{"id":5286,"date":"2015-07-20T16:33:52","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T16:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5286"},"modified":"2015-07-20T16:33:52","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T16:33:52","slug":"amid-epic-drought-california-farmers-turn-to-water-witches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5286","title":{"rendered":"Amid epic drought, California farmers turn to water witches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rejected by scientists, dowsing is an ancient tradition that\u2019s dying hard in the Central Valley\u2019s parched fields
\nVern Tassey doesn\u2019t advertise. He\u2019s never even had a business card. But here in California\u2019s Central Valley, word has gotten around that he\u2019s a man with \u201cthe gift,\u201d and Tassey, a plainspoken, 76-year-old grandfather, has never been busier.<\/p>\n

Farmers call him day and night \u2014 some from as far away as the outskirts of San Francisco and even across the state line in Nevada. They ask, sometimes even beg, him to come to their land. \u201cName your price,\u201d one told him. But Tassey has so far declined. What he does has never been about money, he says, and he prefers to work closer to home.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where he was on a recent Wednesday morning, quietly marching along the edge of a bushy orange grove here in the heart of California\u2019s citrus belt, where he\u2019s lived nearly his entire life. Dressed in faded Wranglers, dusty work boots and an old cap, Tassey held in his hands a slender metal rod, which he clutched close to his chest and positioned outward like a sword as he slowly walked along the trees. Suddenly, the rod began to bounce up and down, as if it were possessed, and he quickly paused and scratched a spot in the dirt with his foot before continuing on.<\/p>\n

A few feet away stood the Wollenmans \u2014 Guy, his brother Jody and their cousin Tommy \u2014 third-generation citrus farmers whose family maintains some of the oldest orange groves in the region. Like so many Central Valley farmers, their legacy is in danger \u2014 put at risk by California\u2019s worst drought in decades. The lack of rain and snow runoff from the nearby Sierra Nevada has caused many of their wells to go dry. To save their hundreds of acres of trees, they\u2019ll need to find new, deeper sources of water \u2014 and that\u2019s where Tassey comes in.<\/p>\n

Tassey is what is known as a \u201cwater witch,\u201d or a dowser \u2014 someone who uses little more than intuition and a rod or a stick to locate underground sources of water. It\u2019s an ancient art that dates back at least to the 1500s \u2014 though some dowsers have argued the origins are even earlier, pointing to what they say is Biblical evidence of Moses using a rod to summon water. In California, farmers have been \u201cwitching the land\u201d for decades \u2014 though the practitioners of this obscure ritual have never been as high profile or as in demand as during the last year.<\/p>\n

With nearly 50 percent of the state in \u201cexceptional drought\u201d \u2014 the highest intensity on the scale \u2014 and no immediate relief in sight, Californians are increasingly turning to spiritual methods and even magic in their desperation to bring an end to the dry spell. At greatest risk is the state\u2019s central farming valley, a region that provides fully half the nation\u2019s fruit and vegetables. Already, hundreds of thousands of acres have been fallowed, and farmers say if they can\u2019t find water to sustain their remaining crops, the drought could destroy their livelihoods, cause mass unemployment and damage the land in ways that could take decades to recover.<\/p>\n

With nearly 50 percent of the state in \u201cexceptional drought,\u201d Californians are increasingly turning to spiritual methods and even magic in their desperation to bring an end to the dry spell.
\nAcross the Central Valley, churches are admonishing their parishioners to pray for rain. Native American tribal leaders have been called in to say blessings on the land in hopes that water will come. But perhaps nothing is more unorthodox or popular than the water witches \u2014 even though the practice has been scorned by scientists and government officials who say there\u2019s no evidence that water divining, as it is also known, actually works. They\u2019ve dismissed the dowsers\u2019 occasional success as the equivalent of a fortunate roll of the dice \u2014 nothing but pure, simple luck. But as the drought is expected to only get worse in coming months, it\u2019s a gamble that many California farmers seem increasingly willing to take.<\/p>\n

With many farms limited or even cut off from government-allocated irrigation water this year, growers like the Wollenmans have been forced to rely on their groundwater wells \u2014 most of which were built more than 50 years ago and are less than 200 feet deep. In a normal year of regular rainfall, that would usually suffice, but with so many straws in the cup, wells across the Central Valley are quickly going dry. Farmers are being forced to drill deeper to tap into the aquifer below \u2014 an expensive proposition that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. It\u2019s a desperate attempt to survive what many describe as a slow-moving natural disaster on par with the Dust Bowl.
\nView gallery
\n.A dust devil rises up in a citrus grove along Highway 65 in Tulare County, Calif (Holly Bailey\/Yahoo News)
\nA dust devil rises up in a citrus grove along Highway 65 in Tulare County, Calif (Holly Bailey\/Yahoo News)
\nState officials recommend that farmers who are planning to dig should hire a hydrogeologist to survey their land to find a spot for a productive well. But the first call many farmers make is to a water witch \u2014 who charges a fraction of the price and, some insist, is often just as accurate.
\nOn this Wednesday, Tassey was charging the Wollenmans just $100 \u2014 his usual fee \u2014 to look for water in one of their orange groves. They\u2019d been working with him for years \u2014 and before that, they\u2019d used another witch to help them find water, just as their parents had when they first came here in the 1940s as one of the first citrus growers in Lindsay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always used someone,\u201d Guy Wollenman said as he watched Tassey work. \u201cMost farmers do. They don\u2019t drill a hole without someone like Vern to help them find the best spots.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an energy of some sort. \u2026 Like how some people can run a Ouija board. You either have it or you don\u2019t.\u201d
\n\u2014 Marc Mondavi
\nThe severity of the latest drought has raised the ante even higher. With landowners across the valley desperate to tap into water, it costs thousands of dollars just to get on a waitlist for drilling that is often several months long. Desperate farmers have little margin for error. If they drill a hole and find nothing, it\u2019s money that\u2019s gone, and they are back on the waitlist again. They are betting on witches to help them find the magic mark.<\/p>\n

A few feet away, Tassey continued to pace back and forth along the line of orange trees, and as he worked, a strange hush settled over the scene. Soon, the only sound was Tassey\u2019s footsteps crunching dead leaves on the sandy ground as a nearby dog began to bark. The farmers quietly followed at a distance, careful not to disrupt Tassey\u2019s concentration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will start bouncing,\u201d Jody Wollenman explained in a low voice, pointing to the metal rod in Tassey\u2019s hands. \u201cWhen he hits the aquifer, it will start moving. It tells you the width of the aquifer by the strength of the bounce.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Oklahoma native who moved to the Central Valley with his family in the aftermath of the Dust Bowl when he was just 7, Tassey discovered he had the \u201cgift\u201d during California\u2019s last devastating drought in the late 1970s. A colleague at a drilling company often witched the land before they dug wells, and intrigued, Tassey asked if he could give it a try. The rest, he said, is history.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s never bothered Tassey that people call him a witch \u2014 though lately it\u2019s gotten him into a little trouble with folks at church. A few weeks earlier, a local television station out of Fresno came down to interview him after hearing of his skill. He\u2019d never been on television before. \u201cThe reporter asked me if I dabbled in witchcraft. Do I worship the devil?\u201d he laughed. A few days later at church, Tassey, a Baptist, got pulled aside by one of the church elders just to make sure.<\/p>\n

As Tassey paced down the line of trees, the farmers followed quietly. After a moment, Tommy Wollenman, who is also a general manager at LoBue Citrus, a grower and distributor in town, tried to lighten the mood. \u201cOmmmm,\u201d he jokingly began to chant. A few feet away, the metal rod in Tassey\u2019s hands suddenly began to move feverishly up and down. Wollenman paused. \u201cThat\u2019s amazing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As the farmers walked closer, Tassey scratched a mark in the ground and grabbed another tool \u2014 this one a metal rod crafted into a Y shape, almost like a wishbone. He backed up along the path and walked forward again, retracing his steps. He was, he explained, using this tool to \u201cfine-tune\u201d his discovery. With this, he\u2019d be able to more accurately guess the route of the aquifer below and suggest where drillers should dig to capture the best volume. In his hands, his guiding rod seemed to bounce again, and Tassey stopped, marking another spot.<\/p>\n

Moving in, Tommy Wollenman reached down and quickly planted a tiny metal stake with an orange flag in the spot. \u201cOh!\u201d he cried, a teasing smile on his face. \u201cI think there\u2019s water coming up already!\u201d<\/p>\n

No one knows how many water witches there are. They don\u2019t exactly advertise in the phone book or the newspaper. There is an organization \u2014 the American Society of Dowsers, which has hundreds of members scattered across local chapters throughout the country. But many water witches like Tassey seem to work on their own. The U.S. Geological Survey, which issued a brochure discrediting the practice of dowsers, estimates there may be thousands roaming the nation\u2019s agricultural lands in search of water \u2014 though the agency admits even it isn\u2019t sure.<\/p>\n

Water witches have been a fixture in California agriculture for about as long as people here can remember. Everyone knows of someone who\u2019s used one or a person who had \u201cthe gift\u201d \u2014 or at least thought they did. Even John Steinbeck immortalized the role of the dowser in his seminal novel \u201cEast of Eden,\u201d set in California\u2019s Salinas Valley.<\/p>\n

In the book, Adam Trask hires Samuel Hamilton to find water on land he hopes to transform into his own personal Eden. When Trask asks Hamilton how his divining stick works, the fictional witch confesses that he\u2019s not really sure and suggests it\u2019s perhaps his own instinct, not an instrument, driving the magic. \u201cMaybe I know where the water is, feel it in my skin,\u201d Hamilton explains.<\/p>\n

Ask a witch in real life how the magic works or why they were blessed with \u201cthe gift,\u201d and most confess they don\u2019t know. In Napa Valley, Marc Mondavi, a vintner whose family is part of the state\u2019s wine aristocracy, discovered his ability decades ago when a high school girlfriend\u2019s father who was a dowser took him out into the vineyard to see if he had any skills. Mondavi was only 17. \u201cHe used these willow forks, and he handed them to me and said, \u2018Go,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cAnd sure enough, they bent down.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Mondavi didn\u2019t know if he really believed he had the skill. But years later, while in college, he summoned his ability again when his family planned to drill a new well on their property. They had called on the expertise of the most popular dowser in wine country, a vineyard manager named Frank Wood, who at the time was witching almost all the land around Napa. When Mondavi mentioned to him that he believed he had the gift, Wood became his mentor and taught him everything he knew.<\/p>\n

Scientists roll their eyes at the phenomenon. Graham Fogg, a hydrologist at the University of California, Davis, called it \u201cfolklore.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s an energy of some sort. … Like how some people can run a Ouija board. You either have it or you don\u2019t. You can\u2019t learn how to get it, but if you do have it, you have to learn how to use it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt took me years to get my confidence. … At first, you are a bit leery of telling someone they are going to have to go dig a $50,000 hole. What if nothing is there? But over time, I learned to trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now at 61, Mondavi is the go-to water witch for Napa \u2014 servicing some of the top wine producers in the country. Among his clients is Bronco Wine Company, the nation\u2019s fourth-largest winemaker, which makes Charles Shaw\u2019s \u201cTwo Buck Chuck\u201d and dozens of other brands. He knows what geologists say about witches like him, and he relishes the idea of proving them wrong. \u201cThey think we\u2019re ridiculous, that it\u2019s all luck,\u201d he said. \u201cI get it. There\u2019s no science that explains any of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pausing, Mondavi can\u2019t help but smile. \u201cI\u2019m good,\u201d he says, a sly grin on his face. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid to blow my own horn. I\u2019m good at this.\u201d
\nScientists roll their eyes at the phenomenon. Graham Fogg, a hydrologist at the University of California, Davis, called it \u201cfolklore\u201d and said there is no scientific proof that dowsers have any special skill at finding water. The reason dowsers often appear successful, he argued, is because \u201cgroundwater is ubiquitous.\u201d Anybody with a basic knowledge of an aquifer is likely to be able to tap into something.<\/p>\n

\u201cGroundwater occurs virtually everywhere at some depth beneath the surface of the earth, so regardless of where you drill, you will virtually always hit the water table at some depth,\u201d Fogg said.<\/p>\n

The vibrating or movement of the diving rods or sticks, scientists argue, is nothing more than show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always used someone. Most farmers do. They don\u2019t drill a hole without someone like Vern to help them find the best spots.\u201dLorem
\n\u2014 Guy Wollenman
\nIn spite of the skepticism, some high-profile figures seem unwilling to miss a chance at finding water. Last year, at the suggestion of a cousin, California Gov. Jerry Brown had a pair of water witches go over land he owns in Williams, Calif., about an hour north of Sacramento, where he plans to build a home and settle when he retires. A spokesman for the governor confirmed Brown had used dowsers, but he declined to say if they found water.<\/p>\n

Down in the Central Valley, Tassey says he would like to retire. Three times, he\u2019s tried, but the farmers won\u2019t let him. He\u2019s too good at witching the wells, apparently. Farmers talk him up to each other, and even drillers have started to recommend him. He estimates he\u2019s witched at least 100 wells so far this year \u2014 the busiest year he can recall in the four decades since he learned he had the gift.<\/p>\n

Tassey can\u2019t explain what makes him special, why he apparently has this ability that others do not. He had hoped that one of his four kids might have the gift, but none did. Only him. Some have speculated it has something to do with the magnetic core of the earth. He doesn\u2019t know. He just has something, a gift that God has given him to use, and he\u2019ll likely use it until the day he dies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe farmers here have been good to me all these years, to all of us here,\u201d Tassey says. \u201cNow it\u2019s my turn.\u201d\"drought\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rejected by scientists, dowsing is an ancient tradition that\u2019s dying hard in the Central Valley\u2019s parched fields Vern Tassey doesn\u2019t advertise. He\u2019s never even had a business card. But here in California\u2019s Central Valley, word has gotten around that he\u2019s a man with \u201cthe gift,\u201d and Tassey, a plainspoken, 76-year-old grandfather, has never been busier. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[286],"class_list":["post-5286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strange-world","tag-drought"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/drought.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1ng","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5288,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286\/revisions\/5288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}