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Show Volume XXII Issue VIII The Ogden Valley news Page 9 June 15 2014 Excerpt from “The History of the Weber County Watershed Protective Corporation” In the 1940’s, meetings of officials and reports in the newspapers of concern about the water supply made the citizenry aware and interested in these problems. On May 12, 1946 an editorial in the Ogden Standard Examiner headlined that “Ogden Needs More Water,” and went on to say that “it seems plain that the citizens of Ogden should unite behind the city commission to proceed at once with a program to insure that Ogden shall have an expanding and reliable water supply to accommodate present and future needs.” On January 23, 1947, the Ogden paper editorialized that “Nations’ Water Dwindling” and in another article, reported that in 1946 that “more culinary water was consumed in Ogden . . . than any time in history.” On July 16, 1947, J. A. Howell, chairman of the Planning Commission, conducted a meeting which discussed the water problems of Weber County. Paul Gilgen of the Planning Commission presented the data on the water conditions in the county. Other participants were a variety of local and federal officials including George Smith of the Planning Commission, George Dewey Clyde of Utah State Agricultural College, Francis Warnick of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Ezra Fjelsted and C. N. Woods. The meeting reported on water use and availability of water; the problems of floods and watershed protection; the storage of water and the possibility of continued and future water supplies.” In this setting of flooding, especially that of August 19, 1945, and the concerns of the community about its water supply, the Weber County Watershed Protective Corporation was formed. The main thrust for organization came from several community leaders and groups, mainly the Kiwanis Clubs of Ogden, the Liberty and Eden Irrigation Companies, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Ogden City and Weber County Commissions. “While the flood debris was still fresh on the gouged benchlands of North Ogden, some 50 representatives of clubs and other organizations and interests in the Ogden area toured the flood zone to survey the damages.” One group of investigators went by horseback into the higher mountain regions to inspect the flood source problem. Most of those who made these tours were convinced that while the damage from the flood in 1945 was relatively light, the potentialities for very serious flooding in the future were “glaringly apparent.” There was a real threat to culinary and irrigation water supplies for Ogden and vicinity and to the major canals which supply water to the North Ogden and Brigham City farms and orchards. The noticeable increase of silt in the water after the storms and the reduction of water in the mountain streams in recent years added to the community concerns. The Liberty community, especially, was hard hit in the matter of drinking water, and several samples taken at different times, “consistently contained quantities of loam and humus” which made the water undrinkable and showed evidence that the valuable top soil was being stripped from the surrounding hills. Old-timers in Liberty and Eden also noted that aside from the destructive floods that roared out of North Fork Canyon with every heavy rain, the stream flow was “only half as great” as it had been 50 years earlier. In 1949, a study done by A. R. Croft and John A. Adams, Jr. of the U.S. Forest Service on “Landslides and Sedimentation in the North Fork of the Ogden River” concluded that there was a serious problem in the watershed areas of some 10,000 acres of the Chicken, Cobble, Cold, and Cutler Creek drainage of the North Fork. Erosion carried off thousands of tons of topsoil and created “Landstrips that left deep, vertical-walled gashes in the mountainside.” The silt-laden streams deposited sedimentation which was clogging culinary water lines, canals, and filling up the Pineview Reservoir, the major water storage facility on the Ogden River. The 1949 report said that a study made in 1947 of sedimentation in Pineview Reservoir showed that from 1937 to 1947, the average yearly volume of sediment deposited amounted to 19 acre feet; but, after the floods of May 1949, as much as 50 acre feet of sediment was washed into Pineview. The report indicated that the 63 square miles of North Fork put more sedimentation into Pineview than the 193 square miles of South Fork, and sedimentation was accumulating about 2 miles above the back water of the reservoir.” Weber County Watershed Protective Corporation organized in 1946 After the tour of the flood area of 1945, the Weber County Commission appointed Julian Heppler, a local banker, and the chairman of the Ogden Kiwanis Club’s Agricultural Committee, to head a committee to investigate the flood problems and take action to resolve the problem. In the spring of 1946, the group organized to undertake this task was the Weber County Flood and Conservation Committee. This committee called upon expert help from the Soil Conservation Service to access the condition of the watersheds. In their investigation the Service found that the “mountain sides were in serious shape” and recommended that these areas “be retired from grazing use and held for higher use—watershed protection.” On October 2, 1946, another meeting was held in Liberty where people living below Cutler Basin were worried about the danger of floods and losing a dependable water supply. “By Coincidence there was a heavy rain that night and a flood rumbled down North Fork Creek.” One man brought a “jar of water to the meeting he had taken from his house tap. It was heavy with mud.” To the group this was convincing evidence of the seriousness of the watershed problems. Intensive surveys of the area disclosed that most of the damage came from floods which originated on about 10 percent of the land—the lands in the higher regions over 8,000 feet in elevation. Chief trouble sports were “little potholes,” ranging in size from two to 20 acres, at the head of tributary drainage basins, including Cutler Basin, Black Creek, Cold Creek, Chicken Creek, Thimbleberry, and the head of North Fork Canyon. On the west side of Lewis Peak it was Jumpoff, Coldwater, and North Ogden watersheds. . . . In times past, these areas had been lush spots of grassy meadowlands through which clear streams of water ran almost year round. These areas of high meadowland had been favored lands for grazing as well as the logical spots to provide salt for the livestock. “Heavy grazing and stock traffic removed the plant cover, assisted in some cases by brush and grassfires. The removal of the moisture-absorbing plants and litter, supplemented by compacting the soil by trails, roads, and by use of these vital areas for animal bedding grounds, eventually transformed a mountain paradise into an erosion-gullied “funnel” for flood waters.” In considering remedies to solve the water problems, the Watershed Conservation Committee, which included representatives of the agricultural, forest service, and local livestock interests, concluded “that the only remedy was to remove livestock grazing in the flood source area and give the plant cover an opportunity to rebuild.” With that conclusion in mind, a meeting was held in Ogden on November 27, 1946 which organized a corporation for the purpose of acquiring the critical watershed lands, to reduce the problem of over grazing, and to turn the lands over to the U.S. Forest Service for management and rehabilitation. Julian Heppler was chairman of the organizational meeting which included A. L. Christiansen, Weber County Farm Agent; Harold L. Welch, Ogden City Commissioner; Charles A. Halverson, Weber County Commissioner; R. R. Rowell, the Utah Power and Light Co.; John M. Mills, President of the Ogden River HIsTorICal cont. on page 12 From The Past . . . NINTH gradE Class oF 1957-58. The Ogden Valley News is looking for Ogden Valley and Ogden Canyon historical biographies, stories, and photos to use in its publication. If you have material you would like to share, please mail, email, or call Shanna at 801-745-2688 or Jeannie at 801-745-2879. Fitness Classes in the Valley Fitness Classes at High Altitude GET FIT TODAY! Mon/Wed/F ri Advanced 6:30 - 7:30 AM Tues/Thurs Beg ~ Intermed 8:00 - 9:00 AM $5 per class ~ All fitness levels & ages welcome. 801-391-6446 or 801-745-2653 Located at 4776 E. 2600 N. in High Altitude Fitness in Eden behind the old car wash. Jeffrey D. 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