West Coast Water Resilience: 6 Farm Case Studies, 2024
TL;DR: Six Pacific Northwest farms demonstrate low-cost strategies to build water resilience against climate unpredictability and drought.
- Farms adapted resource-efficient strategies for water unpredictability.
- Initiative supports small-scale and underserved producers.
- Farmer-led processes and tools documented in a Water Resilience Toolkit.
- Strategies include dry farming integration and site-specific innovations.
- Real-world applications promote community adoption and replication.
Why it matters: These case studies offer practical, tested solutions for farmers facing water scarcity, particularly those with limited resources or water rights.
Do this next: Explore the Water Resilience Toolkit for adaptable, low-cost strategies to enhance water security on your farm.
Recommended for: Farmers, community garden managers, and agricultural policymakers interested in scalable, low-cost water resilience strategies.
This collection of case studies from the Dry Farming Institute documents water-resilient strategies across six Pacific Northwest farms in 2024, building on a decade of Oregon dry farming work. Participating farms include Oregon State University’s Dry Farming Program (Corvallis), Kasama Farm at Headwaters Incubator Farm (Gresham), Outback Farm at Western Washington University (Bellingham), Tel-tvm’ Siletz Tribal Farm (Logsden), Raptor Creek Farm (Grants Pass), and University of Washington Farm (Seattle). Each tailored low-cost, resource-efficient approaches to climate-driven water unpredictability, drought, and policy shifts, particularly for small-scale and underserved producers lacking funding or water rights. The studies share farmer-led processes, tools, and lessons, culminating in a Water Resilience Toolkit—a flexible guide for adaptation. Emphasizing ingenuity, it covers site-specific innovations like dry farming integration, making strategies accessible for replication. This initiative promotes broader community adoption through documented real-world applications, highlighting practical steps from planning to implementation. Farmers developed methods out of necessity, providing high-value, tested solutions for water-scarce regions.