Oregon Water Trust

The Oregon Water Trust (OWT), now operating as The Freshwater Trust, is an environmental organization based in the U.S. state of Oregon. Its mission is to restore surface water flows for healthier streams in Oregon by using cooperative, free-market solutions. OWT was founded in 1993 by a group with diverse water interests who sought to utilize the "tools of the land trust movement...and apply the same approach to the acquisition of water". "With the success of OWT, water trusts have been created in Montana, Colorado, and Washington" with others emerging across the Western United States. Utilizing a transactional approach, the group focuses on streams where small amounts of water provide significant ecological benefits. The result is healthier streams for fish, wildlife, and people.

Oregon Water Trust targets efforts in those watersheds that have historically supported significant fisheries. Within each watershed, Oregon Water Trust identifies priority streams for which streamflow is a limiting factor for fish habitat and water quality and there is potential for acquiring water rights to convert to instream use to enhance flows. Oregon Water Trust concentrates acquisition efforts on small- to medium-sized tributaries that provide spawning and rearing for salmonids. In these systems, small amounts of water can provide significant ecological benefits.

Oregon Water Trust uses ecological, hydrologic and water rights data to identify priority streams and evaluate potential water right acquisitions. Analysis of streamflows and habitat conditions includes:

Oregon Water Trust compiles data on species present, their habitat needs and endangered species listing status; instream conditions (e.g., flow alteration, temperature, water quality); and relation of instream conditions to riparian, upslope and watershed conditions and activities.

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