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Show GREENING TIMES - APRIL 1994 - 5 Erosion—Moving Castle Valley to - BUY - SELL 0 TRADE - GIVE AWAY - the Bottom of Lake Powell Don’t throw it away yet! CASTLE VALLEY SWAP MEET Community Lot Friday, May 6, 12-6 pm. There's probably some cosmic balancing going on. As California exports more of its people to Castle Valley. Castle Valley is continuing to export its soil to California via the Colorado River. Erosion along our roads is notme taking away the soil, but it’s going to be taking more and more of our community funding. Next time you’re out driving around the valley, turn down to the end of Pace Lane and see the huge gully forming across from Lou and Joan Schmidt's property. Until the town installed the culvert at the head of the gully, it was rapidly progressing up the (the day before county trash pickup) After swapping, please box your remainders for thrift shop or dump. - BUY . SELL - TRADE - GIVE AWAY - Ou r Roads of the severely undercut areas.) And Spring grading has begun, starting at the upper end of the valley. All of the roads have had a light grading from Keogh down to Bailey. The roads that had not been graded for several years that’s just one of Our town erosion due to bad grader brakes have been problems. graded twice. Upon reacquisition of the State Lands easement to the Upper 80, John Blake immediately fixed an almost washed out section of the road where a ditch along the road. (If you do go look, be cautioned not to get too close to any Between wind and water erosion, Castle Valley loses thousands of tons of soil each year. One indication of how much soil has been lost is that most of our roads are now a foot or two below the surrounding ground level. In a sense our roads are now big ditches below the nattnal soil level. Rain water that used to fan out across the uncut ground and soak in is now channeled along the road cuts, where it washes away the soft, unprotected earth at an accelerated rate. Gusts of wind pick up tons of soil at a time and throw clouds of dust to the top of Porcupine Rim. Because of the impact of the culvert and road. We will be looking at another such occurrence. There is another culvert crossing which is extremely narrow on this section of “upper" Castle Valley Drive. We will be extending this culvert and widening the road to accommodate two vehicles’ passing. For now, note the caution markers. 1 have had no further word from Castle Valley, the CV Times will run a series on the causes of erosion and possible techniques to reduce it. Some articles may deal with how owners might prevent damage to their own property, and other pieces will address the erosion of our roads and different easement through their properties. Until —Jack Campbell we have a legal easement we cannot maintain the road. We are targeting areas that need culvert cleaning and sections of roads fife/fife? Refngerato r B Its Here is the quote that started it all—the first one on the refrigerator, many years ago. Nothing to improve upon here: It costs so much to be afull human being that there are veryfew who have the enlightenment or the courage to pay the price. . . we would like to gravel during the next fiscal year. The muddiest and most impassable areas, particularly on the One has to abandon altogether the searchfor security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to embrace the world like a hillsides, will be tackled first. lover, Easements will be another concern for the 1994-95 year. With more people building in the valley, the problem of the rimside roads that veer from their platted location because of topography is becoming critical. The Town and {it Stag —Joan Sangree, Roads Chair aprons for the culvert to help prevent Upper 80 folks regarding granting an like to write an article about some aspect of erosion, or if you would like to share a solution you think other residents might like to try, please call Cris or Jack and share your ideas. efforts of Barbara Zinn. I would like to acknowledge and thank the two other people whose efforts made Barbara’s work possible. Thanks to Janie Tuft for copying the State Lands' file, a necessary first step in the process. And a special thanks to Jack Campbell whose probing questions to Jan Parmenter, local head of State Lands, created the possibility of our having a justifiable case for reinstatement. flood in Placer Creek had jumped the process of erosion on our lives here in solutions we might try. If you would has been reinstated, largely due to the FDA (which owns the roads) will be looking into this issue. As mentioned in a separate article, the easement through the State Lands One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, But apt always to total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying. Morris L. West —Kaaron Jorgen |