This year is shaping up to be a difficult one for farmers in southern Oregon. Producers at the California line have been told that they will only have access to a tiny percentage of water with the Klamath River Basin nearly dried up.
According to the Drought Monitor, conditions continue to deteriorate in western Oregon after a very dry April. In regards to the Klamath project, one non-profit says that this might actually be worse than the drought of 2001.
“I know people are going to see higher food costs and we’re going to see farms go out of business. Everybody wants to look at small family farms and know where their food comes from and that’s important. It’s also important to our community because the Klamath project is all small family farms,” Ben Duval with Klamath Water Users Association says.
Local producers will try to use groundwater where available and help each other out.
Related:
Drought concerns continue to linger
Forecast for spring: nasty drought worsens for much of us
California Farm Bureau on the states drought concerns