Water is the life-blood of the Pacific Northwest: native Americans depended on it for navigation and one of their principal food sources, salmon--still a Northwest icon; it drew pioneers across the Great American Desert to settle in the Eden at the End of the Oregon Trail; it supports one of the most diverse agricultural economies in the nation; it supplies growing cities and industries from often remarkably clean sources; it provides most of the power used by the Northwest--and a great deal of California's; and it elevates the quality of life of all its residents with its beauty and recreational value.
But our water supplies are under stress. It is becoming increasingly difficult to balance the needs of salmon, hydropower, cities, and agriculture. And these difficulties are expected only to intensify as our population grows and our climate changes. There is a pressing need to understand our water system much better than we do.
The Pacific Northwest is also the "Land of Gradient." Nowhere else in North America has the physical and hydrologic diversity created by its storm coast, fertile valleys, towering mountains, and sagebrush deserts. It abounds with dancing streams, gliding continental-sized rivers, mountain lakes and reservoirs, deep groundwater systems, and glaciers. It is a land- and water-scape of great beauty, tremendous economic importance, storied history, and unparalled scientific value. Packed into its 250,000 square-miles are watersheds representative of many of the watershed types found across the United States. The Pacific Northwest is a place where what we know about how water really works can take a big leap forward and benefit not just in this region, but the entire country.
That's why siting one of the nation's first hydrologic observatories here makes sense. An observatory is a building, place, or institution where scientists make observations of nature. Most people probably think of observatories in terms of telescopes that scan the night sky for cosmic discoveries. But there’s a new kind of observatory being proposed in the United States—hydrologic observatories—where the telescope is turned around and pointed back toward Earth to make discoveries about what sets our planet apart: water.
The Pacific Northwest Hydrologic Observatory (PNWHO) design team invites you to explore these pages where we offer some information about our water setting and lay out a rationale for siting a national observatory here. We welcome your thoughts.