February 21, 2012 – Natural Resource Report – Farmers & Fish working together

This article was published on: 02/22/12 12:00 AM

Farmers & Fish working together

 

February 21, 2012

farmer-wheat2.jpg
By Guest Opinion

Farmers near Bend, Ore., need water. And when the Crooked River is
high, water flows to them by gravity through an intricately engineered
system of canals. But those canals have a problem: the fractured
volcanic ground under them drains water very effectively. In fact, half
of what leaves the river never makes it to farmers.

The Statesman Journal details
the problem, farmers don’t like this situation. Environmental groups
like it even less, because to replace the liquid lost in transit,
farmers are forced to draw even more heavily, pumping extra Crooked
River water. But the pumps create high summertime water temperatures,
effectively boiling any fish that try to get past the pumps and head
upstream. Plus, the electricity the pumps require costs farmers plenty.

The Deschutes River Conservancy and the farmer-run North Unit
Irrigation District are working together on a surprisingly simple
solution. They are lining part of the canal system with concrete, and
replacing other parts of it with pipelines. This will bring water to
farmers more effectively and waste less, thus allowing fish to resume
their habitat in the Crooked River.  Everybody’s happy. And both the
River Conservancy and the Irrigation District say they want to work
together again in the future.

 

http://naturalresourcereport.com/2012/02/farmers-fish-working-together/