Friday, April 22, 2005

Cottonwood cutting raises hackles

'A classic conflict between urban values and rural values'


By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

The local water district has unofficially promised residents south of Bellevue that it will leave some trees standing as it cuts down cottonwood stands along an irrigation canal there.

The issue arose Tuesday after a contractor hired by the district began cutting a long line of cottonwoods paralleling Highway 75 and bordering the Southern Star Acres subdivision. After receiving complaints, Blaine County Commissioner Tom Bowman organized a meeting to resolve the problem at the old County Courthouse on Wednesday.

Mike Harris and Jim Nisson, members of the Wood River Valley Irrigation District 45 Board of Directors, told the eight local residents in attendance that the clear cutting is necessary because cottonwood trees absorb too much of the canal's water. Harris said a mature cottonwood sucks up 60 to 100 gallons of water per day.

"We have an obligation to the people who own the water to get that water to them," he said.

The district delivers water—essential to the survival of south county farmers—to about 8,000 acres of land via about 20 miles of canals. Under state law, the district owns an easement along the canals, even where they are on private property, to maintain them. Maintenance can include clear cutting trees.

The local property owners said they understood the district's rights and obligations, but asked that they be given more warning so they could begin landscaping to replace the lost cottonwoods.

Bowman called the dispute "a classic conflict between urban values and rural, agricultural values." He said that when the Southern Star subdivision was formed, the county tried to let people know about ongoing canal maintenance.

However, the property owners contended that they were led to believe last year that the district had completed tree removal in that area.

"We're feeling picked on in our little area," Jim Bradley said. "We got cut last year and now we're getting hit again. Why not go somewhere else?"

Nisson said that clear cutting one area is the cheapest way to remove the trees, an activity that is constantly ongoing. He said property owners can then plant trees farther from the canal.

Bowman suggested that the district create three-year plans for its tree removal and communicate those plans to the affected water users. Harris agreed to do so, and to leave some trees in place where they are close to houses, at about 80-foot intervals.

He also pointed out that one reason irrigation water is so precious is because so much is being used to water lawns in Ketchum.

"If all the water came down the river that's supposed to be coming down the river, we might not be having to do this," he said.




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