Show 14B THE OGDEN OGDEN STANDARD-EXAMINE- R FEATURE AUGUST 14 1955 UTAH SUNDAY MORNING ''''' - ! PAGE ' - - u I v - 1 : v ' k ' v - ' ' r '' 7 f 4 t MUD PILE —This crackedi barren hillside was once covered with a thick stand of lush vegetation Conser- "f f vationists claim too many livestock grazing too early - 7 ' ' ' i 1 - v - ' 1 lb iiouip on-th- J Flood 4 -- '1 goal was in sight They ha bought a mountain But they ran into anotther ob- stnrlA Tt Innlrprf as t the $10000 from forest receipts they had ex pected to use in meeting the an5700-ac- r is nual payments tract was lost to ' them Suddenly the federal government didn't appear to vfant tot a rrM i' ' me curpurauipn sens participate a representative to Washington to tell the story to the appropriations committee in 19541 Congress was sympathetic and voted grazed on the steep watershedgroup in the fall of 1947 the $10000 It voted the sama slopes since the arrival of the The $2000 put them in busi- funds again last year after anfirst settlers almost 100 years ness — a hard demanding busi- other trip to Washington The corporation officers and before The men who ran their ness Mr Heppler and his comthe funds vnll be backers cattle over these watersheds de- mittee spent many hours climb- included hope in the Department o£ pended for their livelihood on the ing mountain slopes with stock- Agriculture appropriation each few pounds the meager grass and men showing them evidence that year sothe job of getting thest brush would put on their live- improper grazing was at the root steep and eroded lands into pubof the flood problem stock lic ownership can be completed The stockmen argued They obtained As GRAZING UNCONTROLLED were not convinced there was a title tothethecorporation watershed acres it The grazing had been uncon- problem and when the conservathem over to the forest trolled— too many sheep grazed tionist group overcame this ob- turned service for management The fortoo early in the spring and were stacle the stockmen denied their est a prpgram of "rehas service taken off too late inj the fall livestock was contributing to the outlined pair" '(Xf Meanwhile the Ogden Valley problem WILL BE TERR ACEI residents were becoming appreBLAMED CLOUDBURSTS hensive about the floods and The steep slopes will be ter threats of floods- - from the North They claimed clouds had burst raced and reseecied in water re- Ill tDe a Fork area This had been a ma- emptying their tons of water on taming vegciaiion u win the mountains since the conservain beginning long slow process but jor factor the formation of the of time Water running off the tionists can see the fulfillment of Ogden Valley Soil Conservation barren rock was the stockman's their dreams District 4 Because of their mutual con- theory of the Jump Off ' Canyon Lewis Peak is theirs With the cern interest and goal the two flood" j tract exception oof a 5800-acr- ' and his recogHeppler group to decided correlate their groups the North Fork area is theirs activities and work tdward a uni- nized the position of the private This tract is owned by a down-stat- e fied objective — a flo?d-freWe- landowners but felt they were 'who has agreed wrong and went to the trouble tosellsheepman j ber County but has'not been able to It became apparent after a of proving it to them find another range for his sheep The first to be convinced was few weeks of struggling with the When this land described as a on a little sheepman grazing that needed the most critical area in tha groups the problem help They needed the! mass sup- over 2000 acres along the North North Fork watershed is bought Ogden watershed After several port of the entire county popu- months of dickering the sheep- will get lace and especially the people underway and Weber man accepted the $2000 as down County will ba free from the living immediately under the payment on his land with an op- threat of floods from its waterflood threat On Oct 3 1946 a mass meet- tion to gjraze11 "for another two sheds hard This has been a ing was called at the Liberty years The group had little time to task It has taken thelong schoolhouse combined The flood committee presented spend in rejoicing over this ini- efforts of many men Men like rain- tial success There was more land Arch Christiansen who accepted the fall was washing topsoil from the they wanted and they still had a the reins of the corporation barren steep watersheds into the $6500 payment to meet on their when it was formed and glided lower valleys polluting streams first tract! of land Things were not looking so fully j threatening water supplies and t until ' the federal governgood useless silt on fertile depositing CURRENT PRESIDENT farm lands— and the answer— re- ment stepped into the picture The current president is Gw move grazing stock : from the with $10000 in forest receipts funds had been collected Stanley Brewer city councilman steeper watersheds and replant These from the users — stockmen stockman and ardent conservawater retaining vegetation summer home own- tionist It is under his guidance PEOPLE LIKED IT ers— in Cache National Forest the group has reached the point The people liked it With the With 'this money provided by where they can see the ultimate exception of one group that is Congress each year and the con- fruition of years of effort just The roar from the stockmen tributions of civic clubs and irri- around the corner could be heard all There are other men Ogdert gation companies the corporation to had failed it the but land to funds the County stop buy Valley men like Chuck Storey formation of the 'Weber County Their big problem now was John Whiteley and the Stallings Watershed Protective Corp convincing the private landown- Jim and George They have all This new group set out to "ob- ers to sell Members of the con- played an-- instrumental part tain funds to buy the steeper servationist group took the stock- forged one leg of the foundation portions of the watershed lands men on rides over their own land that has made the corporation a retire them from grazing and to pointing out evidence the sources powerful force for conservation get proper management of lower of flood damage was high on the in Northern Utah less steep watersheds" mountain slopes just under the And there is another group the The first problem facing the top where vegetation had been converts Stockmen who fought ' infant organization— a universally removed the idea in the beginning but now — was money The tough one Gradually one by one they are numbered among the area's stockmen who had used the lands began to sell In 1949 the cor- most enthusiastic supporters of for years were not going to give poration bought 1741 acres and the conservation program it away The group had to raise the federal government bought The combined efforts of all enough money to interest them in another 640 In 1950 almost 2000 these people have made it posselling out what had been their acres came into corporation own- sible for the returned veteran or livelihood for many years f ership More than 1000 acres any other farmer to stand on the Mr Heppler the Kiwanian were bought in 1951 of North Ogden watch- benchland : — w 1 it stream tossed the problem to his club In 1953 the corporation made uig uie uiLKie oxf xiine sman : and it came through with the a $27000 down payment on the coursing down from Jump Off first boost The Kiwanis Club last 5700 acres in the Lewis Canyon and know it will remain made $2000 available to the Peak North Ogden area Their just that— a small trickle n ©im to It Was and too late has disrobed the mountain turning it into a potential breeding grounds for disastrous floods v 1 — : ' 4 it For Instance It Meant i i ! BREEDING Buying a Whole Mountain GROUNDS— Scenes like this threw the fear of floods into a group of was taken on the east side of Willard Peak 4t the The picture t t j flash flood -in 1945 head of cutler ureeK on tne xortn rorK waiersneas 1 m 1 A i i !'!''' i By CLIFF THOMPSON A recently returned World War n veteran stood near his home on the benchland of North Ogden and watched ton after ton of mud and rock roar but of Jump Off Canyon burying his farm Just a few moments before the small stream coursing down from the Lewis Peak watersheds through the named canyon had been just a peaceful trickle ap-priate- There had been no warning of disaster There was no indica- ' 'J They gathered all these and evidence and studied But unlike so many groups did not survey the scene a few gasps of horror at might happen! and return state of complacency ly signs tion the black cloud hanging them around Lewis Peak" was dumping they cloudburst portions of water on issue the eroded overgrazed canyon what walls to a Fed by the cloudburst the small stream changed within a matter of seconds into a boiling COMMITTEE NAMED raging torrent of mud and boulBefore leaving the ders The mud-flospewed forth benchlands the county comfrom the canyon It fanned out missioners who had met with the over the benchland farms The appointed a committee to debris-ladewater groups out find caused the flood invaded orchards It filled and and what what action would be needed cut off the North Ogden canal to its prevent recurring FINALLY STOPS They wanted a committee that Th mud-flostopped just 50 would do something They had feet from North Washington seen and weie impressed The committee would have to be a Boulevard! war veteran his The and neigh- select group headed by a man bors surveyed the damage As who had the ability to get to the floods go it was not a disastrous root of a problem and pull out one Except maybe for the vet- the answer Just a few weeks before one eran who had just invested of the group Julian Heppler had borrowed of in $10000 capital the acreage laying beneath one-ha- been named chairman of the Club agricultural committo lVt feet of silt and rock Mr Heppler had several That was Aug 9 1945 a bright tee sunny day for most of Weber times in the presence of associates wondered what constructive County is so 'veteran the project he and his committee gone Today are the debris and the damage could get involved in it left Heppler was nominated as the chairman of the new committee Gone too is the flood threat one of the men present He from the Lewis Peak water- by task Before he rethe sheds accepted ' the is reins he was to Behind this disappearance linquished 1953 the Nash Conservawinun control a decade of watershed tion Award for a of a is drama It outstanding servgroup story ice in field surthe a who made of civic leaders by an amateur 10 men are occurred flood of Only given this award vey why the and DID something about it even each year On the committee were men though it meant buying an entire who had worked for conservamountain It is also the story of how a tion for years! There was A L man placed in command of the Christiansen county agent Clark fight against watershed erosion Anderson forest ranger Ray won the coveted Nash conserva- Kerr Soil Conservation Service Wilmer J Maw John A Wood-fieltion award for his efforts and Lorenzo Ward range The first chapter opens on a owners and operators C J Hanin morning April pleasant spring sen and Lester Randall property flood the following owners in jthe flood threatened GROUP OF FIFTY area A group of about 50 people They called themselves the Wemet on the still ber County Conservation and benchlands to tour the flood zone Flood Control Committee and survey the damages Some NO TIME WASTED climbed aboard horses to ride into the highlands of Lewis Peak They went right to work climbto take a look at the flood ing over the almost grassless source steep slopes of the North Ogden Most of those who made the mountain range They poked into trip were impressed! Not with the gulleys dug into the rocks limbs relatively light damage but with and other debris piled up against theglaringly apparent potentiali- the few trees they found in the ties of a flood with serious conse- canyon bottoms There is no formal report availquences Water rushing down the almost able today of what they found barren hillsides had formed flood but it was something like this: channels presenting real threats "During the past several to culinary and irrigation waters decades much of the watershed for the Ogden area They could area of Weber County has been envision the threat of flood gradually stripped of natural poised to wipe out the big canals vegetative cover by fire oversupplying water for the extensive grazing and other causes most of Webef and Box Elder County them preventable orchard and farming areas "Many of these areas have They read the signs that reached the point where : the spelled "DISASTER" Signs left rangelands have lost a major part by several past floods rumbling of their water absorbing ability down from the mountain peaks as well as much of the topsoil" before people began invading the This meant the rangelands foothills with their homes and were becoming practically usewater systems Floods that had less for grazing timber and gone unnoticed because there recreation purposes was no one there to notice them Now that the group had found They saw something else too the cause —watershed abuse —the They found evidence this was the corrective action might appear first flood to cut the Bonneville simple to the uninitiated —elimiDelta depositing much of its nate the abuse But it wasn't to prove simple cargo on the fertile lands below The Bonneville Delta was formed The main cause was overgrazing about 25000 years ago Sheep cattle and goats had debris-covere- d w r- - earth-gougin- g n w an almost barren taken in 1936 shows THE AWAKENING STARTS n— Th'is picture I i i r i a muveu m crew &ia&e easm iu uui cuu our watersnea area in wiuara jusi oeiore ' ditches L 1 una Ki-wan- lf i t 4 X v " ' fc ? ' ' ' r' v1 5 is d 1 V± ' mm REHABILITATION — People m- :Hvtj 'at n& ato debris-covere- aren't the only beneficiaries of rehabilitation The con tour trenches shown above keep the rainfall from rushing pellmell down the mountainside and give the grass and other foliage a chance to grow thick and high d A i X 1 e ' e problem-i-uncontrbl- led : tim-bermena- nd f over--Webe- " 1 ': : r :i'-- t: ' 4 4 - V' FIRST FRUITS— Ten years later the efforts of conservationists in Willard Basin were paying off This picture is the same area represented in the above photo Notice the main difference — a thick cover of water retaining foliage PASTORAL SCENE— Sheep grazing on rich pasturelands have been a symbol of peace and serenity since the- beginning of time But officers of the Weber County Protective Watershed Corp stress that uncontrolled grazing can turn this scene in to a potential source of flood threatening water supplies and fertile farmlands of the valleys belov - |