Ditch riders part of a ?dying breed?

BOULDER — During irrigation season, roughly April to September, Boyd Sheets is out at Boulder Creek getting his hands and feet wet every morning by 6 a.m. Sheets is a ditch rider, and he’s up with the birds to adjust the head gates of three of Boulder’s ditches ? Farmers Ditch, North Boulder Farmers Ditch, and Boulder and Left Hand Ditch.

A head gate is a mechanical ?on-off switch? that allows water from the creek to flow into the ditch. The head gate setting determines how much water goes into the ditch.

Around 7:20 a.m. Sheets is on the radio with District 6 Water Commissioner Bob Carlson and the other ditch riders responsible for Boulder County’s 100 or so ditches. They are discussing flow rates, water height, ditch conditions and the weather. Depending on Carlson’s assessment, he may adjust a head gate.

Every day he ?rides the ditch? — going from top to bottom checking conditions. He spends most of his time ?cleaning out trash racks that collect leaves and stuff,? Sheets said. If heavy work like removing trees or heavy brush is required, he’ll hire a contractor.

Sheets is at the beck and call of water users, he says. ?If somebody calls and says they need water, I’ll tell them to go ahead and open your lateral,? he said. Laterals are side ditches that deliver water to neighborhoods. Sheets designates lateral captains who are responsible for opening the lateral head gates, but ?no one wants to do that,? he said. Often he ends up administering the laterals himself.

Sheets, who’s been a ditch rider since 1974, said he’s part of a dying breed. ?Most ditch riders are getting old, and no young people are lined up to take their places,? Sheets said. ?It’s not a glamorous job,? he said.

It’s not lucrative either, Sheets admits. The Farmers Ditch Company pays him $20,000 for the irrigation season, and North Farmers and Boulder and Left Hand each pay $6,500. He is responsible for his own expenses including transportation and equipment. ?Most ditch riders nowadays have another job, or they don’t need the money,? Sheets said. When he’s not riding ditches, Sheets is Carlson’s right-hand man, deputy water commissioner for District 6.

Drought times actually make his job easier, Sheets said. ?Everybody works together during the dry years,? he said. ?There’s not a big squabble over water because everyone knows there’s a shortage, and they don’t waste it.?

It’s when water is plentiful that Sheets has the additional responsibility of handling disputes. ?The more water you have the more you fight over it,? he said. ?Somebody is always taking more than they are entitled to. They are thinking ?there’s plenty of water, so I’m going to take what I can get.’ ?– Caron Schwartz Ellis