Russ Rhoden has two pictures that he likes to show visitors to his Prineville office. The first is an aerial photo taken sometime in the first half of the 20th century and shows much of Prineville submerged under spring flood waters, the rooftops poking up like little tar paper islands. The other shot is a more recent photo of the upper Crooked River, or more precisely the bed of the upper Crooked River since there isn’t a drop of water in the frame. It’s a somewhat rare but well-documented occurrence that happens when there isn’t enough snow and rain to recharge the river through the hot summer months. The former manager of the Prineville-based Ochoco Irrigation District, Rhoden has spent the last two decades thinking about snow pack, dam releases and river diversions. And if anybody is qualified to talk about the Crooked River’s fickle temperament, it’s Rhoden.

It’s possible to live in Bend and never set foot on the Central Oregon Community College campus. The college sits on the far west side of the city, closer to the National Forest than downtown. Perched atop one of the city’s steepest inclines in an area that gets little through traffic, it’s nearly invisible to most of the community. In a way, it can be a world unto itself – a place where more than 9,000 students are enrolled and a few thousand more are taking enrichment courses.

For years, the city of Bend staff has garnered accolades for its drinking water quality, its water conservation efforts and ecosystem restoration initiatives. But a much-publicized project to revamp the city’s aging surface water delivery system has put all aspects of the city’s water management strategy under the microscope. Critics are pushing the city to reconsider a recent decision to pursue a $73-million upgrade of its Bridge Creek surface system and say the city has underestimated the costs of continuing to divert millions of gallons per day from Tumalo Creek while ignoring the potential for a large-scale surface water restoration project in the basin by returning some or all of its surface water rights to Tumalo Creek. There, it would benefit fish and wildlife and help boost flows in the middle Deschutes River.

THE LAND PRESERVATION RUSH

This was the year that several landowners and would-be developers opted for preservation instead of planned unit developments, cashing in on soon-to-expire capital gains tax breaks in the process. They found willing buyers in Central Oregon where thousands of urban and rural acres were set aside for public use. Perhaps the most visible of the properties was the so-called Miller’s Landing parcel, which was acquired by the Trust for Public Land in partnership with the Bend Metro Parks. The roughly six-acre property, which is located just downstream from the Colorado Avenue bridge, is one of the few remaining undeveloped parcels along the Deschutes. It wasn’t the only blockbuster land deal for the park district, which also managed to acquire 122 acres of riverfront property between Archie Briggs Road and Tumalo State Park. Both properties became available after proposed development projects were stymied by the housing bust.