Organization and History of the West Side
Soil & Water Conservation District
Soil & Water Conservation District
The West Side Soil Conservation District, the first one in the Upper Snake River Valley, had been approved by the State Soil Conservation Commission, and The West Side Soil Conservation District was officially organized August 1, 1944. The original SCD contained 56,000 acres in south-central Jefferson County and almost 82,000 acres in the Western Bonneville County , in 1946 an additional 149,120 acres in Western Bonneville County were added to the district., and currently has 281,696.8 acres. Grain, potatoes, and alfalfa are the major agricultural crops in the district, well as Beef and Dairy cattle that are also important to the area’s agriculture.
Emil Johnson of New Sweden was the first Chairman of the West Side SCD, along with Thure Anderson, Lowell Moore, Norbert Brinkman and Walter Pancheri, who served alongside him as Board Members. The SCD’s first annual report cited the following concerns: lack of money, equipment, and technical staff.
The West Side SCD made a great success of its first demonstration project, and effort to prevent erosion by improving irrigation systems with head gates, checks and drops in addition to land leveling, were very successful in reducing erosion and are still in place today as major concerns and projects the West Side SWCD continues to practice.
The West Side SCD can take credit as the first to carry out many things, which have furthered soil and water conservation in our area, state and nation. The West Side SCD was the first to hold eductional meetings on sprinkler irrigation and dry land conservation, also held neighborhood farm group meetings, irrigation demonstrations, field-size trail planting of tall wheat grass, and to seed an improved grass-legime pasture mix on a cooperator’s farm.
The West Side SCD was the first to be involved in reconstruction of a major irrigation canal system, the Butte and Market Lake Canal, to develop farmer installed permanent drop structures to control water in fast-flowing irrigation ditches and automatic pumping control of irrigation waste water and subsurface water, as well to furnish Idaho Potatoes at a national conservation meeting, and to install district boundary signs.
Over the years, the West SWCD has taken on a variety of projects; Supervisors assisted the East Side SWCD in the Willow Creek water quality project, and helped the Northwest Flood Control Cooperative obtain a state grant to control flooding northwest of Roberts.
Conservation youth education has been a SWCD priorty, as well as the Adopt-A-Canal program where volunteers donate their time to assist in the cleaning of the area canals before water is allowed to flow in them, which helps on protecting fish and other wildlife, as well as the landowners equipment when irrigating crops.
Wind erosion , particularly on sandy soils in the Osgood area and along Interstate 15 is a major concern even today as landowners continue to allow their soil to leave the fields and blow and drift across the Interstate which forces the Highway to be closed for long periods of time , as well as accidents that could result in deaths as well as vehicle damage. The installation of wind breaks help with the soil erosion and the blowing and drifting soil and snow. Spring runoff on irrigated lands is also a continuing problem, as well as eradication of noxious weeds, and installation of pivot irrigation systems.
Emil Johnson of New Sweden was the first Chairman of the West Side SCD, along with Thure Anderson, Lowell Moore, Norbert Brinkman and Walter Pancheri, who served alongside him as Board Members. The SCD’s first annual report cited the following concerns: lack of money, equipment, and technical staff.
The West Side SCD made a great success of its first demonstration project, and effort to prevent erosion by improving irrigation systems with head gates, checks and drops in addition to land leveling, were very successful in reducing erosion and are still in place today as major concerns and projects the West Side SWCD continues to practice.
The West Side SCD can take credit as the first to carry out many things, which have furthered soil and water conservation in our area, state and nation. The West Side SCD was the first to hold eductional meetings on sprinkler irrigation and dry land conservation, also held neighborhood farm group meetings, irrigation demonstrations, field-size trail planting of tall wheat grass, and to seed an improved grass-legime pasture mix on a cooperator’s farm.
The West Side SCD was the first to be involved in reconstruction of a major irrigation canal system, the Butte and Market Lake Canal, to develop farmer installed permanent drop structures to control water in fast-flowing irrigation ditches and automatic pumping control of irrigation waste water and subsurface water, as well to furnish Idaho Potatoes at a national conservation meeting, and to install district boundary signs.
Over the years, the West SWCD has taken on a variety of projects; Supervisors assisted the East Side SWCD in the Willow Creek water quality project, and helped the Northwest Flood Control Cooperative obtain a state grant to control flooding northwest of Roberts.
Conservation youth education has been a SWCD priorty, as well as the Adopt-A-Canal program where volunteers donate their time to assist in the cleaning of the area canals before water is allowed to flow in them, which helps on protecting fish and other wildlife, as well as the landowners equipment when irrigating crops.
Wind erosion , particularly on sandy soils in the Osgood area and along Interstate 15 is a major concern even today as landowners continue to allow their soil to leave the fields and blow and drift across the Interstate which forces the Highway to be closed for long periods of time , as well as accidents that could result in deaths as well as vehicle damage. The installation of wind breaks help with the soil erosion and the blowing and drifting soil and snow. Spring runoff on irrigated lands is also a continuing problem, as well as eradication of noxious weeds, and installation of pivot irrigation systems.