Undaunted by years of frustrating delay, Payson continues to push for a plan to save its long-term water supply by prodding the Forest Service to thin the watershed of the C.C. Cragin Reservoir.
Payson Mayor Tom Morrissey last week hosted a Zoom meeting that pulled together top forest restoration and watershed officials statewide in an effort to jump-start the long-stalled effort to thin the 64,000-acre watershed.
The meeting focused on efforts to this summer launch two thinning projects totaling some 4,500 acres â after years of study, discussion and delay. The meeting also resulted in a plan to revive a formal partnership with key agencies to raise money for the effort to thin the watershed from about 1,000 trees per acre to more like 100 or 200 trees per acre.
True West Magazine
Al Sieber & U.S. Troops vs. Na-ti-o-tish’s Apaches
One of the scouts spots the Apaches waiting in ambush on the north side of the canyon.
July 17, 1882
Apache leader Na-ti-o-tish (center) positions his warriors along a narrow gorge eight miles north of the Mogollon Rim in east central Arizona. They have built rifle pits and stacked rock wings adjacent to large pine trees, awaiting a small troop of soldiers (55 men) who will pass, single file on horseback, directly below them.
Stopping within three-quarters of a mile from the chasm, the first officer on the scene, Capt. Adna Chaffee, sends 30 scouts on foot to the west to get behind the canyon, as a precautionary move. The troopers and the remaining scouts move into a skirmish line along the south rim of the canyon. As they do, one of the Indian scouts discerns the hostiles’ position on the north side of Big Dry Fork. Captain Chaffee orders a feint to the center, then sends out two flanking movements:
Payson will get at least a little C.C. Cragin Reservoir water this year and the East Verde River will get a six-month reprieve before it dwindles toward running dry.
The news emerged last week from a meeting on how to save the reservoir by thinning the 64,000-acre watershed.
The dry winter left the 15,000-acre-foot reservoir just 29% full at the end of the spring runoff period, leading the Salt River Project to hold off pumping water out to deliver to Payson and release into the East Verde.
However, SRP started the pumps on May 1 and will continue moving water for about six weeks, perhaps enough to keep the East Verde from drying up before the onset of the monsoon in July. The National Weather Service predicts a hot, dry May and June, but perhaps a blessedly average monsoon this year. The fire season is already well underway, with evacuations already ordered in the face of at least two wildfires in the state.
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Tucked into coniferous woodlands at the edge of the Mogollon Rim a few miles east of Fossil Springs Wilderness and north of the prominent rock jetty of Milk Ranch Point, numerous drainages spill south percolating through the rim’s vertical walls to contribute to important watersheds that eventually flow into the Verde and Salt rivers.
Among these scoured channels is Corduroy Wash, which cuts shallow ravines in the forested space between State Route 260 and Forest Road 149 in Coconino National Forest.
This quiet drainage area may be explored by walking FR 9385. The road also is part of the General Crook Trail that was built in the 1870s and stretched between Fort Whipple and Fort Apache.