Fort Rock/Silver Lake SWCD

Additional work was accomplished on the 2020 Brattain Fire scar through two OWEB post fire grants that closed out at the end of the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Aerial and ground seeding on 4,897 acres, aerial and ground herbicide treatment on 3,785 acres, post fire dead tree thinning and piling on 521 acres, and two miles of livestock fencing on a very steep slope have all contributed to the abatement of erosion and sedimentation into the upper Chewaucan. 

An Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) funded monitoring effectiveness projects began in 2023 and will continue through 2026 to examine the effects of seeding and land treatments compared with natural revegetation of bunchgrasses. This project has the goal of cost-effective land treatment post fire. 

The district works in partnership with several irrigators in the Fort Rock/Christmas Valley are to assist with monitoring of irrigation water use. This data is being gathered to help find opportunities for efficiency upgrades.