The Future of the American West Is in Central Oregon
Water is scarce and may be for years to come. But there are ways of managing it so that there is enough to go around.
A waterfall south of Bend. It used to be a lot bigger.
Photographer: George Rose/Getty Images North AmericaCentral Oregon is not the Pacific Northwest. The landscape bears little resemblance to the green and piney coast; there are no rainforests. The region looks more like dusty Nevada. In Portland, on the west side of the Cascade range, it rains three feet per year. On the east side, in Bend, annual rainfall is about one foot, slightly less than the historical average for Los Angeles. This year, like last, water is particularly scarce. Almost two-thirds of the state is in drought.
Central Oregon is part of the American West, what John Wesley Powell called the “arid region” of the US. Historically parched, warped by the occasional deluge, the West is experiencing a drought that may be the worst in 1,200 years. On the August days when I visited irrigation districts near Bend, the fast-growing seat of Deschutes County, the temperature peaked at about 100 degrees. The air had a monotonous consistency, as though any capacity for variation had been sucked dry along with the last vestige of moisture.