Show conservation tour held for teachers of san juan the third annual conservation tour our for the teachers of san juan county bounty was held saturday sept 13 the mornings program was under the leadership of gordon heaton farm planner who directed a tour of the farms east and north of monticello for the purpose of observing desirable farm practices the first stop was made at a field belonging to A J redd to observe a section of this land that is believed to now be in a condition quite similar to the native grass lands the pioneers found when they came to this area the area is predominantly grass mostly of the native bluestem and indian rice grass varieties and is dense nough bough to prevent either water or wind vind erosion very little sage is is present A visit was made to a field of john lewis to observe stubble mulching as compared to the customary methods of plowing and the party contin continued aed on to see ithe strip cropping at the alfred frost farm and new land being broken up by ruel randall in strips of sage and plowed land it was pointed out that the piar purpose pose here is to bring under cultivation some of the sage land and protecting these strips with crops then to plow up the balance of the sage strips to get them also in to crops the purpose is to keep permanently a crop strip on the ground to protect the land it was observed by the group that excessive past I 1 wind ind erosion had practically covered fence lines in in some places after an interesting morning on the farm lands the group enjoyed a picnic lunch at buckboard flat before continuing the tour over the mountain country forest ranger julian thomas had charge of the blue Aloun mountain tain tour in the afternoon the trip was made to the head of north creek on the monticello watersheds to observe an area that in 1939 was removed from grazing because of the extremely steep slopes and heavy er erosion ision with deep now this area under proper protection has become stabilized little or no water now runs from the area in snow melt or summer floods the moisture that come to the area is now going into the ground to produce fresh water springs and to permit plant life to grow no flooding has been observed in N north creek for several years ace accord z ing ito ranger thomas and this is in direct accord with most of the other of the blue mountain the allotment of lloyd adams was observed to be in good condition and it was found that the native grasses are perpetuating themselves in an excellent way considerable erosion and depletion had existed on this allotment at one time but now little erosion is evident and the land is very productive stability in the livestock business has been brought about by proper range usage on this allotment other stops were made where it was pointed out that active erosion and deterioration are still going on little forage being produced and the watersheds are in a badly impaired condition the proper use of our mountain lands is an important factor when we consider that 80 per cent of the water of the state of utah comes from areas over feet elevation water is the life blood of the agricultural and industrial areas of utah state mr thomas the group stopped at johnson creek lookout where lon ion served by principal drechsel was enjoyed about 40 persons enjoyed the tour which included several monticello teachers and their families the junior and senior classes in in agriculture and the senior girls of the monticello high school will take this same trip on thursday sept 18 and on sept 19 several of the men teachers of the high school will enjoy a conservation tour of the elk ridge area to observe the re seeding and other range improvements leaving friday after school and spending saturday |