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Show Moss Will Ask Funds For Utah Facility1 On Watershed Study Senator Frank E. Moss (D-Utah) (D-Utah) will urge Congress to appropriate ap-propriate $900,000 to construct a Watershed Research Laboratory Labora-tory at Utah State University in Logan. The laboratory would be under the direction of the Forest Service Serv-ice Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station at Ogden, and would study watershed water-shed problems of a number of Western States. During a Senate speech on the need for expanded forestry research, re-search, Senator John Stennis (D-Miss.) (D-Miss.) Thursday inserted in the Congressional Record a statement state-ment by Senator Moss urging the Logan facility. The Moss statement follows: First of all, may I commend the distinguished Senator from Mississippi Mis-sissippi (Mr. Stennis) for his efforts ef-forts to increase Forest Service research activities, and offer him my full support. Nothing is more important than sound resource development of our public domain, do-main, and adequate research is the basis for such development. The Watershed Research Laboratory Lab-oratory proposed for establishment establish-ment at the Utah State University Univer-sity at Logan in northern Utah would facilitate research in watershed wa-tershed management in the high mountain areas of the Intermountain Intermoun-tain ' West. It would serve not only Utah, but Idaho, Montana, Western Wyoming and Nevada, as a research arm of the U.S. J Forest Service Regional Office which is located at Ogden, Utah. The estimated cost of the laboratory lab-oratory is $900,000, with $600,-000 $600,-000 needed for the basic structure. struc-ture. I sincerely hope the full amount can be written into the fiscal 1963 year appropriations, and I shall take all proper steps to see that this is done. Water is extremely important in the entire Intermountain area to agriculture, industry and livestock live-stock production. The amount of water produced on high watersheds, water-sheds, and the timing of the yield all contribute to whether there is enough water in some years, and at certain times in every year, to sustain the industries, animals and individuals depend- ( Continued on page 8) Moss Will Ask Funds For Utah Facility On Watershed Study (Continued from page 1) ing on that water. The proper management of wildlife, timber growing and grazing are all part of the problem. The uncertain water supply situation of the Intermountain area is at least partly due to unsatisfactory soil and vegetative vegeta-tive cover conditions on many of the forest and range watersheds. water-sheds. There have been some serious and destructive floods in the Great Basin area in Utah. Almost all of these floods have been traced to heavy rainstorms falling on watershed areas having hav-ing poor vegetation cover and subject to much soil erosion. These are unusual and difficult soil areas, where growing vegetation vege-tation requires special attention; yet they are critical areas to control con-trol excess runoff and erosion and flooding. The Logan laboratory will facilitate the study of soils, their erodibility, and their suitability for growing vegetation for rehabilitating re-habilitating the unsatisfactory watersheds. It will also help to develop types of vegetation suitable suit-able to such harsh conditions for establishment and growth. The hydraulic behavior of water in steep mountain streams will also be a subject for study at the laboratory. These stream channels are unstable for the most part, and every spring when the snow is melting and in the summer when heavy storms strike, large quantities of soil and rock are carried into the storage reservoirs and irrigation systems. It is costly and time consuming to clean this material from the storage areas and ditches in the valleys. The laboratory will permit studies with models of how water behaves in stream channels of this kind and the types of small structures and other streambank improvements that may be helpful help-ful in stabilizing mountain stream channels. In this regard, this facility will serve a large part of the steep mountain areas of the Western United States. In conclusion, I again reiterate reiter-ate my support of the Senator from Mississippi in his efforts to increase construction funds in the fiscal year 1963 budget for Forest Service Research facilities, facili-ties, and especially for the construction con-struction of a Forest Watershed Management Laboratory in Utah. |
