Utah launches a new program incentivizing farmers to conserve water by leaving fields fallow. The program aims to track conserved water and potentially leverage it in future Colorado River agreements.
Utah ’s multimillion-dollar plan incentivizes conservation and aims to do a better job of tracking the water that’s saved — in hopes of getting credit for it in future Colorado River dealings. Coby Hunt’s farm field near the southeast Utah town of Green River would normally be filled with alfalfa growing up to his knees. This year, however, it was barren — pale gray dirt cracking under the late summer sun.
The only green things were scraggly scraps of whatever accidental plants somehow survived without irrigation. It wasn’t a pretty sight for Hunt. “It hurts,” he said as he surveyed the desolate field. “But there’s also a benefit of it looking like this, right?” That benefit is taking the water he could have used to irrigate his land and leaving it in the nearby Green River, which flows to the increasingly strained Colorado River. “There’s only so many pieces of the pie you can pull out before there’s no pie,” he said. “Every little bit you can save adds more.” Across Utah, farmers are experimenting with ways to tighten their water use as agriculture, drought and population growth collide to put pressure on the state’s limited water resources. Some are installing In Hunt’s case, he’s taking some of his farmland out of commission entirely — for a time and for a price. (David Condos | KUER) Dry soil cracks in one of Coby Hunt’s fallowed fields near Green River, Aug. 19, 2024. For years, the federal government has paid some Utah farmers to leave their fields empty as a way to keep more water in the Colorado River. Now, Utah is trying its own version of this — and changing how it keeps track of the water that’s saved.that pays farmers to temporarily leave their fields empty and lease the conserved water to the government. It’s something that has been going on for years Now, Utah is launching its version of that effor
Water Conservation Colorado River Agriculture Utah Drought
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