WaterWatch of Oregon's Perspective on Spotted Frog Litigation

Earlier this week, a federal judge denied the injunction to modify water flow at Central Oregon reservoirs for the Oregon spotted frog. For years a group of Central Oregon Farmers, conservation groups and government agencies have been working on a Habitat Conservation Plan for the Oregon Spotted Frog.

 

One of the organizations that sat around the table working towards that plan was the Portland-based environmental group WaterWatch of Oregon. Communications Director Jim McCarthy explains why his group decided to pursue litigation rather than continue in the collaborative process.

 

McCarthy: “We went in there in good faith. Through the course of the process, we were forced to make the conclusion that we were not — the process was being used to delay change rather than instead of a process to achieve change. This court case will hopefully change that dynamic. That is how we see the situation. Again, when people talk about the HCP process and they don’t talk about the details — it sounds fine. When you talk about again what happen in there providing conservation management for spotted frogs and but then blowing off frog meeting after frog meeting. It is going to give people the impression that you not are in the process not to make changes you are in the process to delay changes. That is the conclusion that we came to as people on the inside. And we hope this process will be speed things up. The most likely scenario is that this is going to come to a settlement. It will be a negotiated settlement and we are going to move forward in a positive direction.”