The U.S. Drought Monitor map as of May 27, 2025.

The Baker County Board of Commissioners is asking Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek to declare a drought emergency after the county endured the driest spring since at least World War II.

Commissioners voted 3-0 Wednesday morning, June 18, to declare a local drought disaster.

They are asking Kotek to allow the Oregon Water Resources Department to authorize emergency measures, if needed, including temporary permits for landowners to use groundwater to alleviate the drought.

“I thought it would be prudent to start the process now,” Commissioner Michelle Kaseberg said.

Commissioner Christina Witham agreed.

Witham said she’s spent time in local forests since April.

“It’s amazing how fast the grass grew, and how quickly it dried out,” Witham said.

Rainfall at the Baker City Airport from March 1 through May 31 totaled 1.24 inches. That’s the lowest amount for that three-month period since at least 1944, the first year for which records are available from the airport.

The average rainfall for that period is 3 inches.

May, statistically the wettest month at the airport with an average of 1.42 inches, had just 0.37 of an inch.

The dry stretch has continued in June, which is the second-wettest month at the airport with an average of 1.25 inches. Through June 17, just 0.06 of an inch had fallen at the airport.

The declaration commissioners approved Wednesday states that the drought will affect farmers and ranchers.

“Ranchers are having to move livestock to other rangeland for grazing earlier than normal which will equate to a shortage of rangeland feed later in the year,” the declaration states.

The document also notes that the lack of rain raises the threat of wildfire.

Last summer, lightning-sparked blazes burned more than 250,000 acres in the county.

Jason Yencopal, the county’s emergency management director, presented the drought declaration to commissioners.

He encouraged farmers and ranchers to log their observations on the website for the U.S. Drought Monitor — droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap.aspx (click on the “submit report” button below the map).

That data can help produce a more accurate drought map for the county, Yencopal said.

The map is based in part on the county’s limited weather data.

The declaration, in addition to asking Kotek for state action, also requests that U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins “expedite assistance to local agricultural industries/producers who have suffered extensive and ongoing loss from the drought and continued recovery efforts associated with the wildfires, and for technical assistance and drought mitigations through the Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service.”