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Show treme grazing pressure that exem- plified the whole of the Great Basin at that time. As a result, watershed research ' programs were undertaken in an effort to solve the problems that arose from these trouble areas. During the course of these studies, it was found that deep trenches dug along the contour around the I hill slopped the overland flow of I water, and, in so doing, stopped the silt- and mud-bearing water which brought destruction to the I towns and farms below. At first on the Davis County watershed, CCC crews were used to dig trenches by hand, but, with the advent of the crawler tractor, greater strides i were made in contour trenching. I The effects of contour trenching are two-fold: First, as before mentioned, men-tioned, the overland flow of water curbed immediately; second, the water is retained on the slopes long enough to supply moisture to the plants which are so vital in permanently anchoring the unstable un-stable soil. This, then, is the essence of the work which is about to begin on the sub-Delano watershed. Its effects ef-fects are far-reaching, for what is conservation if it is not "use without with-out abuse" in preparing for the future? fu-ture? Perhaps, through programs of this sort, we can leave the land just a little bit better than it was when we found it; and if we can, what greater good can we do? Watersheds 'Rate No. 1 Importance' in West By John D. Canson This month will mark the beginning begin-ning of the long-awaited terracing job on the high slopes of the Tushar Range. Mt. Delano, a landmark land-mark of this range, rises into the atmosphere more than 12,000 feet and has for years been a ready source of abrasive silts and sands which clog our fishing streams and cut gullies and channels in our high summer ranges. It's a big job and an expensive one. Yet it is a job that is vital to the wellbeing of every man, woman, and child in this area who depends on water for existence. An exagerated statement? I think not. But let's take a closer look at the situation. History tells us that this vast land of mountains and deserts which we now inhabit once was a land of waving grasses, tall, virgin forests and clear, sparkling streams which ran through the summer clear into winter, seldom drying i up. This was the picture that swelled the heart of the pioneers as they came with their teams and wagons, their families, and their cattle and sheep, j Brlgham Young had said the land ; was there to use, and for years its rich abundance supplied the needs of a rapidly growing population, j Cattle numbers doubled and tri-1 pled; and great herds of sheep fol- i lowed the snow line in the spring, from south to north and back again in the fall until, at last, the land could no longer support the thundering herds. Gone then were the waving grasses, and gone as well were the clear, sparkling streams, At about the turn of the cen- turv. flash floods rinnpH nnH tnro out of nearly every canyon from south to north in the State of Utah. Whole towns in Davis County were flooded, then buried, beneath tremendous tre-mendous mud slides. And in other j counties throughout the state the j picture was not greatly different, j The big question then was, "What happened?" The answer was obvious ob-vious to all those who looked for it: simply, the land had been overused. over-used. Not always through greed or i selfishness, but through ignorance, j These people had come from the humid East, where moisture seldom sel-dom need be considered; thus, to over-estimate the capacity of the arid land was a natural thing, During the years that followed, the problem was partly remedied by drastic reductions in livestock numbers, but the land is slow to come back. The weeds and shrubs which replaced the grasses held the land tightly against grass re-establishment. re-establishment. And the land left . bare and hard merely turned the moisture away, for few plants were there to permeate the soil. As one might expect, some areas of our vast land present greater j problems in land rehabilitation than others. These are the steep slopes rising far into the sky above I timber-line. Here the growing season sea-son is short and the plants that are able to survive the rigorous environment are few. At best, areas of this nature should be grazed only lightly, if at all, because of the unstable nature of the soil. Yet they received the same ex- |
