WATER CLIMATE TRUST

Water For Nature Program: In 2023, we: a) advanced water allocation policies in Oregon and California, including successfully extending emergency instream flow requirements for three northern California rivers petitioning for permanent instream flow requirements for the Shasta River, advancing stronger groundwater protections in Oregon, and successfully appealing three falsified water right change petitions to keep more waters in streams; b) filed a legal protest of water right applications for Sites Reservoir construction with allies and engaged in quasi-judicial water right hearings opposing this threat to aquatic wildlife and evaluated and publicized the Dwinnell dams harms to the Shasta River; c) worked to ensure that public environmental water funding programs assess projects impact on instream flows and only fund those that either do no harm to flows or increase them; d) launched the Oregon Water Justice Alliance to enhance water justice communities capacity and collaboration with environmental and human right to water allies e) worked to ensure that California and Oregon agencies integrated instream flows into their racial equity, climate, and drought policies; and e) provided 7 customized water advocacy trainings to Native American, youth, and other stakeholder groups; gave verbal testimony at 15+ public hearings/meetings; submitted 12 technical comment letters on 6+ regulatory processes participated in 24 meetings with key water allocation and dam decisionmakers from 7 state and federal agencies; facilitated 100+ direct and 3500+ online stakeholder engagements in decisionmaking processes that impact their lives and environment, and educated thousands more via social media, our website, conference presentations, emails, and printed materials. Together, this work has slowed the decline of salmonid populations, prevented the premature death of thousands of salmon and steelhead, and laid the groundwork for fundamentally transforming how we allocate public trust waters to be more equitable for ecosystems and communities that depend on them for subsistence, culture, and mental enrichment.