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Panel highlights beavers, local projects and technology in push to retain water and ease drought impacts
Summary
Speakers at a Spokane forum said water conservation will rely on local partnerships, nature-based solutions such as beaver dams and targeted projects (an irrigation modernization in Pend Oreille County), plus household technologies that detect leaks and conserve water.
Amanda Parrish, executive director of the Lands Council, told attendees that beavers are ‘‘nature’s engineers’’ whose dams and wetlands help retain water on the landscape and bolster riparian trees. She described work with Gonzaga engineering students on beaver-dam analogs and policy measures to avoid lethal removal when beavers plug culverts.
Michael (director of policy and outreach, Kalispel Tribe Natural Resources Department) described a Pend Oreille County project to modernize a century-old irrigation system on Skookum Creek, serving 13 farms. He said the project will replace a head gate and add a fish screen to keep cold stream water available for native trout while improving irrigation efficiency; he estimated first-phase implementation would cost about $400,000 and begin next year.
Panelists praised local lawn-watering rules as an example of city-level conservation: Amanda said Spokane ties its watering schedule to Spokane River flows, asking residents to water on an every-other-day schedule when flows fall to habitat-risk thresholds. Todd Myers, Washington Policy Center vice president for research, argued the complexity of western water rights and price distortions make local decision-making important and noted new homeowner technologies that link to water meters to detect leaks and even shut off water remotely.
Audience questions probed major reservoirs as storage solutions. Panelists cautioned that reservoirs introduce sedimentation and fish-habitat tradeoffs and said better management and timing of existing reservoirs is often a more feasible near-term strategy than building new large dams. The panel encouraged multiple tools—beaver analogs, urban storage, reservoir timing and meter technology—tailored to local conditions.
The panel did not endorse a single statewide reform or new legislation during the event; it emphasized pilot projects, permit streamlining and local collaboration as pragmatic next steps.
