OCR Text |
Show Conservation Survey Now Completed On Four Million Ariz. Strip Acres Conservation surveys, which are basic to soil and moisture conservation con-servation field operations, have been completed on nearly 4,000,000 acres of land in the Kingman, Arizona Ari-zona Strip and Maricopa grazing districts in Arizona, L. R. Brooks, regional grazier of the Grazing Service announced today. These surveys are the first step in carrying car-rying out the coordinated land management program devised b the Office of Land Utilization foi lands administered by the Department Depart-ment of the Interior in the western west-ern states. Two Projects Set Up Two soil and moisture conservation conserva-tion projects have been set up and are now in active operation in Arizona grazing districts. These are the Big Sandy project proj-ect in the Kingman district, and the Virgin river project in the Arizona Strip district. A total of 80 miles of segregation, allotment, and drift fences already have been completed in the two projects. An additional 13 miles of fencing, which was planned for the Saf-ford Saf-ford district at the time soil and (Continued on page six) Completing Surveys (Continued from first page) moisture conservation activities on public lands were transferred fromj the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior, has been completed, Mr. Brooks stated. Mr. Brooks pointed out that holders of grazing permits in the three districts contributed $6,-108.37 $6,-108.37 toward the fencing projects. proj-ects. More than 25,000 posts and stays have been cut for use in new fencing jobs on the Big Sandy soil and moisture conservation conserva-tion project. 2,560 Acres Re-Seeded In the Virgin river project 2,560 acres have been reseeded to a mixture of western wheat grass and Indian wheat, blue grama, al-fileria, al-fileria, and Pentzia, an imported African sheep browse, for the double purpose of improving the range and for control of erosion at the head of Kanab creek. The seed was planted in strips 25 to 30 feet wide with a strip of equal width left between. It is believed that natural re-vegetation in favorable fav-orable seasons will spread the benefits of the reseeding work to much larger adjoining areas. Of the 3,450 pounds of seed used in strip-seeding this acreage, 1,300 pounds of alfileria and Indian wheat seed were gathered by CCC enrollees. In this project also, construction work is now going forward on 7 miles of truck trails across the Hurricane Rim. When completed, this trail will shorten the distance and make possible a much safer route for the movement of sheep across the Rim into the lower grazing areas. Water Developments A large number of water developments de-velopments wells, springs, and tanks -which will open up additional addi-tional acreages for grazing and relieve pressure on areas now in use, are included as a part of the complete soil and moisture saving sav-ing program now being pushed forward on the Virgin river and Big Sandy conservation projects. Paramount in our present situation situ-ation is recognized the need for the greatest possible production of livestock and livestock products for use in the National Defense effort. The Grazing Service is using its soil and moisture program pro-gram to coordinate Federal range use for the highest possible production pro-duction in pounds of beef and lamb and other products with the needs for wisest conservation use of the Federal range resources for maintained fertility and productivity produc-tivity of the vast grazing resources re-sources on Federal range. |