Ryan Beckley handling endangered baby sea turlle, a violation of Mexican law, Los Barriles, Baja California, December 2020
The 162 parcels within the Winchester Water Control District (WWCD) are owned by approximately 100 homeowners, whose residences surround the private water ski lake behind the condemned and uninsurable Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River.
Each homeowner pays a “calculated total monthly association fee” to cover the ever-increasing legal fees resulting from the numerous lawsuits in which the WWCD is either a defendant or a plaintiff.
On September 17, 2024, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) served the WWCD with a Notice on Noncompliance over a litany of permit violations incurred by WWCD Board of Directors President Ryan Beckley, owner of TerraFirma Foundation Systems. Rather than comply, WWCD instead sued ODFW—and lost. Last week a judge ruled that WWCD must comply with ODFW’s Notice on Noncompliance. This means WWCD has to build a new $70 million fish ladder by 2028.
The Oregon Department of Justice and ODFW are suing the WWCD for $27.6 million over the botched dam repairs of August 2023, when 550,000 Pacific lamprey—seven generations of the species—were needlessly slaughtered. (Case number 23CV40835 in the Douglas County Court.)
The WWCD is presently suing the Oregon Water Resources Department over the WWCD storing 91-acre feet more water behind the dam than their legal allotment. (Case number 23CV33445 in the Marion County Court.)
A lawsuit brought against the WWCD by Oregon environmental groups on behalf of coho salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act is presently under appeal. (Case number 3:20-cv-01927-IM in the Federal District Court in Portland, Oregon.)
Yet another lawsuit against Ryan Beckley and the WWCD goes to trial in February 2026. The plaintiff was a worker injured on the job during the botched dam repairs of August 2023. (Case number 24CV45479 in the Multnomah County Court.)
Condemned in 1976 by the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD), the derelict Winchester Dam provides no hydroelectricity, irrigation, or flood control.
For 56 years its sole function has been as a private water ski lake. It’s a private dam owned by the WWCD, astride a very public and world-famous river recognized by anglers on five continents as the number one steelhead Stream in North America (and some say, in the world).
Historically, the Winchester Water Control District was a good neighborhood to “flip” a home, where about 10% of the properties were sold each year.
But that was before the WWCD Board of Directors under Ryan Beckley’s direction, became embroiled in so many lawsuits. And the legal fees are paid collectively by the unsuspecting WWCD homeowners. Thanks to these burgeoning legal fees, these so-called “calculated total monthly association fees” increasing exponentially.
And this has killed the real estate market in Winchester.
These “calculated total monthly association fees” are now so high, some Oregon realtors won’t even disclose them in their listings for fear of scaring off prospective buyers. However, this conduct is clearly out of compliance with the Oregon Realtors code of ethics.
The Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) rates Winchester Dam a “high hazard,” meaning the agency expects loss of life when the dam fails. Half a century ago, OWRD told WWCD that “consideration must be given to a permanent dam, the existing wooden dam being considered as temporary in nature … either reconstruction or removal of the dam would be necessary.”
And yet the 135-year-old dam is still there—unrepaired and unrepairable.
Ultimately, the physics of capitalism will bring down the Winchester Dam, as more and more WWCD homeowners balk at the ever-increasing calculated total monthly association fees. It’s only a matter of time before they are forced to sue their Board of Directors to put an end to the runaway cost of maintaining the financial sinkhole that is the Winchester Dam.
One thing is certain: when the Winchester Dam is removed, property values in the WWCD will increase. When the river is returned to its aboriginal level, riverfront homeowners will gain acreage and, by extension, property value.
And it’ll be a heck of a lot easier to sell your house when the sale is not encumbered by the ever-escalating costs of maintaining what is widely recognized as the most dangerous and illegal dam in Oregon.
The considerable expense of maintaining the private water ski lake is ever-increasing. This is because the WWCD Board of Directors prefers to sue state agencies rather than comply with state laws and regulations.
Consequently, in 2024 WWCD legal fees alone totaled $270,662. The WWCD also paid another $110,304 for insurance. These legal costs doubled in 2025, due to the numerous state and federal lawsuits in which the WWCD now finds itself embroiled.
These mandatory “calculated total monthly association fees” present a serious liability to any WWCD homeowner attempting to sell their house.
In an apparent lack of transparency, the WWCD Board of Directors does not publicly disclose how much each individual WWCD member pays in monthly fees.
Consider the 22-acre riverfront property owned by Andrew Shirtcliff, owner of Myrtle Creek’s Shirtcliff Oil Company, and one of the richest people in Douglas County, Oregon.
In March of 2025, Shirtcliff’s sprawling with a 6,000 square-foot five-bedroom, four-bathroom house with a five-car garage at 141 Umpqua College Road was listed on several realtor’s websites for $3.5 million—with a calculated total monthly association fee of $0.
Although Shirtcliff’s property appeared to be exempt from “calculated total monthly association fees,” a call to the listing agent Jason Mann in Myrtle Creek told a different story.
“The property is not exempt…” Mann explained in April 2025. “If you could read the private remarks, it clearly states what he pays for that service to have—he pays about $8,000 a year. So, he is not exempt.”
However, the “private remarks” to which Mann referred are not visible in the property listing.
According to Mann, the $0 calculated total monthly association fee in the listing for 141 Umpqua College Road is “not a typo.” He explained, “That’s an automated program that calculates based on what we put in for an HOA fee”—whatever that means.
But Shirtcliff was ultimately unable to sell his property on the north bank of the North Umpqua River, overlooking the private water ski lake from which the public is excluded.
A few months later, he dropped the price to $3 million but there were no buyers. He again lowered the price, but there were still no buyers.
Shirtcliff has since taken his McMansion off the market. Now he’s trying to sell 17.13 unimproved acres with no structures for $1,990,000. However, according to the listing on Zillow.com, the buyer will have to pay the WWCD a calculated total monthly association fee of $2,655.
That’s $31,860 a year—four times amount of the fee listed just eight months earlier for the entire 22 acres with the McMansion, the swimming pool, and the five-car garage.
That’s how quickly the WWCD’s legal fees are increasing. And that’s a dealbreaker, even for a person who can afford a multi-million dollar residence.
As of this writing, Shirtcliff’s unimproved 17 acres is the only property for sale in the WWCD.
Two other properties were listed earlier this year. The first was an 0.80-acre property with a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house at 550 Pioneer Way, listed for $685,000. The listing disclosed a calculated total monthly association fee of $472 a month. But it didn’t sell and it’s no longer listed.
The second home is an 0.89-acre parcel with a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house at 374 Pioneer Way. The listing reported a $285 a month in fees—$187 less than their neighbor down the same street with the same size house on the same size lot. But it didn’t sell and it’s no longer listed.
The ever-increasing calculated total monthly association fees have effectively killed the real estate market in Winchester. Just a few years ago one out of ten WWCD properties was sold each year.
And these monthly homeowner fees are only going to get more expensive each month, as the WWCD continues to sue (and be sued) for their ongoing pattern of noncompliance and reckless permit violations.
