Dikes and farmers--please get involved

To The Eagle:

Most dikes in the area were created by farmers to have more grazing, hay and so on. As the years have gone by, more and more of these farms are now owned by people simply living behind those dikes.

I am one of those people. I have a fairly short piece of dike, and am co-owner of a tide-gate. I had cat work done to strengthen the dike from the inside. I replaced the tide-gate, upgrading to a fish friendly aluminum gate. I keep trees from growing on it as well.

I, along with Grays River Habitat Enhancement District, our diking-flood control entity, have worked the past eight years to correct a project on one farm. The Kandoll Farm project by the Columbia Land Trust. In our quest to have this project live by the ‘do no harm’ clause of such projects, we are now seeing work being done to correct the project. We have also seen a lot better communication with CLT, getting their awareness of their neighboring properties.

The main reason for this letter though, pertains to people like myself, here on the west end of the county. Shared dikes affect our neighbors, and therefore need maintenance. Some of these shared dikes are more, some not at all maintained. That creates a problem, especially when some of the dikes become inaccessible in the winter months, when they are vulnerable to storm damage. Our district takes in very little money yearly. We cost-share tide-gate repairs and replacements. But regular maintenance, such as tree and brush removal, is owner responsibility.

The District meets the second Wednesday of each month at the Johnson park, old Rosburg school, at 5:15 p.m. The next meeting is October 9 at 5:15 p.m. We will be discussing the dike maintenance issue and would welcome any and all comments, especially if you are in the district, to help us try to avoid winter breaches of dikes.

As unpaid elected commissioners, we need community support and input. Hope to see more attendees.

Poul Toftemark, Rosbug