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Bridging-the-Headgate in Idaho
Reclamation in Idaho
The State of Idaho is primarily served by Reclamation's Snake River Area Office headquartered in Boise, Idaho. A small portion of the northern panhandle is covered by the Upper Columbia Area Office out of Yakima, Washington, and a small section of the very southeast corner of the state falls into the Provo Area Office (see map, and table of contacts below). Reclamation's Pacific Northwest Regional Office is located in Boise, Idaho.
Snake River Area Office, Boise, Idaho
In Idaho, Reclamation's Snake River Area Office continues to work closely with local soil and water conservation districts, the NRCS, the High Country Resource & Conservation Development Council, the State of Idaho, the Nature Conservancy, the Lemhi Model Watershed, and local ranchers and water users to support salmon recovery demonstration projects in the Pacific Northwest.
Reclamation has developed working agreements with the Lemhi Soil & Water Conservation District within the Lemhi River Basin, a tributary of the Salmon River, in central Idaho. With local leadership from the soil and water conservation district and the NRCS, and participation from various state agencies, Reclamation is providing technical and financial assistance in the development of numerous diversion, and other on-farm reorganization projects to aid in fish passage, habitat restoration, and in-stream flow augmentation.
Off-farm, the focus has been on the removal, consolidation, and replacement of push-up diversion dams with permanent, low impact diversions providing safe fish passage. On-farm projects have emphasized the reorganization of irrigation systems, such as conversion to sprinker or gated pipe systems, to accomodate the consolidation of diversions and to reduce overall water diversions and consumptive use.
Work to date has improved fish passage in a three-mile reach of the Lemhi River by providing additional instream flows, and through the replacement of three gravel push-up dams with permanent structures having positive fish passage, as well as adult and juvenile monitoring facilities. In addition, two river diversions have been consolidated, improving flows in one of the most critical reaches.
Reclamation is working with the Southwest Idaho RC&D Council and the Black Canyon Irrigation District on a demonstration project for automating farm turnout gates with low cost components. Reclamation's Technical Service Center in Denver, Colorado, has pioneered much of the automation research, and the Snake River office is providing technical and financial support for field testing within the district.
The Snake River office is also working with the Yellowstone Soil Conservation District in St. Anthony, Idaho in the Henry's Fork watershed. The watershed is a world-renowned trout fishery, and home to the threatened Yellowstone trout. Reclamation has executed an agreement with the Yellowstone SCD to provide financial support for a groundwater protection project in an irrigated area with high groundwater nitrate concentrations.
The project will evaluate nutrient leaching from current irrigation practices, demonstrate new electronic moisture sensing equipment and evaluate the economics of using the equipment for irrigation scheduling. Along with the participation of local farmers, other partners include NRCS, local fertilizer dealers, and several manufacturers of soil moisture monitoring equipment. The effort will also include an information and education component to keep the local agricultural community informed about the nitrate problem and potential solutions.
The Snake River office is also working with the Minidoka Soil and Water Conservation District and the Minidoka Irrigation District, to conduct an on-farm water reuse demonstration project. The project will reuse irrigation return flows by pumping them back from an open drain into the irrigation delivery system of the Minidoka Irrigation District. At present, this water eventually returns to the Snake River, potentially carrying agricultural chemicals, biological contaminants, and sediments. By diluting these return flows and redistributing them on irrigated fields, this project will demonstrate the potential for improving instream water quality and water use efficiency.
Reclamation is also cooperating with the NRCS and other natural resource management agencies in Idaho in the development of the "Idaho One Plan" project, a website of resources to assist farmers in meeting federal, state and local requirements for farm planning.
The website is accessible at: http://www.oneplan.state.id.us/.
AgriMet in Idaho
AgriMet is a network of automated agricultural weather stations operated by Reclamation. Sixty-six weather stations in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, and California collect and transmit weather data required to model crop water use. Such information is used to support scientific irrigation scheduling and other programs designed to improve the efficiency of agricultural water use.
The operation and maintenance of two of the sixteen AgriMet stations operating within Idaho are sponsored locally by soutnern Idaho conservation districts: the Bruneau River SCD and Elmore County SCD.
AgriMet information for Idaho is available on the Internet here.
