Nile Basin Study Tour: Managing Columbia Waters: Local Level Perspectives
Monroe & Corvallis, Oregon, USA
April 30, 2004
See the press release on this event

Read more on the Nile Basin Initiative
 

The Nile Basin Initiative, a program that promotes economic development in the basin and brings together stakeholders and experts to explore issues of water use, power, trade and environmental programs, collaborated with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to bring water and power ministers from eight Nile Basin countries on a tour of the Columbia River Basin.  The Universities Partnership hosted one day of the tour, highlighting multiple levels of decision making by focusing on two different spatial scales within the Willamette Sub-Basin.  To emphasize management issues at a local level, the Ministers were given a tour of the Raindance Ranch, owned by a private landowners, and located on Muddy Creek, a tributary of the Willamette Sub-basin, where water quality and habitat restoration programs were underway.

At the ranch water practitioners for the state of Oregon were invited to discuss various provincial level initiatives and incentives supporting water cooperation, as well as discussing legal frameworks and regional issues of conflict.

Short talks were given, linking local, state and federal initiatives.  Oregon Water Resources Department Senior Policy Coordinator Adam Sussman gave a presentation about Oregon's system of water governance and working through water conflict in Oregon.  He was followed by Ken Bierly, the  Deputy Director of the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB), who spoke about The Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, a state program which provides incentives for private landowners to support water quality.  Steven P. Smith of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge finished this section of the day with a presentation about meeting international treaty agreements for wildlife habitat.  The morning was concluded with a presentation by the owner of the ranch, Laurie Halsey, concerning activities undertaken at Raindance Ranch for different endangered species and overall landscape improvements for water quality.

In the afternoon the participants returned to Oregon State University and met with OSU President Ed Ray and the Dean of the College of Science, Sherm Bloomer.  John Shurts, General Counsel for Northwest Power and Conservation Council, discussed building higher level cooperation between the four US states which share the lower Columbia and the Canadian states that surround the upper reaches, as well as working with the two federal level administrations concerning power and fish, and habitat, protection along the length of this international river.


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