Gov. Tina Kotek on Friday declared drought emergencies in two Oregon counties, the first such declarations by the governor in 2025. <\/p>\n
Baker County, abutting Idaho in eastern Oregon, and Lincoln County, on the coast, saw drought conditions as early as May, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. <\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s declarations will allow the two counties to access exceptional drought-related assistance from the state, such as emergency water-use permits and water transfers, according to the Oregon Water Resources Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Oregon Drought Readiness Council, which makes recommendations to the governor, reviews the status of water conditions in counties that request an emergency declaration, according to Curtis Peetz, response planner for the Oregon Department of Emergency Management.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to say there\u2019s a drought in the community that\u2019s visible,\u201d Peetz said. \u201c(The Drought Readiness Council) is really trying to understand: What are the impacts, and based on those impacts, why is it that the county needs that declaration for those emergency authorities that then the Oregon Water Resources Department can provide?\u201d<\/p>\n Due to a wet winter in much of the state, no Oregon county made a drought-emergency request in the spring, with Baker County\u2019s in June being the first this year. <\/p>\n Drought metrics by the U.S. Drought Monitor<\/a> \u2013 a collaboration of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln \u2013 show that long-term drought conditions are now persistent in Baker County, with below-normal precipitation and above-normal temperatures and streamflow, as well as dry soil-moisture conditions. Water-supply conditions and precipitation levels are not expected to improve in the short term.<\/p>\n In Lincoln County, there has officially been a severe drought since June 17. Drought metrics show that drought conditions have been present in the county over the last three to six months, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. <\/p>\n Drought is likely to have a significant economic impact on the farm, ranch, recreation, tourism and natural resources sectors. It also impacts drinking water, fish and wildlife. <\/p>\n Extreme conditions hurt local growers and livestock, increase the potential for wildfire and decrease water supplies. Oregon\u2019s wildfire season has already proven to be destructive<\/a>, officials said. <\/p>\n Last year, Gov. Kotek issued four drought declarations \u2013 in Jefferson, Lake, Wallowa and Harney counties \u2013 between June and November. <\/p>\n \u2014Kimberly Cortez covers breaking news, public safety and more for The Oregonian\/OregonLive. She can be reached at kcortez@oregonian.com<\/a><\/p>\n Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com\/subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Tina Kotek on Friday declared drought emergencies in two Oregon counties, the first such declarations by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[3294,192,3295,3296,3297,79],"class_list":["post-2773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-draining-oregon","tag-environment","tag-fifteenmile","tag-over-pumping","tag-pivots","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}