Raw land in Wyoming

https://www.landsofamerica.com/property/Rawlins-Wyoming-82301/10321225/

I post this here because I want some opinions of people who live a lot closer than I do. This property borders BLM land, so there's the advantage that neighbors are unlikely to bother me; also, direct access to public land. It's a highland area, and only drops 20 feet or so from the NW corner to the SE corner; so very flat, but a couple of swales might work wonders. Rain is about 10 inches per year, so definitely a dry land.  It's nearly 2 hours from the closest Wal-mart, which is in Rawlins; so this is quite a bit past the middle of nowhere.  I know that Paul recommends more elevation change, and more rainfall; but the property is only $500 per acre and borders another 640 acre square of BLM land.  I was thinking, build a swale & bury a cistern. French drain (inside swale), fabric wrapped as a large particle filter, drains directly into the cistern.  Standard shallow well manual pump nearby for water access.  Hang a sign on it that says "not potable" or some such, just in case hikers cut through; or simply cap the pipe and take the pump while I'm not there. Come back in a year for a camping week, plant some tree seeds into that swale while I'm there. Next year or so, come back and build the other swale.  I understand that it takes about 7 years for the swale to max out what the local water storage can be.  Eventually (after I retire, or my employer releases me to "pursue other opportunities") I could move out there and build an off-grid home; otherwise I could simply sell it and reasonably expect that the swales would have increased the land value anyway.

Thoughts from the forum?

I would strongly urge you to double check the water rights for the property (you want to know how old they are among other things)  And really do some reading up on water laws in Wyoming.  In some places it is illegal to build swales etc that will prevent water from flowing from your property onto the property of a person below you in the watershed with older water rights...  

Fortunately, the downhill recipient of any sheet flow from this property would be the BLM. I'm assuming that such a neighbor isn't going to object to a swale, but I have no way of asking for any such permission. I do understand that water in Wyoming is, legally, the property of the state; but everything that I can find implies that water catchment from an owned property is still considered a human right, up to an annual limit. That limit, iirc, wasn't very high at all (around 850 gallons of storage, there abouts) which certainly puts a hard limit on the size of any cistern I were to install, but I was thinking about 350 gallons anyway; at least in the beginning, as this is just going to be a camping site for many years. What I can't determine is, does the law count what is stored in the dirt?  So far, it looks like that is a no, since natural sheet flows are expected to either soak in or evaporate most of the time anyway; but I know I'm in dangerous territory.  Wars have (literally) been fought over less.

I could start out with a small swale, that doesn't interrupt the majority of the sheet flow; or even just a rock ring/dam.  Mostly, I want the cistern & catchment to be invisible to the uninitiated eye; but capture & hold enough water that it could be useful as a hunters' base camp. I could pay for the annual taxes simply by leasing out the site as a private campsite during hunting season.  As Paul has mentioned regarding his own experiences, the Department of Making You Sad usually responds to complaints, and otherwise doesn't have the resources to hunt down victims that don't pop their heads up.

So if my cistern is 350 gallons, and my goal is to have it refill every month if necessary; the lowest average monthly rainfall seems to be just about half an inch in August. I've been told that one square foot of (impervious) catchment will yield one-half gallon of water per inch of rainfall.  So to refill my cistern from empty during an average August, I'd need at least 1400 square feet of watershed. That seems like it should be trivial on a 40 acre property. A swale or rock dam 15 feet across, 100 feet from the highest point of the property and directly in line with sheet flow should be able to get that much done. Double either metric to compensate for soakage or other losses, and we're good.

I absolutely don't count on the swale as a needed feature, however; as the cistern would still capture a respectable amount of water without such an earthwork. I figured that it would be a value-added kind of thing for the property given time, as it might be able to support more trees; should i decide to either move there myself or sell the property.

I've been tempted by those lots out that way a time or two... definitely cheap price (I'm perhaps 3 hrs away)
If I were to pursue it, I think I'd like to budget for a full permaculture design plan and earthworks, with trees and water cisterns to water said trees into establishment. The land is cheap, but install costs would be quite high per acre. That being said, if you're successful. You'll likely have prime hunting property as the only trees in that desert are likely to draw a lot of game in from surrounding areas. In an area that doesn't recieve a lot of pressure because it's a desert.
Soils are likely comprised largely of clay as most of the soil in that area is so ponds may be possible after trees are established.  However until then it is a desert for a reason, high winds with very low rain and snowfall and extreme evaporative forces.

I would prioritize tree crops that have low maintenance needs and large annual cropping rather than the permie thing of small crops continuously. Because you're going to need to have a large harvest to make sells financially feasible(I know a distributor that would love to move your product for you if you were sucessful)

Chickens seem to help Clay soils out a lot in this area of the world so I'd certainly consider those, but otherwise I'd maybe do ducks or geese and would be hesitant to take on any larger grazers until the pastures were in a shape that called for it, feeding hay in the winter is expensive,  and in that sweat you can count on not having access to the property for months at a time most winters due to slippery clay or in "bad" years excessive snow drifting in roadways

Some thoughts;
- Land is low cost for a reason
- sometimes that reason is that anything usual will cost heaps
- But something done differently may work well
- Why not allow walkers to grab a drink if they need one?
- Have you any thoughts about what you wish to do?
- If some food source is on your mind, perhaps look at other desert areas and look for success stories.

Anything involving storage of water for longer than 24 hours requires permitting from the state engineering office.   It not a complicated process but it something that takes time.

Trees are hard to grow here.  The wind dries them out and the winters are long.  I would go take a look at the site before you buy and make sure you understand who has mineral rights.

John C Daley wrote:Some thoughts;
- Land is low cost for a reason
- sometimes that reason is that anything usual will cost heaps
- But something done differently may work well

Differently is definatly what I had in mind.

- Why not allow walkers to grab a drink if they need one?

Only because leaving the pump infrastructure in place puts it at risk of vandalism, although there might be a way to do it without much risk of loss to the overall system.

- Have you any thoughts about what you wish to do?

My thoughts are just to build some swales in one year, plant some trees in the next.  Basically create a private camping lot, with a small amount of stored water.  Another way I thought about doing it (if the soil isn't rock) is to bury a pond liner a few feet under the soil, directly under the lowest swale, in a concave shape.  Basically as an artificial "impermeable layer" to create a groundwater pocket.  Then put a driven well head near the bottom of that pocket and a shallow well pump at the top and let it be.  it won't likely be nice to drink, but it would be fine for watering a garden.  After a decade or so, it's either going to be a tiny oasis or nothing.  Something to gift to my grandchildren, I suppose.

Alex Arn wrote:Anything involving storage of water for longer than 24 hours requires permitting from the state engineering office.   It not a complicated process but it something that takes time.

Trees are hard to grow here.  The wind dries them out and the winters are long.  I would go take a look at the site before you buy and make sure you understand who has mineral rights.

Obviously, I didn't pursue this idea, as that land was for sale 2 years ago.  That said I wonder, would a swale fall under that permit rule from the state engineering office?  Or does that apply to catchment that doesn't allow rainfall to enter into the soil?  I have to admit, I find the rainwater rules in Western states to be weird.

I would have encouraged you to look at my signature and create a structure with an iron roof to capture water in a tank.
With no pump, things should be simple.

Obviously, I didn't pursue this idea, as that land was for sale 2 years ago.  That said I wonder, would a swale fall under that permit rule from the state engineering office?  Or does that apply to catchment that doesn't allow rainfall to enter into the soil?  I have to admit, I find the rainwater rules in Western states to be weird.
Yeah I missed how old the thread was.

I chatted with on the state engineers recently on this very  topic since I plan to build a series of surge retention area to reduce erosion.  Short answer, it’s a gray area but if is clearly designed to drain or soak in it’s probably fine.  Given how wet this year has been there are plenty of areas on my land that are currently full of standing water that are normally dry within hours.