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Typical Basin farm gets a little wetter
Published June 24, 2003
By DYLAN DARLING
H&N Staff Writer
Lakeside Farms has long been a good example of agriculture in the Klamath Basin.
A heavy dike on the farm's west side holds back the waters of Upper Klamath Lake, leaving 400 acres of reclaimed farmland to be tilled, seeded and harvested, all in front of the pristine backdrop of Buck Island and Mount McLoughlin.
But soon the barley farm will become a combination of cropland and wetlands.
"In this case we are showing that agriculture and wetlands make a nice, compatible use of the land," said Faye Weekley, a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Service's Klamath Basin Ecosystem Restoration Office is helping fund a wetlands project on the farm, which started last year and will leave the property with a strip of wetland along its eastern edge.
From the dike, which was built in the 1930s, and the edge of the lake, the land slopes downward to the heavy embankment that marks the east boundary of the property adjacent to the Union Pacific rail line. There, water from the Northside Drainage District emerges from a 30-inch pipe through the levee and fills a canal.
Wetlands created at the pipe's outfall will not only create habitat for wildlife, but also treat the drain water that comes from the district and the farm, said Mike Tyrholm, one of the property's owners.
He said workers using tractors have smoothed the gradual slopes of the levees that will hold the water in three wetland pods, which will vary in depth from 4 inches to 3 feet.
Water will spend a year going through the different wetlands, being treated naturally by aquatic plants, before it is discharged into Hank's Marsh on the east shore of Upper Klamath Lake.
"It's done basically. We've just got to add water," he said.
He said water should start flowing in the next couple of days.
For now the wetlands will be partially flooded using groundwater and water from the drainage district. In October, the farm fields will be flooded along with the wetlands.
The land is owned by Tyrholm, Win Holing, Ken and Kenneth Tuttle and Richard Ottoman. The group has had the land for 32 years. Tyrholm said the wetland project is propelled by the owners' shared interest in wildlife.
Ten years ago they started building wetlands between the fields, totaling 8 acres.
Once the new wetland project is completed there will be 70 acres of wetlands and 20 acres of uplands - the tree-covered ground elevated above the low-lying wetlands.
So why would owners of farmland turn part of their acreage into swamp?
Tyrholm said that part of the property has always been the hardest to farm because of the water that would pool up on it.
"We thought we would put it to better use as a wetland," Tyrholm said. "It's dynamite for wildlife."
He said now the water should be cleaner when it leaves the farm than when it enters it.
Weekley said the water coming out the wetlands will meet Oregon Department of Environmental Quality standards.
"We will adjust it accordingly so that the water coming in will be much cleaner than coming in," she said.
She said the office supports the project because of the benefit it could have for habitat along the lake. The project got $131,000 in funds from the Upper Klamath Basin Working Group, also known as the Hatfield group, $40,000 from the Oregon Water Enhancement Board and $60,000 from the owners themselves.
Reporter Dylan Darling covers natural resources. He can be reached at 885-4471, (800) 275-0982, or by e-mail at ddarling@heraldandnews.com.
By DYLAN DARLING
H&N Staff Writer
Lakeside Farms has long been a good example of agriculture in the Klamath Basin.
A heavy dike on the farm's west side holds back the waters of Upper Klamath Lake, leaving 400 acres of reclaimed farmland to be tilled, seeded and harvested, all in front of the pristine backdrop of Buck Island and Mount McLoughlin.
But soon the barley farm will become a combination of cropland and wetlands.
"In this case we are showing that agriculture and wetlands make a nice, compatible use of the land," said Faye Weekley, a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Service's Klamath Basin Ecosystem Restoration Office is helping fund a wetlands project on the farm, which started last year and will leave the property with a strip of wetland along its eastern edge.
From the dike, which was built in the 1930s, and the edge of the lake, the land slopes downward to the heavy embankment that marks the east boundary of the property adjacent to the Union Pacific rail line. There, water from the Northside Drainage District emerges from a 30-inch pipe through the levee and fills a canal.
Wetlands created at the pipe's outfall will not only create habitat for wildlife, but also treat the drain water that comes from the district and the farm, said Mike Tyrholm, one of the property's owners.
He said workers using tractors have smoothed the gradual slopes of the levees that will hold the water in three wetland pods, which will vary in depth from 4 inches to 3 feet.
Water will spend a year going through the different wetlands, being treated naturally by aquatic plants, before it is discharged into Hank's Marsh on the east shore of Upper Klamath Lake.
"It's done basically. We've just got to add water," he said.
He said water should start flowing in the next couple of days.
For now the wetlands will be partially flooded using groundwater and water from the drainage district. In October, the farm fields will be flooded along with the wetlands.
The land is owned by Tyrholm, Win Holing, Ken and Kenneth Tuttle and Richard Ottoman. The group has had the land for 32 years. Tyrholm said the wetland project is propelled by the owners' shared interest in wildlife.
Ten years ago they started building wetlands between the fields, totaling 8 acres.
Once the new wetland project is completed there will be 70 acres of wetlands and 20 acres of uplands - the tree-covered ground elevated above the low-lying wetlands.
So why would owners of farmland turn part of their acreage into swamp?
Tyrholm said that part of the property has always been the hardest to farm because of the water that would pool up on it.
"We thought we would put it to better use as a wetland," Tyrholm said. "It's dynamite for wildlife."
He said now the water should be cleaner when it leaves the farm than when it enters it.
Weekley said the water coming out the wetlands will meet Oregon Department of Environmental Quality standards.
"We will adjust it accordingly so that the water coming in will be much cleaner than coming in," she said.
She said the office supports the project because of the benefit it could have for habitat along the lake. The project got $131,000 in funds from the Upper Klamath Basin Working Group, also known as the Hatfield group, $40,000 from the Oregon Water Enhancement Board and $60,000 from the owners themselves.
Reporter Dylan Darling covers natural resources. He can be reached at 885-4471, (800) 275-0982, or by e-mail at ddarling@heraldandnews.com.
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