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Show Reclamation Project On the Tirnpanogos Watershed is Started by Karl Banks To return to the area of happy boyhood activities is always interestingly in-terestingly stimulative. Last Thursday morning in company with thirty-odd civic leaders, water wat-er officials, stockmen, farmers; fellow newspaper people, forest rangers and reclamation experts, this writer visited the great Tirnpanogos Tirn-panogos watershed area. The observation and inspection trip was doubly rewarding since it was a visit to the locale, where as a boy, I assisted my father in the annual quest for aspen and pine logs for the winter fires in " our Lindon farmstead. Considerable change has taken place there during the 55 years that have elapsed since those fuel gathering days. Much of the lush grass of the "meadow" at the head of Battle and Grove Canyons Can-yons has disappeared, due. to neglect neg-lect and over-grazing. In large areas the original forage has been replaced by noxious "tar weed" which neither cattle nor sheep will eat. In addition the slopes of Tirnpanogos Tirn-panogos and Little and Mahogany Mahog-any mountains have become bad- ly eroded by uncontrolled flood waters during the years. This also al-so was the soixy condition on the steep slopes at the head of Dry Canyon. Fortunately in this case at least the devastation caused by man's neglect and shortsightedness is being, corrected under a $250,000 rehabilitation project currently going forward under the U.S. Small Watersheds Rehabilitation Program. According to Forest Ranger Mike Wright, the five-year five-year program will entail the weed eradication, ploughing, and re-seeding re-seeding of 4,146 acres from Dry Creek near Alpinei to Dry Canyon Can-yon east of Lindon. Six hundred acres have already been ploughed and prepared and 300 aores seeded to proven range grasses. In addition 180 acnes of the.ad-jacent the.ad-jacent slopes have been treated with contour terracing which required re-quired 18 miles of trenching and 5 miles of gully plugs. To accomplish this work it has been necessary to construct 8 miles of access roads and 5 miles of work roads extending from Camp Timpanokee to .the head of Dry Canyon. To date $40,000 dollars of the original appropriation have been spent in the project which" began last spring. The desired results of this extensive ex-tensive and costly program of range and watershed rehabilitation rehabilita-tion would have been impossible without the 100 per cent loyal 'cooperation of the Central Utah sheepmen's and cattlemen's associations. asso-ciations. These stock growers have agreed to discontinue grazing graz-ing in the area for four years, beginning be-ginning in 1960, Mr. Wright said. All those who made the tour last Tuesday agreed that the pro-jeot pro-jeot when consumated will be of inestimable value to the people of the entire North Utah County . area. The Items of flqod control and water conservation alone will be worth many times the capital outlay, said Leo P. Harvey, chairman chair-man of the American Fork-Dry Creek Watershed Committee. The tour was conducted by Mr. Harvey and Mr. Wright and explanatory talks were made by these men and Jerry Hansen and Clarence Thomock of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. Prior to the tour, Mr. Harvey presided at a meeting of the American Am-erican Fork-Dry Creek Watersheds Water-sheds Committee at which the securing of easements for the sediment and flood control dams to be constructed at the mouths of Dry Creek, Grove Creek and Battle Creek Canyons were discussed. |