As water users look for ways to conserve water, Rob Sharpnack, state CREP manager for the Soil & Water Conservation Commission, outlined the benefits of Idaho's Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) during the Idaho Water Users Association summer meeting in June.

Billy Wolfe is worried. Or perhaps “worried” is too strong a word for someone as unflappable as Wolfe, but he’s staring down the 2026 summer farming season, and he knows this year is going to be difficult, hot and dry. So very dry.

As it commonly is with water projects in the Gem State, money is being dedicated at a constant basis on projects focusing in the short- and long-term future. Idaho Water Resource Board chairman Jeff Raybould presented an extensive review of how state funding has targeted specific projects across the state’s aquifers, streams and rivers.

Water shortages have been a rising concern throughout Idaho during recent years. What makes this matter even worse is when a canal is unable to effectively hold all the water that it does contain. Twin Falls Canal Company (TFCC) is in the process of solving that issue for many of their shareholders.

Ag Proud – Idaho’s Cassidy Woolsey caught up with David Hoekema, a hydrologist with the Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR), to discuss this year's unusually dry spring and how it’s affecting the state’s water supply.

In 2024, a new law added tributary basins outside the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer to groundwater rights management. Two producers share their perspectives on the impact of this change.

“Well, I think the sign of any good agreement is that nobody's happy,” says Travis Thompson, an attorney for the Surface Water Coalition (SWC). “That way you know something's been done right."

“I’m getting fatigued on the problem. I want to focus on solutions,” says Jake Stander, a fifth-generation grower near Blackfoot.