.
- [Ted] Thousands of jobs in Central Oregon are created because visitors come
here to play on our water. Tourism brings in over $1 billion for an economy.
- A billion dollars?
- And so we need enough water flowing to make sure everyone can kayak,
raft, stay on a paddle board, golf, and fish. It’s important to have enough water
flow for folks to be able to do all the things that they love to do when they come
to Central Oregon. We also have to make sure that when we use the water for
recreation, we have to take care of it.
- Take care of the river?
- We need to keep the trash out of the river because it takes a lot more than
river flow to keep our river healthy.
- [Doctor] I’m afraid it’s not looking good.
You are experiencing anhydration, exsiccation...
- Wait, how? What does that mean?
- Oh, it means that you’re dehydrated.
- Oh, okay.
Okay, so I’m not actually sick, but did you know that just like people,
rivers can be really sick or even be considered dead.
Just like your doctor monitors your health, there are all sorts of
scientists who keep an eye on our rivers.
- [Jen] Well, rivers carry water and life to the ecosystem because all organisms
depend on water for life. So it’s very similar to the veins and the arteries in
the body which are carrying blood to organs in the body keeping it alive.
- [Jason] The water is the fundamental building block of life on our landscape.
It’s what all ecosystems need, it’s what all people need.
- So just add water? Oh.
- It’s not quite that easy. That’s a good start, but there’s other things as well.
Just by looking to see if the pieces of the ecosystem are there.
Are the bugs there? Are the fish there? Are the birds there?
Are the amphibians there? And when we see all the pieces of the ecosystem there,
we know we’re making progress.
- But before the scientists, the kayakers, the farming irrigation systems,
and definitely before middle school even existed, it was local tribal members who
used the water and kept it healthy.
- [Wilson] In the Warm Springs language, they say [foreign language],
"the water is sacred," and that’s the way it is to all the tribes around the world.
As people that share this Earth, it’s our responsibility as stewards of this land to
take care of our finite resources.
- Water isn’t just part of their culture. It’s also part of their everyday life.
- We have many different kind of roots that we still gather. We have a lot of
berries that we gather that come from the land. We also have a pantry of medicines,
medicinal knowledge that we’ve never forgotten, that come from the land,
and we wouldn’t have those things if wasn’t for the water.
- So there you have it. We all rely on water and have to use it responsibly for
our whole system to work. And if one person doesn’t use it responsibly,
well, that can lead to big problems for everyone.
Oh shoot, I forgot someone.
- [Patrick] I’m Patrick Griffiths. I’m the water resources manager
for the city of Bend.
That’s a mouthful.
Municipality employees like Patrick have to get the waters from the rivers
to thousands of homes, businesses, and buildings here in Central Oregon,
and it’s up to us to use that water responsibly.
- [Together] Hey!
- The largest use of water in a typical residential home is outdoor water for
landscapes. A typical lawn needs 30 inches of rain every year,
and the transformation of your old water- hog landscapes to more native landscapes
use less water and less maintenance.
- But don’t stop there. We can make changes inside our homes as well.
An old toilet can use up to six gallons of water per flush, six gallons.
And showers use two gallons of water per minute, which means every second counts.
- [Woman] Hey!
- So there you have it. Here in Central Oregon there’s a lot of people
and wildlife that rely on water and we all play important roles in using our water
responsibly so our river system stays healthy.
So what can you do?