From Farmland to Waterpark

I thought of this old photo from 1987 yesterday while we were oout on the boat on the "lake" beside my brother's yard. Breaking up some sod slough bottom with the triple 4 Massey and antique Cockshutt breaking plow. I think the photo on the water is in roughly the same location as the 1987 version. I could not reach the bottom with my 7 foot selfie stick yesterday!

Which one of the 6 in the boat is you?

The feller in the middle... holding the selfie-stick, is Rusty.

Did the wetlands rules appear in 1986 I think?

Too bad you didn't get tile in back then, would still have farmland.

Seems we get wet and dry on a 29 year cycle around here, fortunately dad got some tile in during the 60s and 70s to keep our farm a farm.

Bought this from the neighbor a year ago, it had a 7 inch tile into the lower bowl to dry it out on that corner; there was a 6 inch tile in a big S
through the middle of the field that was only 20 inches deep, was worthless really as it didn't drain more than surface water, too shallow to be
used had to just abandon it.

Eh, picture upload isn't working at the moment for me, maybe later.....

Paul

Rusty6,

So it just changed by God's hand?... Or did he dig out a pond to better drain other areas?

I bet it was hard to tell where you had already plowed with the boat unless you had a light bar for guidance.

(quoted from post at 07:26:01 06/12/17) Did the wetlands rules appear in 1986 I think?

Too bad you didn't get tile in back then, would still have farmland.

Click to expand...

I don't think there was much in the way of wetland rules or enforcement up til the last couple of years. As far as we can tell this water just came from further North as every slough in the country filled and overflowed in a general Southerly direction as all water does here.
Tile? Not an option here. Nobody did it in the past and I'd guess it is even more difficult to get a permit now. If we even want to dig a ditch we are supposed to get a permit from the WSA (in theory anyway).
Google earth has an interesting time lapse feature in which you can look at the land over the years and just see how the water level changes.

What was it like before the 80's picture? Did it flood periodically? ANd how long since you farmed it? This is interesting. Tell us more!

My state has tougher wetland rules than the federal ones, so we get to go through 3 different offices to get permits, two federal and a state one.
Actually the Feds pulled the state back a little a couple years ago, the state people took it upon themselves to be wetland gods and were
overreaching even by their own rules.....

On general of you got tile in the field and grew crops on it before 1986 you can continue to do so, but can't touch anything that wasn't.

Now our govenor, who was too inept to run his family's Target stores, has decided that in his last 3 years in office he knows how to farm better
than anyone else in the state and is bent on wrecking any farm in the state by giving all the the farm land to his hunting buddies.

So we are tiling as fast as we can before he completely stops us from farming.

Funny how there is such an outcry that ethanol supposedly takes food away from people; but the govenor can steal 125,000-300,000 acres of
farmland for more hunting and all the city folk cheer.......


Anyhow.

The Devils Lake area of North Dakota is like you mention, water levels have risen there for a decade or more, it's really something how the
water has risen there. There could be solutions to the problems there, but no, no, supposed to,let nature take its course and flood farmers and
a couple small towns there, the natural water is more important than those hicks.

On the other hand, Fargo is spending billions of dollars to change the flow of the Red River to save their riverfront views from the high dollar
areas of town.

Paul

So is the water rising, or the land sinking?

Down along the Texas coast some of the land has sunk as a result of pumping oil and water from under ground.

There are fenced fields now completely submerged, roadways that were once level with the ground are now raised with water on each side!

(quoted from post at 07:47:23 06/12/17) What was it like before the 80's picture? Did it flood periodically? ANd how long since you farmed it? This is interesting. Tell us more!

Click to expand...

I think the water started expanding in the early 2000s. In this video from 1997 my brother is harvesting oat swaths off that same ground that is now under water. I know there is a 15 section diamond harrowbar that has been out of sight for years in that area.
https://youtu.be/Rq8HuSH7qMM

Time to deal your ATV in on a Jet ski. Maybe sew a crop of fish , and become a fish farm . Water front
cottages even .

Now you have to figure out how to charge admission to the waterpark to offset the income loss from not being able to farm the lsnd.

Im rather confused myself. Ive never seen land just become a lake without any assistance.

(quoted from post at 10:32:00 06/12/17) Im rather confused myself. Ive never seen land just become a lake without any assistance.

Click to expand...

I don't think any of us have either. You have to live through it to believe it. In June-July of 2013 I had 15 inches of rain in 30 days. The water table was at the surface and that water just accumulated until it was high enough to run over a road, into another slough, on the way to the creek. Plenty of farm yards were cut off, flooded. I was lucky.
http://mindlessramblings-rlg.blogspot.ca/2013/07/it-rains-and-it-pours.html

Is sort of the same thing here, I think. When we bought this place back in 2000, there was nearly 3' of water (or at that time, ICE!!) in the basement. Farm had sat abandoned for about 20 years. Has been extremely wet here every year except 2; this year being the 2nd year. A guy who grew up here doesn't remember the water table ever being so high. Also, the land here used to be worked. Couldn't dream of doing that now!

Lastly, the vegetation here also tells a story - what kids was growing here when we bought it, what's growing now, etc. I believe this used to be a much drier area. Now, it's ALL wetlands here!

While still much drier than normal, we've gotten a considerable amount of rain over the past couple weeks. Won't take much more before the water table will be at ground level, which for us has been the norm. Dig a hole anywhere on the place only a foot deep, wait a few minutes and it'll fill with water. Ditches here hold water even during severe drought.

This area used to have a lot of homes and farms. Many old basements sitting in the woods now, mostly on DNR land. Between DNR and Nature Conservancy, not a lot of privately-held land here anymore - and that makes our little place a little bit special....almost like living in the middle of a National Forest or something - only wetter!

I thought the stoppage of drainage was around Dec 23, 1983...if you hadn"t started on a project by then...yeah right, in frozen December...you could not start a new one. We bought our 2nd farm in 1982, and luckily went to the lender in the Spring of "83, to put some 8 inch mains and a few laterals in. Wasn"t a complete system, but it is now.

Actually Devils Lake has been growing since after the dust bowl years. This is a pattern that has happened in the past multiple times, over at least a 4000 yr period. According to the state of ND anyway.

I think similar water level patterns are occurring around Waubay SD and SW of Brookings SD (Lake Thompson).

Here is a link to Devils Lake elevation. I have a better, longer time period chart, but I do not know where I got it from.

https://nd.water.usgs.gov/devilslake/data/slelevation.htmlhttps://nd.water.usgs.gov/devilslake/data/slelevation.html