Public outcry saved historic Steamboat Ditch | Jerry Wager
Jerry Wager
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This opinion column was submitted by Jerry Wager, a property owner adjacent to Steamboat Ditch and a member of the TMWA Steering Advisory Committee.
Once again, water is rushing through Steamboat Ditch always a welcome return. But this year it was even more poignant, having almost lost this wonderful resource through the actions of a variety of agencies and individuals. Fortunately, the plan to put it in a pipe was thwarted by the outcry from hundreds of residents in January.
The mallards have returned, raising a new brood of baby ducks, and the frogs are croaking again behind our house. I am struck by all the ironies the ditch now seems to represent. For example, just over a month ago, the city announced plans to resurrect the Moana pool. Almost $19 million to put a rectangular hole in the ground at one location, an aquatic amenity for area residents that they will have to pay to enjoy, whil
For decades, Nevada’s wetlands were taken for granted as sources of flat, developable land and divertible water. But after a century of Western Nevada losing its wetlands, a joint project between the city of Reno and the Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation is restoring more than 200 acres of native habitat.
The city and the foundation recently entered a 30-year lease to restore the city-owned, 219-acre Rosewood Lakes Golf Course to a natural wetlands area with a nature center and walking paths.
“This is a unique habitat in the area,” according to Elena Larsen, wetland restoration program director for the foundation. “We are the driest state, and we are losing wetlands pretty rapidly.”