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i ) I r \ , I ", J r \ ~ ~ ~ , I i j I I 1 f 1 I , I ! 1 d 1943 CTS OF HUMAN.INDUCED CHANGES ON HYDROLOGIC SYS J AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES AsSOCIATION rilR ~c .:":':_-'--"~~"":''' Ny::, ..-.i~......'---- F A FARMER'S VIEW OF CHANGING WATER POLICIES I L Roger Mills' and Mary Reid' E ABSTRACT: A farmer relates experiences growing up and living on a small family farm all his life, first with his homesteading parents, then on his own place. He outlines how he built his small farm over the years and suggests that changing water policies threaten to dismantle his farm and lifestyle. KEY TERMS. family farmer'; irrigated agriculture; water policy; Newlands Project. INTRODUCTION While on the one hand we develop policies designed to protect prime farmland in this country, on the other hand we make policy decisions that threaten the viability of irrigated agriculture. The small family farmer is especially vulnerable to changing water policy in the West. A pocket of small family farms exists in the Lahontan Valley in northwestern Nevada. ,Early in the 20th century, families were lured to the area by promotional campaigns' accompanying construction of the Newlands,Project, the 'first approved federal irrigation project under the Reclamation Act of 1902. Changing water policy seriously threatens ,the survival of ,the small family operations encouraged under the Reclamation Act. As farms disappear, ,alternatives and choices offered by diverse rural community structures are being lost. With only 2' of the U.S. population working the land, few, have ever,heard,afarmer,~,s story. ...,:-' Fearl ,Anxietyl Bitterness I ,Anger I Betrayal! These are but a few of ,the feelings that our family and other farm families, have felt as our water has been stripped piece by piece from our land. IN ,THE BEGINNING . -, . . , , Many are aware that the new Administration has funded a new activity called the U.S. Biological Survey, to be modelled after the U.S. Geological Survey: Most do not know that there was aU. S. Biological Survey once before in our history. ,Vernon Bailey, my great uncle, was the chief field naturalist for the original U.s; Biological Survey back at the turn of the century. ,He is on'e of a line of people in my family who have always valued the land and the ecosystem in which we live. It was my Uncle Vernon who returned from his field work with,th~,Biological Survey ,to his home in Minnesota with the news of an opportunity in Nevada, He talked about wide open , spaces and land out West. The U.S'. Government had opened up homesteading opportunities" and there would be irrigation water available. ., " . ,'.," '-.' " ." _. ,. When my grandparents and their six,chHdrsnarr1ved in Hazen, 'Nevada ,(about 30 miles east of Reno) via boxcar, they were drawn to the area ,by ,promises that included a permanent and assured water supply (See Appendix I). Nevada was an empty state. The U.S. Government wanted to settle the West.' Confident in promises made under the 1902 Reclamation Act, my grandparents joined a small band of others who, ,were willing "to withstand the rigors and sacrifices made by immigrants everywhere. "they;take, ris.l<s, work hard, and follow a dream.,'" ",' , Even with the irrigation water provided by the newly built Newlands Irrigation Project, farming in the desert proved to bea brutal test of endurance. Over and over again, fragile seedlings blew away in the swirling, newly broken dry sandy soil. Many tried and failed. An average of two homesteaders tried and failed before a third finally succeeded in making the intransigent, land produce enough for survival. 'Owner, Miils Ranch Consultants, 5707 Candee Lane, Fallon, NV 89406 'Area Specialist, Water Resources, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, 111 Sheckler Road, Fallon NV 89406. 363