Oral history interview with Reed D. Benson

Collection

Identifier: SR 2747

Transcript, digitized audio recording of interview, and digitized photographs of Reed Benson

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Scope and Contents

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Partial audio recording and transcript of an oral history interview with Reed D. Benson that was conducted by Clark Hansen in two sessions, on May 8, 2000, and June 19, 2000, as part of the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series. Accompanying the audio and transcript are two color photographs of Benson taken at the time of the interview, as well as two duplicates. The audio and transcript do not include the portion of the first interview session that was recorded on Tape 2, and the audiocassette is not in the possession of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

In the first interview session (Tape 1), Benson discusses his family background and early life in the Platte River Basin in Nebraska, and talks about his early interest in water issues. He speaks about his early career as a water lawyer for the city of Englewood, Colorado, and compares water rights and irrigation policies in the Platte River Basin to those facing the Columbia River Basin.

In the second interview session (Tape 3, Side 1, through Tape 5, Side 1), Benson continues to discuss irrigation policies in the Platte River Basin, and talks about his reasons for leaving his position in Englewood to work for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. He then speaks extensively about his work as a water lawyer for WaterWatch of Oregon, based in Portland. He discusses the history of water rights law in Oregon, particularly with regard to Native tribes. He talks about WaterWatch’s collaboration with other environmental organizations to lobby the U.S. Congress and the Oregon State Legislature, and about the organization’s accomplishments. He closes the interview by discussing his thoughts about the future of water policy in the Western United States.

Dates

Creation: 2000 May 8-June 19

Creator

Benson, Reed D. (Interviewee, Person)
Hansen, Clark (Interviewer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Biographical note

Reed Dalton Benson was born in Fremont, Nebraska, in 1962. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and a law degree from the University of Michigan. He was a lawyer in private practice in Colorado, and worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as a staff attorney for the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies. In 1993, he began working for WaterWatch of Oregon, and later became its executive director. He taught law at the University of Wyoming, and in 2008, he joined the faculty of the University of New Mexico law school.

Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Benson in his interview; Benson’s faculty profile on the University of New Mexico website (accessed June 2026), https://lawschool.unm.edu/faculty/benson/index.html

Historical note

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In 1990, the Washington State Historical Society, Portland State University, and Washington State University Vancouver formed the Center for Columbia River History (CCRH) to promote research, education, and public programs about the Columbia River Basin. The center operated for more than 20 years. Among its work was the Columbia River Basin Project (CRBP), an umbrella project supported by a 1997 grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The CRBP included online exhibits, oral histories, and high school curricula about the history of the region's land, wildlife, and people.

As part of the project, CCRH partnered with the Oregon Historical Society Research Library’s oral history program, headed by Jim Strassmaier, to gather interviews. Oral Historian Michael O’Rourke spearheaded the Northwest Power Planning Council Oral History Series, while Oral Historian Clark Hansen oversaw the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series, with aid from two Portland State University research assistants, Dannette Rowe and Tania Hyatt. In addition, CCRH conducted oral history interviews for a third project, Columbia Communities, and later donated the interview recordings and transcripts to the OHS Research Library, where they are designated SRC 1.

The Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series culminated in 59 interviews (approximately 184 recorded hours) conducted between 1998 and 2001. Interviewees included Native people, activists, farmers, conservationists, fishers, and others who contributed to the shaping of policies that have had, and continue to have, significant impacts on the Columbia River Basin in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia. The interviewees opposed policies by agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and advocated for alternative visions of management and use of the Columbia River.

Sources: “Voices of the Columbia,” by Bryan White, PSU Magazine, Fall 1998, Page 17; Center for Columbia River History brochure, undated (circa 2000); Center for Columbia River History website (accessed July 10, 2025, partially archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250215175329/https://columbiariverhistory.org/; email correspondence with Donna Sinclair, 2025; email correspondence with Tania Hyatt, 2025; Oregon Historical Society Research Library internal documentation.

Full Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (4 audiocassettes (3 hr., 1 min., 19 sec.) + transcript (69 pages) + 4 photographic prints (color))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oral history interview with Reed D. Benson, conducted by Clark Hansen in two sessions, on May 8, 2000, and June 19, 2000, as part of the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series. Benson discusses his work as a water lawyer for WaterWatch of Oregon, and talks about water rights policy in Oregon.

Existence and Location of Copies

Audio, transcript, and photographs available online in OHS Digital Collections.

General

Forms part of the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series.

Processing Information

This interview was previously cataloged as part of SR 2700.1, the Center for Columbia River History Oral Histories. SR 2700.1 included oral histories gathered for two separate projects: those conducted by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library for the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series, and those collected by the Center for Columbia River History for its Columbia Communities Project. In 2024-2025, as part of digitization of the Dissenters interviews, the collection was reprocessed to separate the two sets of interviews for improved access. Each of the 59 Columbia River Dissenters interviews was cataloged individually under the name of the interviewee. The interviews for the Communities project were kept together as a single collection that was redesignated as SRC 1, Columbia Communities Project oral histories.