02/24/2026
OPEN LETTER: USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins - Save Our Farmland
Request for USDA Support to Protect EFU Farmland on Juniper Flat, Wasco County, Oregon
February 7, 2026
Secretary Brooke Rollins
U.S. Department of Agriculture
I am writing with a straightforward request: WE NEED YOUR HELP.
Our rural farming and ranching community on Juniper Flat in Wasco County, Oregon is facing the proposed construction of a 21-square-mile industrial solar and battery facility on designated Exclusive Farm Use (EFU) land. The Deschutes Solar and Battery Energy Storage System would place more than 14,000 acres and over two million solar panels directly onto productive agricultural ground in the heart of our rural, hardworking families landscape.
This is not marginal land. It is designated EFU farmland that supports families, livestock, horses, crops, and a multi-generational, historic agricultural community. Those of us who live and work here are not opposed to renewable energy. Rural communities understand energy production better than most. We helped build it. Our electric cooperative, formed in the 40s through the Rural Electrification Administration, still serves thousands of square miles of ranches and farms today. We value innovation and recognize the role of responsible green energy.
Our concern is not solar itself, but placement.
There is a meaningful difference between siting energy infrastructure near a community and placing it inside one. Numerous ranches, including my own, would be surrounded on-all-sides by industrial solar fields for miles. At that scale, the project does not become a neighbor or 10-miles outside of town guest - it becomes the dominant landscape, permanently altering how we live and work. For families who choose not to lease their land, there is no practical way to avoid the industrial impacts without leaving the community altogether. There is no equity in being forced by industrialization to abandon their EFU protected farmlands, their livability, they are fighting to steward now and for future generations.
While we respect private property rights and do not fault neighbors for their individual decisions, the consequences of this project extend far beyond individual fence lines. A small number of landowners choosing to lease should not be allowed to fundamentally transform an entire agricultural region into industrial.
EFU Protections Matter
EFU protections were created specifically to prevent this kind of loss - preserving farmland, stabilizing land values, and reducing conflicts between agriculture and non-agricultural development. Many of the USDA Land Use programs have been positively implemented on Juniper Flat under the very premise of stewardship of productive EFU farm land. A January 2026 Oregon Department of Energy report highlights the collective importance of EFU protections “… Grasslands also provide a substantial carbon benefit… and maintain or increase ecosystem function and community wellness.” Converting thousands of acres of productive soil into long-term industrial use undermines both the letter and the spirit of those protections and programs.
Inherent Fire Risk is Real
Juniper Flat sits within an extreme wildfire risk area and relies on an all-volunteer fire department. The ODOE, NFPA Firewise, USDA and other wildfire programs have worked closely with Juniper Flat Rural Fire Protection District and landowners, contributing funding, education, and assessment to mitigate local fire risks. Large- scale solar infrastructure introduces additional hazards that are difficult to access and nearly impossible to suppress in an emergency - placing homes, crops, livestock, and responders at greater risk. Mitigations may look good on an application and exhibit paper, but does not reasonably translate to effective reality.
No Recovery from Water Bankruptcy.
The USDA is fully aware disruption or loss of water is an agricultural death sentence. USDA water initiative programs have been deployed to support Wasco County, and Juniper Flat landowners in managing, maintaining, and improving water systems for decades. Juniper Flat EFU grassland, pasture, and rangeland relies heavily on natural surface waters and our heavily regulated, historical irrigation rights.
By Gov. Tina Kotek, and her natural resource advisor’s own proclamations, Oregon is in a water resource fight - “We look to our river basins, we look to our groundwater aquifers, we’ve learned we probably allocated too much water. I mean, bluntly, there’s not enough. There’s no more water, really, to hand out,” Owens said.” – SB427 SB1153 SB1154 HB3116 HB2169 HB3501 HB3544 HB3342 HB3106
Contractual claims to well water, irrigation, wetlands, streams, seasonal creeks, cattle pools, ditches – any-and-all waters on those lands is still not enough. This solar array and battery storage facility requires far more water than our total community can accommodate. Our wells, irrigation, farms, ranches, cattle, horses, chickens, gardens, wildlife, surface water sources, the water our children drink from the hose - the very essence of our rural community, the reality of our livability, is threatened.
For rural communities like ours, this is not simply a land use question—it is about food security, local economies, day-to-day livability, and the long-term viability of working landscapes that have contributed to Oregon’s prosperity and sustained families for generations.
Once farmland is industrialized it is rarely returned to agriculture. When water is bankrupt, the loss is effectively permanent. The consolation prize is livability becomes extinct.
We respectfully ask for USDA awareness, oversight, and any assistance you can provide to ensure that EFU farmland remains truly protected from industrialization – not just on paper, most importantly in reality, and that federal agricultural priorities are not compromised by large-scale industrial siting decisions or the State of Oregon’s over-riding green energy initiatives.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE as Oregon Governor Kotek and the Oregon Department of Energy Siting Committee expedite pASC BrightNight application approval to meet looming federal tax credit deadlines.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Save Juniper Flat
