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| 5,765,760 gallons of water conserved through collaboration |
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| 05/16/2006 |
Published with permission of the Hood River Soil and Water Conservation District
Written by Jordan Vinograd
Neighboring orchardists, Calvin Smith and David Wild, came to the Hood River Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) in the fall of 2004 to get help addressing the excessive water use of their inefficient orchard irrigation systems. The district assisted the neighbors in carrying out an irrigation improvement project through Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) small grant funds. Their previous systems consisted of hand-lines and impact sprinklers, and were operated by using water drawn from the East Fork Hood River. This was a problem because the in-stream water right is not reliably met in the East Fork. Low in-stream flows correlate with degraded conditions in the river for its native steelhead, Chinook, and other fish species. The over-application of water on their adjacent orchards also elevated the potential for surface runoff, erosion, and nutrient leaching into nearby Odell Creek.
|  | The old system (left) is an inefficient hand line irrigation system. The new system (right) that SWCD and OWEB helped the landowner install is a polytube and micro-sprinkler system designed to apply 43.5% less water than the old system. |  |
The existing hand-line and impact sprinkler systems were replaced with a solid-set system that utilizes micro-head sprinklers. Pressure reducing valves, soil moisture sensors, and flow meters were also installed to help the operators keep track of actual water use and tree water need.
Because of the collaboration among these neighbors, their combined efforts accomplished irrigation and erosion improvements on over 22 acres of orchard. Over the course of the typical irrigation season, approximately 5,765,760 gallons of excess water are no longer being drawn from the East Fork of the Hood River. The new systems apply approximately 43.5% less water than what was previously applied during each irrigation.
The project was a collaborative effort among the neighboring landowners, OWEB, the regional OWEB Small Grant Team, and the Hood River SWCD. The funds for this project were made available by OWEB and technical/administrative support was provided by the Hood River SWCD. The landowners contributed over 630 hours of labor to the project’s execution.
The existing partnership between the two neighbors was a key component of this project. Additionally, both landowners implemented other conservation practices on their own accord to complement the irrigation improvements. Mr. Smith extended the upgraded irrigation system to an additional four acres of cropland that was not included in the original proposal. On a 4.2-acre parcel of land that is directly adjacent to Odell Creek, Mr. Wild installed moisture-conserving ground fabric along the tree rows. Wild estimates that this ground cloth in combination with the new micro-sprinkler system allows him to use an estimated 55-60% less water on this block, and eliminates herbicide applications, as well. These landowners have worked together for years and this project is just one of many efforts that these neighbors will undergo in their collaborative approach to farming.
More SWCD success stories
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