OCR Text |
Show THE CITIZEN 4 . Private land includes also about 7 million acres of grazing land, some of which is carefully and scientifically handled, but some owners, and many, do not know what their grazing lands can be made to I dare say , ' produce. The state land is largely riontil-labl- e. So far as I know, there is no organization charged with retaining or increasing the productivity lands. - v oil, coal, etc., withdrawals the public domain, comof the state, have prising over 60 no management whatsoever which attempts to maintain or increase productivity of the soil. No one knows what these lands can pro-- THE - i lished primarily for watershed pro- yards of water carried 221,000 cu- tection and for the production of bic yards of detritus. .The more of this solid matter that can bb held timber. They present a land manin place on the watersheds, the less agement problem. They are administered with the idea of increasing the damage. The more this solid ' matter or earth is bound by intertheir productivity. twining roots of herbaceous and What do they produce? the better for the vegetation, larger of timber water Crbps of forage, crops and the better for the supply wild of are and crops game. They growth of forage and timber. handled too with due regard for reWashing away the soil means creation values.' But the most im.washing away .soil nourishment. The these areas can contribution portant vegetation on the watershed serves make to Utah is in serving as also the small rivuintercepting by watersheds. High precipitation oclets that form after a storm or from' curs in the mountains and it is the snow. This interception afmelting high mountainous region that the fords more opportunity for water to National; Forests occupy, although soak into the ground, to seep out there" are thousands of acres of throughout the summer gradually realize We all watersheds. other season. Water on barren areas runs off rapidly, forming short periods of high water at a time it is not needed. This results in extremely ' Left Hauling railroad ties low water at a time it is needed from the Manti forest. most. The mitigation of, floods, however, will not in itself eliminate all ' solid matter. The from damage Below Dead aspen poles in amount of solid matter carried durthe Wasatch forest. ing normal streamflow may cause a , , . lot of damage. THE silt carried by the Colorado will reduce the capacity of the proposed Boulder Dam annually by many thousand acre feet. W. D. Collins and G. S. Howard of the U. S. Geological Survey in an article published by permission of the Director of the U. S. Geological Suryey say: Published estimates of the weight of dry material in a cubic foot or deposited silt under water range from about 33 pounds to 86 pounds. On the basis of 33 pounds to the cubic foot the quantity of suspended matter carried past would Grand Canyon in 1925-2- 6 res--erv- oir duce. In general, we know they have been abused and produce considerably less than when discovered. Those familiar with these areas ful- ly realize that they are diminishing in productivity. A disgrace to any progressive community, but still the that water is not "only at a premium, but it is life itself to the state. Our growth is largely limit- ed by the water supply. Such being the case, the watersheds are given first consideration in the management, of the National Forests, not only to conserve the water but to check erosion, because erosion removes nutrition as well as soil. Land once deprived of its soil nutrition is permanently injured. condition persists. These lands, according to U. S. Extension Service of Circular 41, now furnish 52 the total livestock feeds for Utahs 2,300,000 sheep and 500,000 cattle. There is plenty of evidence that these lands, under known methods THE. most destructive stuff that are made of is not water, of management, could double in productivity. Think of the economic but solid matter. The French enginadvantage to Utah if it had feed eer, Demontzey, found that a mounfor . another million sheep and a tain torrent brought down after one fourth of a million cattle! storm, two and a half times its own thousand cubic The National Forests were estab- - .volume. Eighty-fiv- e -- if depositoccupy 313,000 acre-fe-et ed in' a reservoir, and the volume for 1926-2- 7 would be 617,000 acre-fee- t. On the basis of 86 pounds to the cubic foot the volumes for the two years would be 120,000 and 237,000 acre-fee- t. This means that if all the water stored in the proposed Boulder Dam was used, from 120,000 to 600,000 Acres of irrigated land would have to be abandoned yearly, if the silt was all deposited. Eventually there will be nothing left in the reservoir but silt. This deposition of silt is going on in a less noticeable, but none the less persistent degree in most of Utahs reservoirs and ditches. The better the watershed is managed, the less is this sedimentation. Such being the case, why not forbid all kinds of use of the National Forests, except for watershed protection? Such |