AGRI-BUSINESS
JUNE 2020
THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — 7
No more chopping
■ Off-channel watering system means Baker County rancher
no longer needs to chop holes in creek ice to water his livestock
By Corey Kirk
Baker City Herald
The long Pine Valley winters of chopping
through creek ice to create a watering hole
for his livestock is a task of the past for Rob
Crawford.
Thanks to a collaborative effort involving
Idaho Power Company and the Powder Basin
Watershed Council, an off-channel water-
ing project fi nished last year on Crawford’s
property has been deemed a success.
“I’ve been very satisfi ed with the project, it
was wonderful working with Comco construc-
tion, Mark Chrisman’s outfi t, and it was great
working with Idaho Power and the (Powder
Basin) Watershed Council,” Crawford said.
The idea behind off-channel watering is to
provide a place for cattle and other livestock
to drink that, as the name implies, is not
within a stream channel.
Having cattle drink directly from a creek
or river can cause a variety of problems, said
Christo Morris, executive director of the Pow-
der Basin Watershed Council.
“Allowing livestock direct access to the
creek can cause water quality problems from
excrement in the creek, they can damage the
riparian vegetation, and it’s dangerous for
livestock because it is diffi cult to get down to
the creek,” Morris said.
And in Crawford’s case it also meant a lot
of cold work during the winter in one of the
snowiest valleys in Northeastern Oregon,
where snow depths are more typically mea-
sured in feet than in inches.
Better still, Crawford didn’t have to spend
any money on the project that installed three
watering troughs on his property.
See Chopping/Page 11
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