Tumalo Irrigation District (TID) is an irrigation district in Central Oregon (https://www.tumalo.org). It owns or has conditional title to lands in the area around Tumalo. It has rights of way to deliver water to its customers.  fTWC’s Area of Concern (AoC) includes the parcels in and around the Reservoir as set out in the TID website. A snapshot of that page is HERE. TID’s mission is set out on the Governance section of their website:

Tumalo Irrigation District’s mission is to manage water resources to meet present and future needs of its patrons in ways that are economically and environmentally responsible.

History: The history of the TID and its progenitors is long and complicated. Those wishing to delve into it are encouraged to read “The Thirsty Land” by Martin Winch as published in 6 installments in the Oregon Historical Quarterly beginning in the Winter of 1984. A slideshow history of Bull Flat which is very much entangled in the history of the water project can be found at the Desert Land Trust website: (https://www.slideshare.net/DesLandTrust/19131914-tumalo-project). The TID website has relevant history at https://www.tumalo.org/files/6680b4398/TumaloReservoirnowandinthefuturev3.pdf. Links to “BLM_Map.pdf” and “TumaloReservoirLands.pdf” are broken as of this writing.

Here are a few datapoints relevant to that history:

• In March of 1959, the Deschutes County Municipal Improvement District changed its name to the Tumalo Irrigation District. Click HERE.
• In September of 1988, the State of Oregon quitclaimed approximately 930 acres to TID. This is the current reach of the TID lands around the reservoir and includes the Bull Flat area. Click HERE.
• In September of 1988, at a Special Board Meeting subsequent to acquiring the deed to the 930 acres referenced above, the board passed a motion to “close the Tumalo Reservoir and surrounding lands from public access, and to make the area a wildlife sanctuary”. The motion included a stipulation that a vote of 75% of the water users would be needed before any changes could be made to this motion. Click HERE.
• In May of 2008, the State of Oregon acting through the OWRD quitclaimed two parcels to TID. These parcels were subsequently reclaimed by the BLM in a letter to OWRD in 2021. Click HERE.
• In 2010, two more parcels were quitclaimed by the State of Oregon to TID. Like the two parcels quitclaimed in 2008, this appears to also be an error. Documentation showing ownership of these parcels has been submitted to BLM and is found HERE.

Excerpts from the TID website narrative referenced above include:

“In the 25 years since, the District has tightened the boundaries of the actual closed area to just the property surrounding the reservoir itself, and it has not actively posted the northern half of the property closed to the public. This decision is also not without controversy but it is a compromise, allowing other uses on the District property.”

fTWC Comments: Limiting the “posting” of the property to the immediate area around the reservoir did indeed allow “other uses” on the District property to include hazardous material dumping, carcass dumping, destruction of threatened species, trapping, off road vehicle use, automatic weapon fire into private property and BLM property where it is prohibited. I believe it is reasonable to require TID to explicitly state it’s intention regarding closure of the lands to the public noted above especially since A. Peckii is found on its lands. Is TID liable for prosecution under 603-073-0003 for their management of the A. Peckii habitat?

The discussion of A. Peckii, the threatened species in question is HERE. A letter describing a 2014 study of A. Peckii on TID property addressed to the Board of Directors of TID is HERE. Of interest is Oregon State Administrative Rule 603-073 (click HERE). Subsection 0003 is reproduced below:

603-073-0003 

Prohibitions 

(1) Willful or negligent cutting, digging, trimming, picking, removing, mutilating, or in any manner injuring, or subsequently selling, transporting, or offering for sale any plant, flower, shrub, bush, fruit, or other vegetation growing on the right of way of any public highway within this state, within 500 feet of the center of any public highway, upon any public lands, or upon any privately owned lands is prohibited without the written permission of the owner or authorized agent of the owner. 

In turning the property over to the District in 1988, 1989 and 2010, the State placed this restriction on the deeds. 

“Provided that said property is held in public ownership and used as a Winter-feeding area for wildlife satisfactory to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. When said property is no longer owned by Tumalo Irrigation District, or another public body, or is no longer used for a public purpose including use as a Winter-feeding area for wildlife satisfactory to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife then Grantor may reenter and terminate the interest of the Grantee or Grantees assigns.” 

fTWC Comments: The author of this page spoke with an ODFW official subsequent to a Freedom of Information Act request asking for ODFW’s involvement in this provision. My understanding now is that ODFW was not involved in the drafting of this provision, no definition of “Winter-feeding area for wildlife” has been discussed, no document has been produced to specify what conditions TID needs to meet in order to maintain their title and no implementation plan produced. In other words, enforcing this provision would be subject to substantial litigation should ODFW decide that the “Winter-feeding” provision has been breached.

The Piping Project:

An Executive Summary – System Improvement Plan of 2017 (HERE) (TID-SIP2017FinalWeb.R.Correctedpdf-1.pdf – LinkIn) is a 15 page summary of the TID piping project  The Link to the piping documentation on the TID website is here: https://www.tumalo.org/tid-piping-faq-s. An excerpt from that FAQ section follows:

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A graphic on the piping layout is HERE. Placed side by side with Figure 1-1 from a draft of the TID Irrigation Modernization Project of 4/2018 (HERE), Group 4 is most closely related to BLM holdings in the AoC as shown below.

BLM has indicated that they do not plan to do a Travel Plan for the TNA until the piping project is completed which if the above quote from the TID website is to be believed, is unknown since the Couch Lateral is not funded. The Funding Schedule on Page xxviii of the above modernization plan pushes completion out to 2028. The implications pertain to BLM’s Travel Planning (Click HERE)