BOISE — The Idaho State Department of Agriculture is seeking public comment from the agriculture community on its proposed changes to rules around pesticide and chemigation use and application.
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One of the Treasure Valley’s key leaders in the area of irrigation water system management is leaving his post.
Friends of the Teton River faced a challenge: how to celebrate the farmers and ranchers who have partnered with the nonprofit to enhance soil and water health, and how to best educate the public on what’s happening behind the scenes in the Farms and Fish Initiative.
A Pocatello attorney recently prevailed in a monumental, decades-long water rights battle, stopping a planned 300-mile groundwater pipeline to Las Vegas that threatened a Native American holy site.
LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — An Environmental Protection Agency report provides details about how federal government dams in the Snake and Columbia river system raise summer water temperatures, hurting endangered salmon runs.
The Idaho Water Resource Board recharged approximately 447,950 acre-feet of water into the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer in the winter of 2019-20, according to a staff report presented on Tuesday.
LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — The Washington state Department of Ecology in an historic move has required federal operators of eight dams on in the Columbia-Snake rivers to create a plan to keep the waters cold enough for adult salmon survival.
KENSINGTON, Maryland — A two-decade-long dry spell that has parched much of the western United States is turning into one of the deepest megadroughts in the region in more than 1,200 years, a new study found.
All of Idaho had received below-normal precipitation for the water year through April 1, with the Wood and Lost River basins experiencing the most notable shortfalls, according to a recently released water supply outlook report.
SPOKANE, Wash. — Some environmental groups are complaining about the teleconference format for gathering public comments on a federal government proposal to save salmon runs on the Columbia River system.
KLAMATH, Calif. — The second-largest river in California has sustained Native American tribes with plentiful salmon for millennia, provided upstream farmers with irrigation water for generations and served as a haven for retirees who built dream homes along its banks.
The 500 miles of canals in the Nampa & Meridian Irrigation District received water on Wednesday, the start of the 2020 irrigation season.
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — People in Washington state remain sharply divided on whether four federal hydroelectric dams along the Snake River should be removed to help endangered salmon and orca recover, a state report concluded.
Following a dry February, most of Idaho still had a better-than-average snowpack to start March, and water managers stepped up releases from the Eastern Snake Plain reservoir system.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A long-awaited federal report out recently rejected the idea of removing four hydroelectric dams on a major Pacific Northwest river in a last-ditch effort to save more than a dozen species of threatened or endangered salmon, saying such a dramatic approach would destabi…
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EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — Washington state environmentalists, farmers, tribal leaders and public utility officials are awaiting a federal report concerning whether four Snake River dams can coexist with a dwindling salmon population.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Legislation granting an emergency water right when crews are trying to clean up spills in Idaho waterways passed the House on Tuesday and is headed to the governor's desk.
BOISE — A bill was introduced in the Idaho Legislature Jan. 29 that, if passed, would begin the process of adjudicating water rights in the Bear River Basin.
KLAMATH FALLS, Oregon — Despite the accumulation of recent snow in the mountains and the snow water equivalent hovering around average levels, the possibility for providing drought relief funds remains of high importance to Klamath County Commissioners, Siskiyou County board of supervisors, …
A stream restoration project on Fish Creek near Carey, which included the installation of about 35 woody structures and 14 beaver dam analogs in the creek last August, raised concerns about the timely delivery of water to downstream irrigators, officials said this week.
POCATELLO — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and Congressman Mike Simpson announced a long-anticipated change to environmental regulations Thursday at Holt Arena amid a backdrop of tractors and combines for an agricultural equipment trade show.
Trace Bedke, longtime assistant manager for Butte Irrigation, has been selected as the Idaho Irrigation Equipment Association’s 2019 Person of the Year.
BOISE (AP) — Legislation granting an emergency water right when crews are trying to clean up spills in Idaho waterways headed to lawmakers in the House on Monday.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Emergency crews pulling contaminated water from rivers after such things as tanker trunk crashes is standard cleanup practice in Idaho.
BOISE — Idaho’s snowpack status is still in the wait-and-see mode, experts said Friday.
Mountain snowpack levels throughout Idaho entered January well below normal, but irrigators can breathe a bit easier thanks to a recent turn toward wetter weather and strong reservoir carryover.
The region’s on-again, off-again drought could be off again in 2020 — that is, if the high snowpack levels recorded so far this winter continue as expected.
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — Washington’s snowpack is less than a year ago and officials say it’s similar to the start of 2015, the state’s last big drought.
BOISE — The Idaho Water Resource Board delivered a report to House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, on Dec. 18, summarizing the significant progress that’s been made toward meeting or exceeding milestones necessary to rebuild the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer to long-term sustainable levels.
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Four federal hydroelectric dams along the Snake River in Washington state bring both benefits and liabilities to the region, and there is no clear consensus in the state on whether the giant structures should be removed or retained, a new report said.
Idaho Power Co. officials worry a state program working to reverse declining Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer levels has grown to the point that it could adversely affect winter hydro-power generation.
LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — Steelhead outfitters and guides at an Idaho forum talked about solutions to the declining fish population that is hurting their businesses.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s Dungeness crab season is coming up, but there’s a problem looming over this fishery.
DRIGGS — Farmers who divert from the Teton River Basin hope a new aquifer recharge pilot program will bolster late-season flows in the system and extend their irrigation season.
COEUR D’ALENE (AP) — Idaho’s governor called for a third-party assessment of Lake Coeur d’Alene’s water quality as a tribe that owns a third of the lake backed out of a joint monitoring project, officials said.
HAMER — The staff at Circle Z Ag and Irrigation has come up with a creative take on displaying Christmas lights that’s been attracting attention in this small Eastern Idaho community.
BOISE (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service has agreed to complete environmental reviews of 20 water diversions in central Idaho that a conservation group says could be harming imperiled salmon.
BOISE (AP) — Fisheries managers are optimistic a program to save imperiled Snake River sockeye salmon is heading in the right direction despite few of the ocean-going fish making it back to central Idaho this year.
BOISE — The Idaho Water Resource Board heard a presentation from staff about potential locations for a large recharge basin in the upper portion of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer region during a mid-November meeting.
BOISE — Gov. Brad Little’s Salmon Workgroup will meet in Boise on Nov. 19. The public meeting will be held at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at 600 S. Walnut St. in Boise.
BOISE — Idaho has nearly met a long-term goal set in 2009 of minimizing its annual impact on the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer by 600,000 acre-feet, according to state water officials.
THE DALLES, Ore. (AP) — Two Pacific Northwest tribes on Monday demanded the removal of three major hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River to save migrating salmon and starving orcas and restore fishing sites that were guaranteed to the tribes in a treaty more than 150 years ago.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The Trump administration recently revoked an Obama-era regulation that shielded many U.S. wetlands and streams from pollution but was opposed by developers and farmers who said it hurt economic development and infringed on property rights.
Landowners and conservation professionals are excited about a new type of woody structure that mimics beaver dams. The benefits are similar — they store water, slow down runoff in streams and enhance fish and wildlife habitat.
REXBURG – The Idaho Water Resource Board approved 10 Flood-Management grants statewide for a total of $870,000 at its regular bimonthly meeting in Rexburg.
REXBURG — The Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer water level dropped slightly in the past year, but aquifer spring flows are showing a general upward trend overall, indicating that the aquifer is still rebounding as a result of wet winters, ESPA recharge flows, water reductions by ground water irri…
HAZELTON — Groundwater users in south-central and eastern Idaho are working to stave off water curtailment by the Idaho Department of Water Resources under a 4-year-old agreement to restore the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer and thereby end future water battles.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Forest Service to consult with other federal agencies about nearly two dozen water diversion projects in central Idaho’s Sawtooth Valley that could be harming salmon, steelhead and bull trout.
Bureau of Reclamation officials are planning to do some maintenance and rehabilitation work on the American Falls Dam in the next two years.
SODA SPRINGS — J.R. Simplot Co. has rerouted a stream away from tainted waste rock and built a $30 million water treatment plant in its efforts to keep selenium out of the water supply near its Smoky Canyon Mine.
BOISE — Spending time outdoors is a hobby for many Idahoans, but for Ron Abramovich, it’s been a way of life. Abramovich is retiring from his post as a water supply specialist at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an arm of the USDA, after 29 years as the go-to water supply expert.
RIGBY —The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has increased discharges through Jackson, Palisades, Island Park and American Falls Dams to exceed the current inflows.
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Despite snowstorms in Skagit County in early February and a flurry in March, there’s less snowpack than normal in the North Cascades.
LOGAN, Utah — Drip irrigation is a highly efficient irrigation method well suited to many fruit and vegetable row crops.
DESHLER, Neb. — Reinke Manufacturing has recognized Irrigation Systems in Blackfoot with a Gold Reinke Pride award in recognition of the company’s marketing year success. The dealership was honored during Reinke’s annual convention in Spokane, Wash.
