FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 23, 2025
For information, please contact:
Tommy Hough, tommy@waterwatch.org
Kimberley Priestley, kjp@waterwatch.org
WaterWatch Applauds Governor Kotek’s Directive to Accelerate Climate Protections for State Lands and Waters
Citing rivers, lakes, and wetlands, an executive order issued by the governor directs state agencies to prioritize application of climate resilient strategies into existing programs.
Salem, Oregon — Governor Tina Kotek issued an executive order today that directs state agencies to ensure increased adoption of climate resilient strategies into state programs to better safeguard natural resources, and ensure landscapes throughout the state remain adaptable to environmental changes, including ongoing impacts from climate change. WaterWatch of Oregon applauds the governor for this bold move at a critical moment for environmental protection in the United States.
Specifically, the order calls for greater conservation of natural lands and waters as “resilience anchors” against climate change, encourages the state to demonstrate greater environmental leadership and stewardship “by example” on state-owned and managed lands and waters, foster increased community resilience to protect Oregonians from climate-related threats, and to protect, conserve, connect, or restore 10 percent of Oregon’s lands and waters within 10 years.
According to WaterWatch senior policy analyst Kimberley Priestley, “The governor’s directive sets a clear goalpost for agencies, legislators, and communities to work together to restore and protect lands and rivers that are so important to Oregon’s landscapes, ecosystems, and cultures.”
The executive order sets Oregon up to better address climate change by recognizing the state’s arrival at an “inflection point as changing climate and ocean conditions impact Oregon’s landscapes, waters, communities, and local economies with increased temperatures, warming surface waters, changing precipitation patterns, reduced snowpack, hotter and drier summers, sea-level rise, diminishing water supplies, habitat constraints to iconic species, and more frequent and damaging wildfires and extreme weather events.”
“We commend Governor Kotek for including river protection, restoration, and connectivity in her executive order,” said Priestley. “Climate change is inextricably linked to freshwater resources, and this executive order sets important benchmarks for Oregon as we work for a sustainable water future.”
A full text of the governor’s executive order can be found here.
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For 40 years, WaterWatch of Oregon has been committed to a single, clear mission: To protect and restore flows in Oregon’s rivers and waterways to sustain the native fish, wildlife, and people that depend on them. WaterWatch of Oregon was the first organization in the West to seek structural reform of antiquated water laws to protect and restore our rivers, and facilitated passage of Oregon’s landmark Instream Water Rights Act in 1987.