The Oregon Legislative Session will start tomorrow, Monday January 12.

So far CWO has been unable to obtain a copy of the river rights bill that the State Land Board and Senator Allan Bates have said will be coming.

On December 16, CWO asked folks to write letters requesting a copy of the bill. The generic responses that were received have had no follow up since then.

Heather -

We have submitted a bill request to the Legislative Counsel’s office that will address public river rights. However, we have not yet gotten a draft bill back from LC to pass on to you. We are tracking all of the requests for the draft that we receive and when we have a public draft to pass on to you, we will do so. Thank you for your time and attention to this important issue.

Erin Fair
Policy Adviser
Senator Alan Bates, D.O.
District 3
503.986.1703

At that time we had asked you to write to Senator Allan Bates and Senator Jason Atkinson. As far as we know at CWO, no one has had any further follow up on this matter. Now,  it’s time to let your own senator and representative know that you care about this and that you want to be involved.

Please take a minute to send an e-mail to your own legislators.  Ask them to include you in the information about any river rights bill.  Ask them to feel free to call you, or contact you, to get your opinion on the importance of river rights.  Ask them to make sure that you’re notified of any committee meetings on this issue so that you can be as involved as possible.

Get your legislators’ e-mail CLICK HERE

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Senator/Representative               :

I’m one of your constituents.  I understand that a bill is being created that will change public river rights.  As a person that believes in the immense value of public river rights, I would like to make sure I can get a copy of that bill so I can be as involved as possible on this issue.

I want to make sure that we don’t lose our valuable river rights.  Oregonians had to fight to get their beaches made public.  We currently have strong river rights, although enforcement has been poor.  I want to make sure that we keep Oregon’s rivers forever free.  They are an important legacy for future generations, they are economically important to many small business and communities, and public rivers are a way of life here.   Public river and river rights are important to me.

Times are tough, but giving up our public ownership and rights will not improve our economy.  Giving up our river rights in fact could hurt many small businesses that provide services to tourists and Oregonians that boat and fish and love our rivers.  No one would dream of giving up the beaches right now… why would we give up the rivers?

Please make sure to send me a copy of the bill as soon as possible.  Also please let me know of any committee meetings or public testimony needed on this matter.  If you have any questions about why I care about this, please get in touch.  I want to be involved in protecting our river rights.   Please contact me on this as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

PHONE: XXX-XXX-XXX

e-mail:

Addresss:

Please post your responses from legislators here in the comments. Feel free to remove your personal contact information from the response when you post.

Get them informed.   Let them know that you care.

KEEP OREGON RIVERS FOREVER FREE!