Lessons from the Past. All the stakeholders of our water
Submitted by Carissa Summers on Tue, 2017-07-11 00:00
We were visited by "Mary Hallock Foote" played by Janet Worthington, to give a bio of her and her husband's life. Arthur Dewitt Foote was credited with creating the New York Canal enabling the Treasure Valley to irrigate. Wow, creating the lush valley we have today. Living in this environment, fires are a huge concern. We did an activity simulating forests burning. Fabiola and I have done these in our classrooms. I had my first experience of having a presenter in The (hot) Springs with the topic of geothermal in general and Warm Springs. I had no idea of the complexity of the geothermal system downtown Boise has and future ideas. Our mining presenter, Brain Lawless, gave us a lot of insite about what is happening in Idaho City from the past mining practices. I had no idea that past placer mining has such lingering effects to the water today and in the future. Specifically, the natural decaying of the rock making the Ph of the water too high for wildlife and humans and certain structures. At Moores Creek Park, we did a little water testing, more to come later..... Omg, the tour at the Diversion Dam was like walking by in time because the National Historical Society had the Army Corps of Engineers maintain the original turbine and governers (just for visitors - even though they aren't used). They updated the system starting in 2001. I have lived here my entire life and had never known or tour this facility. Fabiola, I am excited to use the Treasure Valley's ecosystem to teach our environment science curriculum next year. It is amazing how many stockholders there are in the waters in the Boise River Basin - and they all have legitimate claims.
Question for Tuesday? What social-ecological systems (SES) present in today's region of our watershed?
Comments
Tell me more...
Do you think that we can make a connection with our fire activity with what you are learning now?
You do have a point about the geothermal activity that is something unique about Idaho. When we went camping this Fourth of July, we stopped by the hot springs. It was very interesting to me how it appeared to come out of nowhere. In Costa Rica it is so apparent since you sit at the base of the volcano but here? in the middle of a forest?. It was even more apparent as we were cooling with the river water. It made me wonder... what effect does all that geothermal activity do to the water supply in the Boise River Basin?
I didn't know there was mining around here. It would make sense that there would be some remaining impact. You wonder, how long will that continue?
It makes sense that there are so many stockholders for water s upply in a desert type environment. However, does that number continue to increase? How much leverage do they have and what decisions do they have on the water management?
Keep sharing Carissa, I'm glad that this isn't until fourth quarter so we can really prepare to incorporate some of this information.
Diversion dam
The tour of the dam was definitely awesome a couple years ago.
From a geologic perspective Idaho is incredibly unique. Not just with geothermal activity but also past and present activities. For perspective, where you were today you would've been near the shore of lake Idaho 10 million years ago.