Drought Preparedness Plan

The Okanogan Conservation District is working with various partners across Okanogan County to create a Local Drought Preparedness Plan (LDPP). This project gathers input from community members to understand local drought risks and impacts and help identify projects that can improve the resiliency of water resources for our communities.

This project is funded by the Washington State Department of Ecology.

We are seeking feedback from the community, please take the survey below!

General Community Survey!

Spanish Version

Purveyor Drought Survey

Drought in Okanogan County

Okanogan County is well into the third year in a row of a “declared drought emergency.” Even in years when an official declaration is not issued, the county is experiencing shorter and drier winters with decreasing snowpack and hotter summers. Current climate predictions forecast that Washington will experience snow drought for at least 40% of the winters between now and 2050.

Quick Links

2025 Planning Session Details

2025 Community Meetings

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Drought Resources

Contact Us

How will this plan be developed?

March 2025 - August 2026

August 2025 - Dec 2025

Dec 2025 -
Sept. 2026

Sept. 2026 -
Dec 2026

Community and Partner Engagement

This project aims to receive input from all Okanogan County communities. Community members are encouraged to share their experiences with drought, impacts of drought, and future risks associated with limited water resources and drought conditions at community meetings and through a feedback survey.

There are 6 community meetings planned for the summer of 2025 to occur throughout the county in
six focus areas of the:
Upper & Lower Methow,

Upper & Mid Okanogan, Columbia Basin subregions,
and the Colville Reservation.

Risk Analysis

Contracted partners compile research data, review existing literature, and complete a data risk analysis using local experience, knowledge, and feedback to provide a report of findings on drought impacts to water resource users and watersheds.

These findings will provide
up-to-date information and local expertise that will help categorize hardships by user group and degree of impact as they relate to historical, current, and future projections of water supply and demand.

Project Development

Data collected through community input, local knowledge and experience, partner expertise, and additional research will be key to the development of this plan and determining recommended projects for resiliency of our water resources to lead the direction for funding needs and local project implementation goals for 2026 and beyond.

This plan will be unique to Okanogan County and follow a collaborative engagement framework that defines roles and responsibilities of all entities involved.

Development of the LDPP

There isn't much information that currently exists around drought impacts and planning for drought emergency.

This document will describe risks and vulnerabilities that areas around Okanogan County are facing in regard
to water security, limited
water supply, and
additional hardships.

The result will be a summary
of findings related to each subregion's watershed conditions as well as recommendations for improvements and
resiliency projects.