Our Origins

In the late 1970s a pioneering group of Rogue River Basin anglers set out to restore streams for salmon and steelhead. What began as an effort to improve conditions for fish with shovels, logs, boulders and plantings sparked a movement that changed water law and river conservation across Oregon and the West.

As they worked together, these visionary anglers recognized that without water flowing instream all of their labor would come to naught. But across Oregon, more water often flowed in irrigation canals than in adjacent streams. One angler, Tom Simmons, began to investigate. Almost immediately, he met Audrey Jackson, a long-time Oregon activist on water issues.

Tom and Audrey joined forces and quickly learned Oregon gave away new rights to use water — a public resource — for free, without considering the impacts on our rivers or fish through processes dominated by agricultural, municipal, and industrial interests. They also learned that many waterways across Oregon were literally being sucked dry.

The situation was not unique to Oregon. Across the West, rivers ran dry under antiquated water laws that failed to meaningfully consider the needs of rivers, fish, wildlife, or the public interest in water. To address the dramatic imbalance between private and public uses of water, Tom and Audrey founded WaterWatch of Oregon in 1985.

Rivers need water