The Hood River Soil & Water Conservation District (HRSWCD) is one of 45 conservation districts in Oregon established to promote and enhance our natural resources. The HRSWCD was incorporated on Sept. 30, 1953. The boundaries of the SWCD include all of the lands within the legal boundaries of Hood River County.
What does the SWCD do?
The HRSWCD helps landowners, managers, and residents identify, understand and correct or prevent threats to natural resources. To do so, the District helps landowners employ a wide variety of conservation techniques and management practices designed to protect, conserve, and enhance natural resources. Work is done entirely on a voluntary, non-regulatory basis. The HRSWCD has helped landowners obtain technical and financial assistance to implement many different kinds of projects including: installing efficient irrigation systems, fencing livestock out of water ways, planting native trees along streams, screening and piping irrigation canals, enhancing riparian habitat, improving fish passage, and identifying and treating invasive weeds. Contact us to find out how we can help you better manage your land for the conservation of natural resources.
How is the SWCD organized?
Conservation districts are defined by the Oregon Revised Statutes as political subdivisions of state government. The SWCD is not a state agency; it is classified as a form of local government, which is required to follow many of the same laws that govern state agencies.
The Hood River SWCD is governed by a locally elected, volunteer Board of Directors and encourages public participation in its meetings, activities, and business. The SWCD holds its regular monthly board meeting, which is open to the public, on the first Thursday of each month in the meeting room at the OSU Extension office. View our meeting schedule and feel free to join us any time.
Check our resources page for more information on our organizational structure and five-year plan for addressing some of the priority resource concerns for our area.