Over a century of bad water management under archaic water laws left Oregon’s rivers high and dry in 2026. While WaterWatch is working in the legislature, courts, and other forums to correct this imbalance, the drought situation facing our rivers — while receding as we move further into autumn — remains dire.

Climate change is making historic water woes worse. Low snowpack, warming temperatures, radicalized weather patterns, and shifting hydrology are exacerbating long-standing challenges in Oregon’s over-tapped rivers. Climate change is also increasing incidents of drought, as we saw in the wake of this past winter’s record-low snowpack.

Low streamflows and warm water conditions already make it difficult, if not impossible, for cold water species like trout, salmon, and steelhead to survive the hot summer months. Without water in our rivers, streams, and wetlands, habitat, and food sources for birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and insects become severely compromised and even more scarce. With the increasing likelihood of drought conditions across Oregon in the years ahead, protection of Oregon’s aquatic habitats is not only essential to our state’s fish and wildlife, but for the people, cultures, and river-related economies that depend upon healthy river ecosystems.

Salmon photo courtesy of Mark Hereford / ODFW; Governor Kotek photo courtesy of the Oregon National Guard; Oregon state capitol photo courtesy of Jim Choate; McKenzie River rapids, Snow Lake runoff, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, and microphone photos by Tommy Hough; Oregon Badlands Wilderness photo courtesy of Greg Shine / BLM; Rogue River photo courtesy of Jesse Lance Robbins; Deschutes County well head and well maintenance photos courtesy of Mike Sargetakis / Crag Law Center; Clackamas River 2015 fish kill photo by Lisa Brown; low Middle Fork Willamette River photo licensed through Adobe stock images.