This Fall our students have a special opportunity to learn about the world of irrigation. With the help of Cascade Water Alliance and instructor David McGrath, the students are using the irrigation learning lab in the arboretum to understand equipment, repairs and control settings for a standard system as well as a drip system. We hope to continue to use the irrigation lab to train our students as well as other local industry groups. On this day students learned how to adjust a sprinkler head so it sprays water in the right place. They also adjusted the placement of a sprinkler head that was several feet away from the bed, bringing it closer with a funny pipe and new fittings. Finally students learned how to deal with a broken pipe, cutting out the leaky piece and gluing together the new parts. As students become familiar with the different parts of an irrigation system they are better prepared to make repairs on a job or install a drip system in their own yard.
