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Show I OVERGRAZING BLAMED FOR I HEAVY DAMAGE BY FLOODS I Destroyed Culverts, Washed Out Roads, Bridges, Ditches, Silent Power Plants, Destruction of I Town Property Attributable to Improper H Use of Range. i nv V1LI o'bvrxe To the casual observer rldlne along BS th valley in an automobile near Eph- l falm, there does not seem to be much relation between the stock he can Bee i brazing on the mountain sides and the washed out roadway he has been over for the last few miles, nor to the W scarcity of water he has heard the H. farmers kicking about nor to the rem- hant or what was once a bridge that BBj he Bhon time before. H nii it would take a considerable Stretch ..f imagination for him to get I ,he ien thai there is a close connec- tlon between the stock grazing on the mountain sides and a group of i men bending over desks of the ror- festry service building in Ogden. It seems still harder to believe that damage running int.. thousands ol dollars and consisting Of destroyed Bf feulverts washed out irrigation dltcn7 BBl washed out bridges, Bllenpower BB1 plants, ruined roadways ruindO farm BBJ Ian.!-, propertj damage In such tons BBl a, EpHraim when basements were BBl flooded and filled with sand and mud, where i stocks of merchandise were t ruined, should in any way be connect- ed with ih.iv sain- she,, or sraing peacefully on the mountain BBl sides of he valleys oi that section. Yet such Is the fact. And the an- er Is the departmenl of nr.iinc: or BBl district four which is now preparing plans to be put in operation during the coming year. According to the officials of hat department one of the most important things to be considered Is overgrasing of the national forests For when a range is overgraaed to BB' the extent that It Is turned Into a dual heap the owgraxlng Is directly BBB responsible for all kinds of damage namely, destruction of the forage first BBB followed bv destruction of the soli on the range and necessarily the de-B de-B strucllon of the watershed, followed BBB bv destructive floods, roads, bridges and so forth and last but not by any means least by 1 lack of water for BBB the farms in the hot summer months fl and the burning up of the i rops. BBB The rains (hat tall on an over- grazed area keep right on I lling even fl after the water strikes the ground but instead of falling into the ground the water falls off It as It were gath-B gath-B ering force until it pours down the mountain side in a raging torrent BBB with the vegetation absent it has nothing to impede Us progress. It s BBB on Its way gathering volume as it POWER H The transporting power of water BBB i varies Of ItS locity. that is. if a stream is Increased B ten times Its transporting power is Increased one million times. BBfl A current of water flowing at the B rate of two miles per hour will move H a piece of rock about the size of a B h"n's egg bift a torrent of 20 miles B per hour will carry boulders along w weighing tons upon tons. B Another thing, the erosive power BBBJ , of a stream varies as the square of B the velocity. An ordlnar Irrigation B ditch with a slope pel mile will cut awav a bank of sand B e BBfl It can readilv !" seen what a stream of water will do in th'e way of ero- slon when rushing down a mountain BBB On file In the forest offi es are rei -orda which show that on July B, 1912. a rainstorm the K head of Ephrairh canyon on the dl- B vide at an elevation of nppri.lm:itelv BBB 9,500 feet. It lasted for about two B hours during which the rain fell in- BBH termlttenth The stream sent BBH! down .41 of an inch of rain a cording BBH to the rain gang' BBl REsnrs or fixxds BBB And yet a flood started carrying BBB with it logs, huge rocks, Bill and irege BBBB table matter that in S short time reached the tow Amen miles below, it covered the atrcets nnd farms, filled basements, mined stocks of merchandise mer-chandise washed out bridges, roadways road-ways and did an enormous amount Of I i da mnge. ' Us .inert cause was oveigrazlng of ilu- i. nr.'- in the vicinity of Kphraim. That ir. the range had been overgraz-I overgraz-I -d to such ah extent by the Sheep that .i was praclicall nothing more than, 1 a dust heap. i It Is to prevent a reoccurrence of; SUcli damagi that the work of the I foreal service In relation to grazing Is being ll tie and the work of the Oreal l'as.n Experiment station is bet Ing carried forward'. Another important feature of the j work Is the maintaining and Increas-j ilng. if possible1 ihM present stand of vegetation that Is palatable to livestock live-stock by seeing that the stock are 'not allow I'd to graze excepting dur-! dur-! Ing the proper season l UR 1 I M DETROIi MAI, Students along that line have lls-1 ,n .t'.J hit too -arl use i- d trl-l trl-l mental to the range. The say that i plants ii in ll a considerable length of ! linn- after they show above the ground! in spring are, composed of a large j percentage of water The comparniive-I comparniive-I ly small amount of other substance : in their makeup vnmes from the slor-i slor-i ed-food In their roots w hich has been transformed into stems and leaves. This food was mad" and can be made only In grass as leaves, that in roots having been made during the prev-I prev-I ious summer. It Is used primarily to start giow th in th Siring and aftev I this supply of food Is on" the leaves I must bigin making more food or growth stops and the plant eventually dies. Till POOD LABORATORY If at about the time the food In the roots Is llsed up. stock eat the gren leaves, the plant Is greatly injured because it has been robbed of its food ma.king laboratory Dot If the leaves are left on uniil ihf plant has fully developed this Inquiry docs not occur slni-o the larger amount of green leaves have made more food , ihan Is needed for ihe growth of the ! plant and a sufficient amount has ! been stored to keep It alive and vigorous vig-orous Dftterniin:tion, of the date when forage plants on many of the i tah ' ranges reach the state where they will 'withstand grazing without detriment, and als how to keep the stock off such ranges until such a date and yet allow the stock to be grazed is very Important During the late spring and early summer months a man of technical training and practical experience will I be assigned to this kind of work on the La Sali DlxieSevfer and Poweii-I Poweii-I Sevier national forests in Ttah IMPROA EMENT NOTED hen they were included In the national na-tional forests most of the ranges in Utah were in a seriously depleted con-i con-i dltion as a recult of overgrazing. Though considerable Improvement has I been attained a number of the ranges 'are not ns yet producing near the I amount of forage they are capable of producing. In addition to the forage produced : on these areas most of them are high-I high-I ly important as watersheds and since ! remedial measures affect as a rule : the sto( kmen'fl Interests the officials i of the forest service are careful to establish beyond Question the necessity neces-sity of, such measures be fori putting them into effect. During the coming season two men of the grazing studies personnel aro to be assigned to some of the central and southern Utah ranges to determine deter-mine with certainty if proper revege-tatlon revege-tatlon is taking plan- to protect the watershed!;. Always when making such dterminations not only the re- qtilremenls of such vegetation is considered con-sidered out also the eftec any i hanged hang-ed practices ma have upon ih com-munltv com-munltv dependent on the area for range and water. U EH TIM. DATA Since the chief function of the raz-inK raz-inK department is to collect accurate and reliable Information relative to the Sheep anil cattle ranges this worlt Involves a survey of the forage resources; re-sources; how many sheep and cattle the various areas will support, the determination of ways and moans ot r'evegetatlon areas that are producing the amount of forage they should; a study of the results of different methods meth-ods of managing ranges, an examination examina-tion of localities where the loss of livestock Is heavy so as to learn ,how to prevent such losses and tho other remedial measures It SO happens thai the rajiges in greatest demand by the livestOCK men are the ones where the detailed Information In-formation is needed most and it Is the policy of the torest service to solve tho anous problems in the order of their importanco RJhXON N AI88ANCE WORK An intensive grazing reconnaissance to ;et tho duta as to the currying caput ca-put . In terms of sheep and cattle tor me established grazing season will be nandled this season on the Fillmore national lorest by a party of about n' men. Tho men in charge will be technically trained in botenj engineering en-gineering and iriimal husbandry, of long experience in grazing leconnals-sance leconnals-sance work and the management of both sheep and cattle on summer ranges In tne west. Lhe otlnr members of the party though technically trained men will be men of les experience than the chief in oharge but they will all Know not only ihc names oi the plants thai make up tne v.geiatlon on that particular par-ticular forest mil thu lorugo value for sheep or cattle, us well as the extent ex-tent to which the range mav be grazed. graz-ed. j i hey will cover the country on foot land will secure a complete and flc-tailed flc-tailed record of us forage resources, . watering places for StoCK, slopes, ex-popures, ex-popures, lot ation of poisonous plant stands, drift and division fences, cor-ral cor-ral and an other Information of benefit to stockmen Probably be-l.en be-l.en SO, no 1 1 and lOO.OOO acres will be covered winch will open an area for about 8.000 head of stock. The uatu thus secured will be form-olattd form-olattd into range and stock management manage-ment plans showing tho number of ach class of stock that should be allowed al-lowed in each unit of the range; the time they should graze It, where .-tork can vo watered, where Improvements should be mad. for watering places: where, when and In what amounts salt for stock should be placed and other information to facilitate the use 01 the range by the stockmen. |