Volume 17 Issue 4 April
In our cover story this month, we speak with Rick Scheele, the manager of the Tin Cup Irrigation District in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, which dates back to the 1880s. To conserve water, the small district is installing electronic controls and satellite monitoring systems and sealing canals…
Volume 17 Issue 4 April
In our cover story this month, we talk with Scott Schaneman, the general manager of the North Platte Natural Resources District (NPNRD). Overseeing an area with both groundwater and surface water resources that is home to 26 irrigation districts, NPNRD cooperates with many producers…
Volume 17 Issue 4 April
In our cover story with Norman Vigil, the chairman of the Upper Chama Soil and Water Conservation District, we hear about how his agency helps northern New Mexico producers save water and resources, protect the landscape, and preserve the agricultural economy of the area. Amid the effects of…
Volume 17 Issue 4 April
When the North Dakota company General Irrigation & Dewatering first introduced its Dyna Flo pump, it sold the pumps faster than it could manufacture them. Today, the pumps are used across the United States for flood control, dewatering, and water delivery for irrigation. Tomorrow, perhaps…
Volume 17 Issue 4 April
In our cover story this month, we speak with Casey Sixkiller, the director of the Washington State Department of Ecology, the state’s environmental protection agency. While the agency is a regulator, Mr. Sixkiller says, it depends on partnerships, including with the agricultural…
Volume 17 Issue 4 April
The Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WYSGA), Wyoming’s oldest trade association, represents what is by far the largest segment of Wyoming agriculture. In our interview with WYSGA Executive Vice President Jim Magagna, we learn about the association’s wide range of activities…
Volume 17 Issue 3 March
Fratco has been in the pipe business for well over 100 years, but it has done an excellent job of keeping current with the times. With its earliest roots in clay pipe, the company rapidly transitioned to plastic in the 1960s, and today, it offers corrugated polyolefin pipe products that are perfect for gravity…
Volume 17 Issue 3 March
The Verde Ditch Company has been serving farms and residential properties since the mid-1860s. In our conversation with two of its commissioners, Linda Buchanan and Al Dupuy, we learn about its history, its infrastructure, and the modernization work and public outreach…
Volume 17 Issue 3 March
The Grass Valley French Ditch Company has been supplying water to users near Missoula, Montana, for more than 120 years. In that time, and particularly in recent years, its service area has shifted away from agriculture and ranching and toward residential subdivisions, and with that has…
Volume 17 Issue 3 March
In our cover interview with Galen Wittrock, the general manager of the South Platte Natural Resources District, we learn how the district and its users are working to preserve, recharge, and prudently use the groundwater that provides 95 percent of the region’s irrigation supply. With flow meters, computer…