Photo Credit: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Voyagerix
Editor’s Note: This column, “LBWA” (Leadership By Wandering Around), is based on the premise that, in order to find out what’s going on in the field, a parks and rec leader has to leave his or her desk and “wander around” the area of operations, talk to people, ask questions, and kick around ideas with the individuals in the thick of delivering services to the public. So the author will bring up issues and ask the leaders among the readership to share their knowledge and experiences.
Irrigation has been around since Bronze Age Mesopotamians in the “cradle of civilization” in the Tigris-Euphrates River system coaxed water through a matrix of small channels formed in the fields.
In that situation, they were directing water to agricultural crops that sustained life. Since then, irrigation has come a long way; modern systems are used not only for crops, but also for lawns, parks, and sports fields.
However, despite the complexity and sophistication of today’s irrigation systems, they share the same roots with Mesopotamian systems because both involve artificial application of water to the land.