Wyden Reintroduces Legislation to Improve Watershed Resilience and Health

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today reintroduced legislation that would improve the restoration of watersheds – the land and waters that supply our communities with drinking and irrigation water and provide habitat and recreation opportunities – across Oregon and nationwide.

 

“With this year’s scorching hot summer right around the bend, it is more important than ever to improve watersheds so our communities have clean drinking water, fertile soil, outdoor recreation, productive fisheries, and other basic essentials,” Wyden said. “This bill would use cost-efficient tools backed by science to restore the health of our waterways so they are safe and resilient for generations of Oregonians and Americans nationwide to enjoy.” 

 

Watersheds are made up of rivers and streams, farms and rangeland, forests and developed towns and cities, with restoration opportunities varying dramatically from acre to acre. Wyden’s Watershed Results Act would use the best scientific and data analysis to identify the most effective areas, where watershed restoration work would generate the greatest environmental results at the best value for taxpayers. The Interior Department would pilot this fresh approach in several watersheds across the country, addressing environmental, economic and public health concerns. 

 

“Farmers play a critical role in ensuring the resiliency of our watersheds. We are supportive of this legislation because it encourages collaboration among all those funding and working with and on behalf of water. Collaboration and innovation are both desperately needed if we are going to ensure that our freshwater resources can support the future of farming,” said Dan Keppen, Executive Director of Family Farm Alliance.   

 

“Right now, too many hurdles stand in the way of getting obvious conservation solutions on the ground. This innovative bill—which uses technology to prioritize where we invest, coordinates across all the fragmented funding to get the best projects done fast, and vastly streamlines transactions—makes it a great fit for the moment, and provides a scalable model for getting real outcomes for taxpayer dollars,” said Joe Whitworth, President & CEO of The Freshwater Trust. 

 

“We commend Senator Wyden for his introduction of this legislation. With recurring drought, it is important that we have a broad array of tools that help to rapidly increase agricultural resilience and environmental benefits throughout the West. These pilot watershed efforts would allow us to better understand how we can all collaborate to improve resiliency in our watersheds,” said  Julie O’Shea, Executive Director, Farmers Conservation Alliance.

 

“The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund works with farmers and outcome beneficiaries across ten states to improve water quality and climate resiliency. The proposed Watershed Results Act supports an outcome-based approach to water quality improvement and, if passed, would represent a transformative approach in how the Federal Government funds environmental outcomes by providing cost-effective delivery of conservation dollars to areas providing the highest benefit,” said Adam Kiel, Managing Director of Soil and Water Outcomes Fund and Executive Vice President of AgOutcomes. 

 

“The Irrigation Innovation Consortium conducts research and develops grounded solutions for water management. In addition to equipping stakeholders with new knowledge and tools, we address financial, practical, and technological barriers to adopting innovative practices. By merging powerful technology, a coordinated funding approach, and streamlined delivery of funds to agricultural producers, the Watershed Results Act will demonstrate a new pathway forward to achieve beneficial economic and environmental outcomes. We support this legislation, and we encourage other organizations to do the same,” said Timothy Martin, Executive Director of Irrigation Innovation Consortium

“At Quantified Ventures, we scale up investable, outcomes-based solutions for good. The WRA would help organize and streamline federal funds in a way that makes it much easier to access and use private capital to get watershed solutions to an entirely new scale. We applaud the innovation and hope others will support the bill too," said Tee Thomas, CEO of Quantified Ventures.

“Two of the most important ways to make national environmental programs more effective are captured in Senator Wyden’s legislation: a focus on quantified environmental outcomes, and permission for federal agencies to use pay for success contracts to buy them. The Watershed Results Act puts in place the right incentives for America’s restoration experts and scientists to do their most effective and creative work for freshwater," said Timothy Male, Executive Director of Environmental Policy Innovation Center.

 

The Watershed Results Act was successfully reported out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the previous Congress. 

 

The text of the bill is here. 

 

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