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Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Red Tail Lake - Spreading its WingsI know! Pretty cheesy title huh? Oh well. Hopefully this first
Blog post will share some insight to those of you interested in this project. This first blog will focus on the all
inclusive concept of this small community. As many of you who are reading this already know, private ponds/recreational
based lakes have a bad rap. They are considered to be playgrounds for rich people that only want to have fun at
any expense including excessive water use. We all know that is certaintly not the case. With agricultural
and irrigation background, I look at ponds as the most effective and efficient form of flexible irrigation water source. For
those of you who want to hear more about the "FUN" side of Red Tail Lake, check back in as I promise to get all
the boring stuff out of the way... At least boring to you, however to an irrigation geek this is FUN!
Red Tail Lake was a concept born about 10 years ago. This was a perfect piece of property that I felt had all
the necessary requirements for a private lake/reseviour right here in East Biggs, CA. (We were green before green
was cool. Thinking about water conservation and efficient irrigation that is.) This property has always struggled to
be successful agricultural land, however with some better drainage and proper irrigation it had hope. Often this
parcel was put into rice production and was flooded for that purpose all summer long. During the winter months
it continued to be flooded both by choice and due to the watershed of neighboring parcels. With the Butte
Water Canal running east of this land, the drain water appeared to have no where to go during the winter. Locally this
property was considered "low land" even though it probably sits 10+ feet above the towns of Biggs
and Gridley.
Henry Mutz originally from Yuba City area was now living in Livermore and looking for a piece
of land to get back to the Butte/Yuba region. He purchased this land in the 90's and over the years transformed
the property. He established the low corner of this parcel into a functional drainage basin and wildlife pond.
In the mean time, Henry also learned that this parcel did have good drainage path that had simply been blocked and was unused.
He repaired the drainage area and proceeded to reorganize the 6 parcels that already existed in the 80 acre section.
Henry also added functional flood irrigation to raise forage crops and planted alfalfa in 2007. In the meantime
Henry and his wife Mona built a home on the front parcel of land and moved to East Biggs.
It was in the summer
of 2007, I stopped by to introduce Henry to myself and an idea to expand his retention pond into a fully functional irrigation
reservoir with recreational capabilities. Waterskiing being the basic recreational activity, along with fishing, swimming,
kayaking, and on and on... I assumed Mr. Mutz would think I was crazy and discount the idea, but if he were to sell
one of his parcels, the concept imagined for this property for so long would likely never be done. So why not share
this idea. Henry listened intently and then proceeded to look more deeply into the concept. He visited Red Rock
Lake, Aqua Vida, Willow Landing and other private lake sites in the area with his wife Mona. They decided
it would be a nice amenity to the three back parcels and would add value to the entire area.
It was about 1 year
later when Henry and I agreed to move forward on the concept. We constructed the lake, using the soil to build up the
remaining land a few extra feet. After the dust settled, there are three parcels that the lake is built across.
My wife Sandi and I along with my parents purchased the first lot with Henry and Mona putting the other two 10 acre lots up
for sale. The lake is perfect. Great depth, right length, plenty of width and everything else you would want with
a lake designed to recreate on while using as water storage.
The lake uses about 12 acres of the 40 acres
that the three parcels sit on. This allows for plenty of water storage for late season irrigation of the crop that the
individual parcel owners choose. Currently we are focused on planning a water efficient permanent crop that can be drip
irrigated with lake side pumps. With the heavy clay soil, crop options are limited. However it would make good
vineyard or orchard for some suitable varieties of grapes or olives. This irrigation can take advantage of winter retention
and limited water years. Such as the massive drought years we are in now!!
While moving the soil around to
shape the land, we added a 2000' airstrip that parallels the lake. It is planned as a grass strip. Housepads were
built up on all three parcels and the crop land was laser leveled and ripped 3' deep for orchard/vineyard preperation.
Tune back in for the FUN stuff!! Land and Lake improvements along with other updates. Come see us! Henry
and I love to show guests the property and share the long term vision. The views are great and so is the peace and quiet.
As much as i am not looking forward to getting old, I cannot wait to see this property in 5 years as houses get built and
the lake and land matures with crops, landscape and more...
9:55 pm est
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