Ditches critical to greening fields

EDITOR:

Thank you for your timely editorial about the importance of protecting the ditches in both Carson Valley and eastern Alpine and pointing out how vital they are to the ranchers who work hard and long to clean and maintain them.

Someone once said that "What really makes Markleeville beautiful are the irrigated pastures all around the town." The historic Town Ditch conveys water from Markleeville Creek west of town to property on the northeast side of town formerly known as the Stodieck Place. About 120 acres there are irrigated with water from this ditch. Protection of this ditch has been one of the major concerns of the Friends of Markleeville in our involvement with the development plans for the proposed Mahalee Lodge/Markleeville Village project. Of primary concern has been the fact that the Mahalee Lodge, a large and imposing structure, is to be built quite close to the ditch and below it on a fairly steep slope. The fear is that construction activity will cause the ditch to fail with obvious consequences not only to the town below but also to the irrigated pasture land which will not receive the water it needs. The economic consequences for the rancher, Ted Bacon, will be significant.

The friends have repeatedly called for protection of the ditch and receive in response, from both the county and the developer, bland assurances that "the Town Ditch must be protected." But no place is it explained how the ditch will be protected.

Apparently somewhere in the plans there is provision for protection from stormwater and wastewater runoff but we do not see protection from construction activities.

So we can only hope that what happened in Woodfords last week doesn't happen here.

Nancy Thornburg

Markleeville