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�It�s gloom and doom� Drought prospects cause hopes to ebb for Valley residents who live off the land By Mark Freeman Farmers, ranchers and orchardists along the Rogue Valley floor can expect a late � and short � irrigation season this year under the specter of the first significant summer drought here in seven years. With prospects for filling any of its three reservoirs nearly dried up, the Talent Irrigation District likely will try to delay until mid-April its deliveries of water to 3,400 patrons who irrigate about 16,000 acres along the Bear Creek corridor. But more important, the lack of stored water at Hyatt, Howard Prairie and Emigrant lakes likely will mean TID will be out of irrigation water as early as Sept. 1 � a mirror image of the 1994 drought, TID Manager Jim Pendleton said. "It looks pretty grim right now," Pendleton said. "We�re going to hold off as long as we can until we fill the canals." That poses problems for patrons such as Keith Corp, whose 200-acre hay farm near Ashland could see a 50-70 percent drop in production from last year. "We can�t make any kind of plans because we don�t know what we�re going to run into, in terms of a consistent flow of water," Corp said. "If there are any gaps in the growing season, it�ll upset everything." Most hay fields are planted with Mediterranean grasses that go dormant if they lose their water supply early and will die if they lose late-season water, Corp said. So farmers such as Corp are wondering whether to get as much production in as possible early, then figure on replanting their grasses, or to play their water cards slower to keep their fields alive for next year. "That puts us in a real quandary here," Corp said. "It�s gloom and doom." With a snowpack of less than half of average in the Rogue Basin, irrigation districts such as TID face an uphill battle to get as much water stored now as possible for delivery to farm and orchard lands that will be parched in the heat of summer. TID�s three reservoirs, which total about 115,800 acre-feet of water when full, were sitting just slightly higher than half-full Friday. Hyatt Lake, the smallest of the trio and the highest-elevation lake on the TID system, was almost two-thirds full. Howard Prairie, the largest, was just 53 percent full, and Emigrant Lake, at the bottom of the system, was 58 percent full. TID uses a series of canals and natural creeks to divert water from Hyatt Lake through Howard Prairie and into Emigrant Lake. Pendleton said TID�s current reservoir levels roughly mirror the pre-season water amounts for 1994, the last stiff drought to hit the Rogue Valley. That year, TID shut off irrigation water Sept. 1, creating undersized pears in local orchards and killing off grasses for hay producers. Some orchardists, such as newcomer Linda Donovan, of Valley View Orchards, are heading into spring with a wait-and-see attitude. Valley View�s apricots, peaches and cherries could all be harvested by the time the water deliveries end, but its other crops, such as pears and nectarines, could be impacted. "There�s nothing we can do, basically," said Donovan, whose family bought the orchard last July. "If we don�t have it, we don�t have it." However, Pendleton said that the water woes of mid-March could get washed away if an unseasonably wet and cool spring adds to reservoir levels and stalls the need for relying on stored water to keep fields moist. "We�re definitely hoping for some serious weather," Pendleton said. "But, really, we�re heading into a tough season." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.