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Commentary: Ranch owner: Sites Reservoir is full of promise

Posted by: Maven on May 31, 2009 at 7:24 am

From the Sacramento Bee, this commentary by Mary Wells, whose land sits on the site for the proposed Sites Reservoir:

When my family purchased our ranch 35 years ago in the small foothill community of Sites, we knew there were discussions to flood our land and make it a reservoir. Even so, we hoped we could continue to ranch here for generations to come. We could not predict back then that California would grow so fast and our state’s needs would be so great that a reservoir would become an essential part of solving California’s current water crisis.

It would be sad to see our land and our neighbors’ land flooded, but I understand that Californians would benefit from storing this water.

For years, California’s leaders talked about solving our state’s water crisis. In drought years they focused on this issue, but public attention faded with the next rainfall. That short-term thinking has created a long-term problem for everyone.

As the great-great-granddaughter of W.H. Williams, the founder of a small town in western Colusa County in the mid-1800s, and being a grandmother, I think about the past but most importantly about the future.

My children and grandchildren sit on tractors and harvesters and on horseback in Northern California, managing our lands. I want their lives to be as good as they are now, where we maintain our roots to the land that sustains us all while protecting California’s environment. This requires unprecedented commitment to resolve our state’s water crisis.

Read more of Mary’s commentary in the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

May 31, 2009 · Filed Under Storage and supply

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