Government Ditches

Government Ditches. The Draining of Minnesota. , Drainage of surface water is vital to all aspects of development, from town sites to agricultural crop land. Its importance, impact, and consequences cannot be over stated. With the western expansion of the United States, swamp lands. as they were called, or vegetated wetlands were found to cover over 215 million acres of land. In Minnesota this approximated one-fifth of the land available for use. , Traveling across Minnesota it is not uncommon to see V shaped ditches along the roadside. These are ma-made ditches, dug to drain excess water from the land. It was not until 1893, that the first such ditches were dug in the Red River Valley, with the formation of the Red River Drainage Commission. Initially the ditches were constructed by the State and the counties were required to maintain and repair them. Between 1900 and 1915 numerous drainage ditches, were constructed, the demand for such projects lessened, however, as a result of World War I. and the depression. By the late 1930s, demand for new ditches and repairs to existing ones was on the rise. Legislative changes in the 40s, authorized by district courts, hence came the common name “Judicial Ditches,” and county boards to establish the drainage systems, and the State and township authority was removed. , The impact and extensive use of ditches and drain tile in Minnesota that followed can be illustrated in the Minnesota River Basin where only 58.3% of the land is considered well drained, however, by use of ditches and tiling, an additional 1,925,672, acres (20.2%) has been made more productive. , Since the 1950s, there has been increased emphasis on the environmental and conservation effects of drainage projects. This is reflected in recent State and Federal legislation. This concern must be balanced against the three categories of drainage projects, new systems, repairs, and improvements. One can easily understand the complexity and the controversy associated with ditches.