By Carly Hamilton, USDA NRCS 

The rush of the Snake River cascades through the canyon where, tucked back on a country road at the bottom of the Snake River Canyon, sits Kelley’s Canyon Orchard near Filer, Idaho. More than a century old, the orchard was settled in 1908 by John Steele Gourley through the Carey Act – a law which paved the way for irrigation companies to form and improve water access in the arid desert regions of the United States. Gourley and his family, originally from Pennsylvania, used the infrastructure created by the Carey Act as an opportunity to begin a legacy that would last well past his lifetime into the fifth generation of his family.  

Using farming knowledge from his time in Pennsylvania, Gourley observed that the Magic Valley had a suitable climate to grow stone fruit. He planted cherry, apple and peach trees, and an orchard began!  

More than 100 years later, the orchard is still active thanks to Gourley’s great-great granddaughter Robin Kelley. When she began operating Kelley’s Canyon Orchard, she evaluated the irrigation infrastructure on the property. Without any knowledge of water needs in the West, Gourley initially installed irrigation the only way he knew how – from east to west. What he did not realize was that water running north to south was more efficient and effective for farms in the Magic Valley. The west to east corrugates were active for just a few years. Hethen switched to north to south. The corrugates running from north to south existed until the micro sprinkler system was implemented in 2023.   

As time went on, Kelley knew that she would need to make a change to keep the orchard alive. The labor required to maintain the irrigation was becoming too intensive for the long-time staff of Kelley’s Canyon Orchard, and she wanted to keep them on board as long as they were able.  

Having little knowledge of where to even begin, she was at an impasse; “I need all the help I can get, and I don't have all the answers. And I don't know how to do this. And I'm not afraid to say that,” Kelley explained.  

That’s when she called the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Twin Falls Service Center for help.  

In comes Mike Cothern, the Conservation Team Lead for the Twin Falls area, and a Magic Valley local. Despite being a seasoned NRCS veteran, he had never worked on an irrigation improvement project for an orchard before. It required a lot of collaboration and learning. “In terms of a project like this where I was out of my comfort zone from the very beginning, there was a lot to learn,” Cothern said.  

To learn and try to find a solution for the Orchard, Cothern called upon another NRCS veteran -- Dan Murdock, a Water Resources Planning Specialist and civil engineer.  

Murdock had designed an irrigation system for an orchard only once before, for Gem Orchards in Emmett, Idaho. Using his experience from that project, Murdock wanted to explore the idea of keeping the irrigation system gravity fed, leveraging the elevation surrounding the orchard. The orchard has access to two different sources of water, one being an elevated spring, which Murdock merged to feed the irrigation system.  

Gravity-fed systems offer operators like Kelley the chance to reduce their annual energy usage costs. Kelley’s originally relied on gravity-fed corrugated pipes. Now, the newly designed system still relies on being gravity fed from the slope of the canyon side that creates a 100-foot drop which pressurizes the system without the use of pumps, or electricity. A computer system is built into the system as well, which allows Kelley to run her sprinklers, one in between each fruit tree, from her home.  

This micro-sprinkler system presented two challenges: keeping the water off of the leaves of the fruit trees and under the canopy and filtering out the miniscule sand particles from the natural spring water. In the initial design, the “bubbler,” or mechanism that pushes the gravity-fed water through the system, contained the only filter screen for the entire irrigation system. The screen would filter what it could, but the smaller sediment particles would flow through the system and screens at the end of the system would fill with sand every few minutes, requiring flushing and cleaning every time. This was not sustainable, so Murdock initiated a change in the design. There are now five points of filtration, each filtering different sizes of granules and preventing sand from clogging the system each time it’s used. 

Kelley’s Canyon Orchard’s irrigation project was executed through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), a program which provides financial assistance for agricultural conservation improvement projects such as an irrigation system improvement. 

The new irrigation system has provided Kelley’s Canyon Orchard with the opportunity to expand and diversify into different crops. “Because of what we've been able to do with water management, we can expand the orchard. We have new varieties; we have new plantings; [we] planted 250 trees this last spring. I would never be able to do that without an irrigation system to support it,” Kelley explained. Murdock planned for this, adding in infrastructure to allow the Orchard to expand at any time.  

Unfortunately, the 2024 growing season was plagued by a late-season frost which destroyed many of the buds on their fruit trees. But Kelley had an idea in 2023 to add in a new crop which is more frost resistant but just as colorful as fruit trees – peonies!  

The peonies add not only a pop of color in the early summer, but also provide  an earlier crop then cherries, which provide income earlier in the season and are not as susceptible to frost like stone fruit. She’s also been able to expand her fruit tree varieties, reviving heritage varieties and adding new, more popular varieties of cherries and apples.  

Kelley is looking to expand even further. Through an application for the Conservation Stewardship Program, she is hoping to be able to add soil moisture sensors to keep better track of the amount of water that is being applied between the different soil types on the orchard and berries for U-Pick berry picking. 

Despite the frost, Kelley has been able to use her brand-new irrigation system to protect and improve her orchard, saying “even thought I don’t have a crop now; it is important all the more important or me to keep my trees healthy. So, I am still doing pest control, and still doing my watering program. [I am doing] everything I would normally do because I am setting buds for the future.” 

To learn more about Kelley’s Canyon Orchard, visit kelleyscanyonorchard.com or find them on Facebook.  

For more information on NRCS in Idaho, visit nrcs.usda.gov/idaho.