Planting Carrots in the Harney Valley
After two years of working the ground, the seeds of a “carrot” approach to reducing groundwater use were planted on the evening of May 20, 2021 in the Harney Valley. With broad support from the Harney Basin Community-Based Water Planning Collaborative for the development of a Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) to focus on incentive payments for groundwater irrigators to give up their water rights, the community showed their support for an incentive approach to reducing groundwater use in the basin. The Collaborative, by a consensus decision, supported the State of Oregon going forward to further develop a Harney Valley Groundwater CREP for submittal to the Farm Service Agency in Washington D.C. While this “carrot” approach is just at the seeding stage, there are many steps to go before any rabbit has food.
The CREP program will be developed outside the collaborative process and may be considered, at a later date, to be a part of the community-based integrated water management plan. The development of this incentive is an effort to provide agricultural producers time to change from irrigated production to dryland production over a 15-year period.
With community support, the program will be presented to the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board in July to seek consideration for non-federal funding match and to the Oregon Legislature for funding for technical assistance and additional non-federal funding support. If the seeds take at those levels, a proposal will be submitted to the Washington D.C. office of the Farm Service Agency for consideration and review. Once all comments on the proposal are resolved, the program and an implementation agreement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the State of Oregon is negotiated, an Environmental Assessment has been completed and reviewed, the program can be implemented. It is clear that there is a long path between the seeds that were planted the evening of May 20, 2021 and the potential for carrots in the stew, but the opportunity to develop an incentive to reduce groundwater use is a locally preferred approach to the “stick” of regulation.
All growers recognized that planting seeds is a risky business. But the faith of farmers that they can produce a crop by hard work and taking care to see the seeds have the best chance to grow provides the hope for a more predictable future during unpredictable times. Future posts will follow the seeds of this program to see if weeding is necessary, crop failure is imminent, or harvest is near.
