office interior design halifax
♪ [music] ♪ - [craig] water is part of oureveryday life in central oregon. hey, thanks. in fact, we all rely on waterfor the food we eat, for our wildlife, for our localeconomy, and our electricity. across the country and around the world,water is one of the most important resources that we have. but with so manypeople, animals, businesses, cities, habitats all relying on thisprecious resource, when one group doesn’t use it responsibly that couldlead to big problems for everyone.
but hey, this is oregon. alwaysraining, plenty of water, right? oh, right. this is central oregon.the high desert, and deserts are, well, dry which makes our water supplyeven more important to use responsibly. so who’s using water here in centraloregon? and what are we doing to make sure there’s enough water for everyone,including you and me? we all rely on farmers for our food,and farmers rely on water. water for irrigation is managed by dams.so it can be stored when it’s not needed, then released when farming season isunderway. it’s released from the river to irrigation canals, and then right to thefarm and their irrigation systems.
it may sound simple, but it’s not.hey, hey, wait up. - [kevin] without irrigation you can’tgrow much central oregon. it’s just too dry of a climate, but withthe irrigation, agriculture can be a really productive lifestyle. water is our most valuable resourceon the farm without question, and so we minimize any sort of waste andconserve water in any way we can. on our farm, all of our carrots are dripirrigated, which saves us about 50% of water compared to overheadsprinklers or overhead pivots. - and he can control and monitor thatirrigation from his computer or even his
cell phone. that’s pretty cool. farmershave to figure out just how much water they need while still leaving enough waterin the river for all the other users. tourism is the single largest industry incentral oregon. so it’s no secret that a lot of folks come here to play. - [ted] thousands of jobs in centraloregon are created because visitors come here to play on our water. tourism bringsin over $1 billion for an economy. - a billion dollars? - and so we need enough water flowing tomake sure everyone can kayak, raft, stay on a paddle board, golf, andfish. it’s important to have enough water
flow for folks to be able to do all thethings that they love to do when they come to central oregon. we also have to makesure that when we use the water for recreation, we have to take care of it. - take care of the river? - we need to keep the trash out of theriver because it takes a lot more than river flow to keep our river healthy. - [doctor] i’m afraid it’snot looking good. you are experiencinganhydration, exsiccation... - wait, how? what does that mean?
- oh, it means that you’re dehydrated. - oh, okay. okay, so i’m not actually sick, butdid you know that just like people, rivers can be really sick oreven be considered dead. just like your doctor monitorsyour health, there are all sorts of scientists who keep an eye on our rivers. - [jen] well, rivers carry water and lifeto the ecosystem because all organisms depend on water for life. so it’s verysimilar to the veins and the arteries in the body which are carrying blood toorgans in the body keeping it alive.
- [jason] the water is the fundamentalbuilding block of life on our landscape. it’s what all ecosystems need,it’s what all people need. - so just add water? oh. - it’s not quite that easy. that’s a goodstart, but there’s other things as well. just by looking to see if the pieces ofthe ecosystem are there. are the bugs there? are thefish there? are the birds there? are the amphibians there? and when wesee all the pieces of the ecosystem there, we know we’re making progress. - but before the scientists, the kayakers,the farming irrigation systems,
and definitely before middle school evenexisted, it was local tribal members who used the water and kept it healthy. - [wilson] in the warm springs language,they say [foreign language], "the water is sacred," and that’s the wayit is to all the tribes around the world. as people that share this earth, it’s ourresponsibility as stewards of this land to take care of our finite resources. - water isn’t just part of their culture.it’s also part of their everyday life. - we have many different kind of rootsthat we still gather. we have a lot of berries that we gather that come from theland. we also have a pantry of medicines,
medicinal knowledge that we’ve neverforgotten, that come from the land, and we wouldn’t have those things ifwasn’t for the water. - so there you have it. we all rely onwater and have to use it responsibly for our whole system to work. and if oneperson doesn’t use it responsibly, well, that can lead tobig problems for everyone. oh shoot, i forgot someone. - [patrick] i’m patrick griffiths.i’m the water resources manager for the city of bend. that’s a mouthful.
municipality employees like patrickhave to get the waters from the rivers to thousands of homes, businesses,and buildings here in central oregon, and it’s up to us to usethat water responsibly. - [together] hey! - the largest use of water in a typicalresidential home is outdoor water for landscapes. a typical lawn needs30 inches of rain every year, and the transformation of your old water-hog landscapes to more native landscapes use less water and less maintenance. - but don’t stop there. we can makechanges inside our homes as well.
an old toilet can use up to six gallons ofwater per flush, six gallons. and showers use two gallons of water perminute, which means every second counts. - [woman] hey! - so there you have it. here in centraloregon there’s a lot of people and wildlife that rely on water and we allplay important roles in using our water responsibly so our riversystem stays healthy. so what can you do?
