Well, this wasn’t on my calendar for the week.
Over the years, I’ve attended a number of Soil & Water Conservation District meetings, and now that I’m back in The Dalles now that I’m back in The Dalles (after a couple of years in Seattle to be close to my elderly dad, who passed away in 2024), I’ve realized how much I want to reconnect with agricultural and conservation work happening here.
I’ve renewed my membership in Oregon Women for Agriculture, have my “No Farms, No Food” bumper sticker on the back of my vehicle, and am a member of the ASIS International Agriculture and Food Security Community, which brings together security professionals interested in resilience and protection of agriculture and our food systems.
This week I attended conservation district meetings in both Hood River and The Dalles, and came away more interested than ever in the remarkable range of work these districts help make possible: soil health and erosion control; irrigation and water conservation; stream and riparian restoration; forest health and wildfire resilience; fish and wildlife habitat; invasive species management; drought preparedness; agricultural conservation; watershed health; and connecting farmers, ranchers, and other landowners with technical expertise and funding for conservation projects.
What struck me again is how much important local work happens through institutions many people rarely think about.
So, I’m beginning a new chapter of showing up, learning, and sharing more of what I learn.
For those who followed this site during my 2022 State Senate campaign but don’t know all the pieces of my background, conservation work brings quite a few of them together.
I’ve taught biology, geology, and ecology, and during COVID taught agriculture online for Hood River County School District. I’ve worked for years in climate-change education, community resilience, nonprofit leadership, and public service. Today, through CompreSec, my work focuses on risk management, resilience, and protective planning — thinking in systems about what we value, what threatens it, and what practical steps we can take to protect it.
My connection to agriculture goes back much further. I spent part of my childhood in eastern Oregon and showed my 4-H goat at the Umatilla County Fair. I’ve lived and worked in different parts of rural Oregon and have a deep love for the people, working lands, and natural landscapes here.
I’m especially interested in the role conservation districts play as connectors: between landowners and technical assistance, between local needs and funding, between agriculture and habitat, between water and land use, and between long-term stewardship and practical projects on the ground.
I’ve updated MasonforOregon.com to reflect that interest, and I expect to use the site from time to time to share conservation programs, meetings, events, resources, and opportunities that may be useful or interesting to people in the community.
And here’s the part I hope more people will discover:
Our local Soil & Water Conservation Districts are worth getting to know.
You don’t need to be a farmer or rancher. You can attend a meeting, listen, learn, ask questions, and begin to understand the significant work happening without fanfare all around you.
If you’re in Wasco County, I’ll be sharing more about what I learn from the Wasco County Soil & Water Conservation District. If you live elsewhere, you almost certainly have a conservation district serving your area, too.
Here’s to stewarding the water and lands we love.
