All that vacant land is really not vacant at all
Will it rain or not, that is the question of the day as August rolls along! There have been some great opportunities for Mother Nature to rinse the dust off all the roofs, landscaping and solar panels.
If it does rain, hopefully it will be a gentle rain in small amounts so ground preparation and early produce planting is not interrupted.
Looking at a map of Arizona, Yuma County looks like a large canvas, ready
to be brought to life. There are acres and acres of land, most in natural cover and undeveloped. It brings to mind the question as to why there is so much apparently vacant land. The answer to that question is land ownership.
Less than 7% of the 5,522 square miles within the county boundaries is private land. Additional private land within the county, excluding agricultural lands, total 210,000 acres and may or may not have access to irrigation water.
The Bureau of Land Management is the administrator for 451,600 acres. The various federal and state game refuges cover 648,000 acres. Yuma Proving Ground and the Goldwater Range total 2,281,800 acres. State Trust Lands are another 232,000 acres and the Bureau of Reclamation controls another 23,000 acres. There are 2,500 acres of Tribal land.
Our irreplaceable and amazing farmlands are numbered at 175,000 acres with Yuma growers harvesting two or more crops per acre per year. Agriculture is the No. 1 industry for Yuma County. When speaking of agriculture, I do not just mean the farm fields and farm families, it includes irrigation districts, sprinkler and pump dealers, equipment dealers, labor contractors, seed dealers, agricultural chemical companies, aerial and ground applicators, auto and truck dealers, ditch liners, land levelers, fuel dealers, salad plants, coolers, trucking companies, railroads and all of the people who work for these companies.
An important plus for Yuma County with our agricultural industry is that most of the dollars produced by agriculture stay in Yuma County and are not exported, as is common with most other commercial enterprises.
Food safety has become an industry within the agricultural industry and is increasing in complexity and specialized skills needed to keep the consumer safe. The growers need everyone to help prevent contamination of our farm fields, crops and irrigation water.
The 2019 winter vegetable season is underway and more than 175 different crops will soon make up the mosaic of colors and textures seen in the local fields throughout the growing season.
Bobbi Stevenson-McDermott is a retired soil and water conservationist. She can be reached at rjsm09@msn.com.