The Boise Project
Submitted by Cheryl Werhner on Tue, 2017-07-11 00:00
Who knew?
Being new to the Boise area, I just learned about the New York canal. Arthur Dewint Foote initiated the idea of building an irrigation system from the Boise River to the farm lands below. The Boise Project extended the canal to carry water from the Boise River from Diversion Dam all the way to Lake Lowell, providing water to residence and agriculture in between. Now, the system protects the residents in the city and valley from flooding and infrastructure damage, while managing the water for usage throughout the Valley, as well as producing electricity. Other dams, powerplants, irrigations systems, flood controls, reservoirs and drains are all part of the Boise watershed that provide us with a complicated, but managed system for our water here in the Treasure Valley.
What do you know about the management of the Boise watershed?
Comments
Challenges
Hi Cheryl,
Thanks for sharing the information about Foote. The fact that someone would think of such an idea is amazing.
After reading about watershed managment in the Treasure Valley, there are several challenges the Boise Watershed has faces. According to boisewatershedexhibits.org, Idaho is number one in the United States for usage at 168 gallons per day. The national average is 90 gallons per day. The challenge the watershed faces is coming up with a sustainable water plan that will accomodate for lower snow pack, increased population, and extremely high water usage.
New Info to me
Cheryl,
Also new to the Boise area and also new to the experience of living in a semi arid region of the country. My first introduction to the Boise watershed occurred a year ago during my first few days in Boise, when my you and I ran the Boise River in inner tubes - fun, exciting, and a great way to cool off. I was aware that the Lucky Peak Resevoir and the dam were controlling the flow of the Boise River, but reading the blog posts was the first I realized that there was a diversion dam that funneled water south to be used for irrigation and eventually flow into Lake Lowell - another aspect of the Boise watershed that I only recently became acquainted with.
Seeing the river flooding this spring and having the Greenbelt closed have shown me the complexities of managing nature and balancing the use of water and still being able to take advantage of the recreational aspects of the river and surrounding terrain.