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Home My WebLink About2021-08-31 M. Kellner-Rode - Email re Public Comment1 Chenelle Hale From:Boundless Farmstead <info@boundlessfarmstead.com> Sent:Tuesday, August 31, 2021 9:13 AM To:William Groves; CDD Planning Subject:Public comment regarding Remand Hearing for LUBA No, 2018-140 [EXTERNAL EMAIL] Dear Senior Planner William Groves and to whom it may concern, We at Boundless Farmstead, like many of our community members, are very concerned about water usage in Central Oregon. We are opposed to Deschutes County allowing any further development of Thornburgh Resort until the resort demonstrates it complies with the county code requirements for full mitigation of the effects on fish and wildlife. My name is Megan Kellner-Rode and I co-own and farm Boundless Farmstead with my husband David Kellner-Rode (along with David's mother). We tend our 20 acre property in Alfalfa; 10 acres in mixed vegetables and cover crops, 5 acres in pasture, 1 acre orchard, and about 4 acres mixed outbuildings. We have been with COID since 2017 and have about 17 acres of water rights. At Boundless Farmstead, we seed, plant, tend, and grow enough produce...  To feed an 82 family Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program (weekly food boxes equivalent of $25 to $40 every week for 20 weeks)  To feed a 40-50 member low-income CSA through the High Desert Food and Farm Alliance VeggieRX program for individuals with diet related illnesses (weekly food boxes equivalent of $15-$20 for 20 weeks)  To attend the farmers market selling $2000+ every week from mid May to mid October  To sell 7000+ lbs of food at the autumn bulk buying event called Fill Your Pantry to feed Central Oregonians all winter long  To sell to a dozen different restaurants in Bend  To provide twice weekly deliveries to Central Oregon Locavore and Tumalo Farm Stand David and I are fully employed by the farm and have no outside farm income. We also employ two full time employees and two part time employees (equivalent to one FTE). We have invested heavily in infrastructure since starting the farm in 2017, including four 20' x 200' high tunnels, equipment, renovation, and most importantly to this conversation highly efficient irrigation systems. This year, we invested further into our irrigation by installing a buried PVC irrigation system and purchasing additional drip irrigation to use water more wisely in the spring months during low flow. We run the rest of our 10 acres of mixed vegetables and cover crop on high efficiency micro overhead sprinklers. We do this because we know water is a precious resource and needs to be used wisely. We also grow a large amount of cover crops in hopes of increasing organic matter, increasing water retention, and some day, being able to decrease our water use and lease some back in stream/in district. Water is critical to our lives; critical to growing food for our community, to employing ourselves and others, and to being good stewards of this land. You don't often get email from info@boundlessfarmstead.com. Learn why this is important 2 We would consider ourselves environmentalists as much as we would agriculturalists. We know that the drought conditions are dire and that there is a wide spectrum of opinions and viewpoints when it comes to what proper allocation of water looks like. I appreciate you taking the time to read this email and consider our perspective. This year has been challenging for all agricultural growers in Central Oregon; some districts losing water as early as late July, some being on very low allotment, and everyone having to make strategic decisions about water use. I think that every year we should all be using water as wisely as possible, but this feels so important and prominent in our current (and building) drought crisis. I believe that water should be prioritized for environmental/wildlife purposes, clean drinking water, and food/farms above all else. These are our basic necessities as humans, and yet we forget. We are so willing to sell out our basic necessities for manufactured ones that we make out lands unliveable. We are greedy, we are ignorant, and we think we can buy our way to health and happiness. I am concerned about the effects of the Thornburgh Resort's extensive water use. I am worried about its negative effects on the aquifers, on Whychus Creek (which is already struggling due to high water temperatures), and on the effect of our fish and wildlife (the reasons we have all come to live in this place). Deschutes County Code requires destination resorts to prove that "any negative impact on fish and wildlife resources will be completely mitigated so that there is no net loss or net degradation of the resource." DCC 18.113.070(D). There is no doubt that removing this much water from the Deschutes, Whychus, and groundwater will hurt fish and wildlife. I am concerned that Thornburgh Resort will not release their mitigation information and plan for the public to see. Water is already over allocated in our area. There is not enough water for farmers to keep farming their land. There is not enough water to keep our reservoirs full. There is not enough water to support the currently fish and wildlife of our watershed. Water allocation in Central Oregon is already in dire straits and needs to be amended without adding to it a destination resort using millions of gallons of water that could go towards fish, wildlife, crop production, clean drinking water, and animal husbandry; the basic needs for life. Even beyond water issues, this resort is not benefitting our community or way of life. I think if this pandemic has shown anything is that we do not need more wealth and resorts in our community. In a KTVZ news story on June 25, 2020, the property owner and founder Kameron DeLashmutt said that the resort would bring 1,400 jobs to the region. In an economy that is struggling to fill vacant service industry jobs everywhere, this resort will not be staffed. We do not need more resorts, we need more affordable housing for the people that live here currently and will work these many vacant service industry jobs. We need city planners, city council people, and county commissioners that work towards the best interest of those who live here (humans, plants, and animals). We need to think about longevity and not about superficial needs and instant gratification. Please oppose the development of the Thornburgh Resort. Thank you for your time, Megan -- David Kellner-Rode (he/him) 503.883.1758 Megan Kellner-Rode (she/her) 541.390.4825 https://smex- ctp.trendmicro.com:443/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=www.boundlessfarmstead.com&umid=79e7c443-5709- 3 4640-a08b-fdd1ba1559a0&auth=b6e5f914caa071e97c22b57421b394cc38777e44- 7b05c353b2b98dfc2f063c8d5ac7293a3308e520 https://smex- ctp.trendmicro.com:443/wis/clicktime/v1/query?url=www.facebook.com%2fboundlessfarmstead&umid=79e7c 443-5709-4640-a08b-fdd1ba1559a0&auth=b6e5f914caa071e97c22b57421b394cc38777e44- 9cb17c4a8525758a8176d80da04878ec4a67a351