A focus on conservation
Payette’s Claude Bruce is
dedicated to area water projects
By LARRY MEYER
Argus Observer
Monday, February 25, 2008 11:24 AM PST
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| Claude Bruce stands north of the Treasure Valley Community College gymnasium for which he oversaw the excavation as an instructor of a school which trained heavy equipment operators. The school only had to pay for the fuel for the equipment used, otherwise the work was done for free. Bruce continues to leave his mark on the community as he works for water conservation. |
PAYETTE - Water conservation has always been a priority for Payette’s Claude Bruce.
Bruce has been a member of the Payette Soil and Water Conservation District board for 10 years, including the last nine as chairman of the district. Water conservation, though, has been a focus for Bruce for more than 40 years.
That emphasis on water will come into sharp focus Tuesday when the Payette Soil and Water Conservation District celebrates its 50th anniversary with a dinner for current and past members of the district board.
The dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Payette Senior Citizens Hall.
Bruce, who has lived in Payette for 48 years and was born and raised in Weiser said he is glad he stayed local.
“Why leave a good thing?” he said. “It’s too great a valley to leave. The weather is never too severe.”
Bruce said, though, the valley can experience severe weather, citing the fact he has seen the temperature drop down to 30 below zero and reach 112 degrees.
Bruce spent a good part of his life in the construction business and was superintendent on a number of highway projects around the Northwest.
“My last job in construction was the highway project from Weiser to Payette,” he said.
Also as an instructor at the Western School of Heavy Equipment, later called the Five-Craft Training School, Bruce said he oversaw the excavation for the gymnasium at Treasure Valley Community College.
Bruce said he began to operate heavy equipment when he was seven. He said he learned to drive wheel tractors and crawler tractors to pull hay slips from the field on the family ranch at Mann Creek.
His first attempt at water conservation was using a scraper to build small dams to catch runoff water down from the hills above the ranch.
“My passion is anything to do with water conservation,” Bruce said. Even during his years in construction he was involved conservation projects as there were roads built around and over streams.
During the 1980’s he was involved in building projects near the headwaters of the Payette River to control sediment, such as slope stabilization, building barriers, putting in sediment basins and fixing drain fields in the middle of the road to catch runoff.
Bruce constructed similar projects on his own farms, including a sediment pond and also used gated pipe to reduce water loss through evaporation.
He was invited to become a member of the Soil and Water Conservation Service board after doing a cost-sharing project on his farm on the north side of Payette to revamp the irrigation system.
“Water is our greatest natural resource. Without water we don’t have anything,” Bruce said.
Besides chairing the Payette Soil and Water Conservation District, Bruce is chair of District 3, which is made up of 11 local soil and water conservation districts and serves the board of Idaho Association Conservation Districts.
