Cultivating Leaders for Washington State
In 1976, a group of individuals lead by Stu Bledsoe, the director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, identified the need for a program to develop leaders for the agricultural, forestry, and natural resources sectors of the state’s economy. To meet the need, they created the AgForestry Leadership Program. Through immersion in a series […]
Volume 10 Issue 1 January Washington Edition 2019
Everyone reading this magazine knows irrigation-district managers and irrigated-crop farmers with decades of experience and hard-won knowledge. It is precisely this kind of broad, deep expertise that we want to instill in the irrigation leaders of tomorrow. But in an era when technology is advancing at a rapid pace and the economy is ever […]
Improving Water Supply in the Columbia River Basin
Tom Tebb is the director of the Office of Columbia River at the Washington State Department of Ecology. His office is tasked with several major water management projects designed to increase water flows in central and eastern Washington, both for instream and out-of-stream uses. In this interview with Irrigation Leader Editor-in-Chief Kris Polly, Mr. Tebb […]
Volume 9 Issue 10 November/December Washington Edition 2018
In this last issue of 2018, Irrigation Leader takes a look around the U.S. irrigation industry. Our articles cover river basin management, aquifer recharge, surface water management, agrichemical sales, branding and design, pipeline construction, solar power, pathogen detection, and security. If the U.S. irrigation industry has it, you will probably find it in this […]
A Conversation With Sam Hull of Ahtanum Irrigation District
Ahtanum Irrigation District encompasses approximately 10,300 acres in the Ahtanum Valley of Washington State and has a history dating back to 1852. Sam Hull is a member of Ahtanum Irrigation District’s board of directors. In this conversation with Joshua Dill, the managing editor of Irrigation Leader, Mr. Hull discusses his district’s history and unique features […]
Volume 9 Issue 9 October Washington Edition 2018
Ahtanum Irrigation District has big plans. The Ahtanum Valley–based district is unique in owning part of its own watershed, but a lack of storage means that it can’t take advantage of all the water it should receive. In our cover story, Sam Hull, a member of Ahtanum’s board of directors, explains the preparations the […]
Ed Mitchell: Operations Manager of Benton Irrigation District
Benton Irrigation District serves over 4,500 acres of urban and agricultural land around Benton County in southeastern Washington. Over the last decade, BID undertook a $35 million project to convert its open-ditch system into a fully pressurized, completely pipe-based system. This technological leap has resulted in significant advances in water conservation. Kris Polly, editor-in-chief of […]
Volume 9 Issue 8 September Washington Edition 2018
In this issue of Irrigation Leader magazine, we feature Ed Mitchell of Benton Irrigation District (BID), which proves that you don’t need to be a huge district to make huge advances. Between 2009 and 2014, BID changed over completely from open ditches to a state-of-the-art, fully pressurized system. The water savings are so great […]
New Leadership at Columbia Irrigation District
Colombia Irrigation District (CID), located in southeastern Washington, delivers water to approximately 10,000 acres on close to 7,000 parcels of land. CID holds one of the oldest water rights in the Yakima River basin, with the district having officially formed in 1917. The CID system begins at the Wanawish Dam along the Yakima River and […]
Volume 9 Issue 7 July/August Washington Edition 2018
In this issue of Irrigation Leader, we speak with a range of water managers, stakeholders, and public servants about the effects of new leadership in the Northwest. In our cover story, Clancy Flynn, the general managerof Columbia Irrigation District in Washington state, talks to us about the “highly contentious” issues of water allocation in the […]