Here’s how we manage soils and water quality here in the Tualatin Valley:
This isn’t some aberration, it’s the norm for Washington County farms. Gouged-out, sprayed-out ditches are the standard of treatment to keep the water flowing off roadsides and farm fields, simultaneously washing sediment and all manner of pesticides directly into waterways. Meanwhile, taxpayers spend tens of millions of dollars annually to protect soil and water, including $3.5-million in taxes and fees directly to the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District. Here is one of the taglines on the District’s web page:
“We use practical and innovative methods to keep waterways, soils, habitats, forests, farms—and our community—healthy.”
First of all, waterways, soils, habitats, forests and farms in this valley are anything but healthy, and it’s disingenuous and destructive to claim that they are. The evidence of the abysmal state of natural resources here is so plainly obvious, especially when we compare the ditches and barren farm fields of today with the precious few intact habitats that actually exist here. Here is what the Tualatin Valley used to look like:
This is as close to what the first settlers found upon their arrival here as exists anywhere in our valley. It’s a site that I restored and managed for 15 years, what Metro now calls Quamash Prairie. And it was just this kind of habitat that was ditched and drained 150 years ago to generate the landscape we now see in the first photo. Again, to normalize the first photo and suggest that this is in any way healthy is truly problematic.
The taxpayers of the Tualatin Valley have given money to the county, the District, Clean Water Services, Metro, and every city in the basin to clean up the water and protect the environment. But in the case of the District, here we are ten years and $35,000,000 down the road, and the first photo remains the norm. When we look at all of the agencies combined, it’s hundreds of millions of dollars spent. Water has not improved. Soils have not improved. And the county’s forests have been decimated.
The sad part is, there truly are “practical and innovative” ways to rapidly reverse the degradation and make this valley something special. Restoring healthy habitats and water can happen here, and can also make the economy of this valley stronger and better for the people that live and work here. But you taxpayers need to wake up and pay attention. Apparently you care enough to keep shoveling your hard-earned money at the government to clean up the mess. But if you don’t hold these agencies accountable to ACTUAL OUTCOMES, not just glowing self-reviews on their websites, then all you’re going to get are empty words, gouged out ditches and filthy water.
-George
Hi, George,
Long-time customer of your wonderful nursery here. I’ve been using your trees and shrubs to “re-wild” some exhausted acreage here in Washington County, near Gaston. Thank you for all you do.
Metro took one of these eroded ditches (similar to your first photo) near my house and did an amazing job rehabilitating it with native plants. The effects have been miraculous and the wildlife I have seen re-enter the area have been amazing. They call the site “Wapato View”. I agree with you – this should be the standard and our money should be spent wisely.
Do you have any suggests on where to start rehabbing my fields to look like the second photo? It’s beautiful.
Ian
Hi Ian
Great to hear that Metro has done some work on the ditches at Wapato View. There is good work happening, but the scale of this work is far far short of meaningful when we consider the enormous acreages and hundreds of miles of ditches and streams involved. Most of the money taxpayers have provided to restore natural resources has gone instead to building bureaucracies, websites and overly complex planning, paperwork and processes. The initial restoration work at Quamash cost about $5000 per acre in today’s dollars, including all of the plant materials, seed, farming, labor and my time putting it all together. Since 2006, over $200,000,000 of taxpayer money has been spent on restoration in the Tualatin Valley. This is a conservative figure, and doesn’t include CWS’s Healthy Streams program. At this rate, over the past 20 years, we could have easily restored 24,000 acres of these kinds of habitats, including the cost of land rental. We’re not even close.
It’s worth noting that the CWS Healthy Streams program has indeed consistently completed a lot of quality riparian work over this time period, but more could be done there as well.
As for next steps on your field, feel free to give me a call on the sales line (503-470-0420) and I’d be happy to discuss your project.
Thanks for buying our plants!
-George