| OCR Text |
Show PART I INTRODUCTION Part of this appendix has been abstracted from other appendices and references are made in this respect. More detailed information on specific items, for example, water resources, recreation, fish and wild- life, etc., can be found in the other appendices. Location and Size of the Region The drainage basin of the Colorado River above Lee Ferry, Arizona, and the Great Divide Closed Basin in south-central Wyoming comprises the 550 mile long, 350 mile wide Upper Colorado Region. The region is bounded on the east by the Continental Divide and includes part of the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. It encom- passes an area of 113,496 square miles, including 109,580 square miles in the natural drainage basin of the Upper Colorado River and 3,916 square miles in the Great Divide Closed Basin. A more complete descrip- tion is included in Appendix II. For flexibility in analysis and planning, the region is divided into three hydrologic subregions: the Green River, Upper Main Stem, and the San Juan-Colorado. In this appendix, much of the information, especially the tabular material, is presented by hydrologic subregions. Similar subregions are used in the reports1 economic analyses; however, the boundaries are defined by county lines rather than by river drainages. Separate maps showing hydrologic and economic subregions are frontispieces in this appendix. A more detailed description of the region is included in Appendix II. History of Watershed Management History of watershed management in the region portrays the needs of the people and the demands they made upon watershed land resources. The early needs determined uses made of the resources and greatly influenced the development of present watershed management practices. The watershed conditions and the will to save some of the natural timber caused the general public to react. In 1891 the Creative Act was enacted authorizing the President to reserve certain public lands as national forest reserves. In 1911 the Weeks Act authorized purchase of watershed lands for protection of stream flow in navigable streams. These acts created and set standards for national forests and the Forest Service (FS). The poor vegetal condition of the public domain caused Congress to take steps to protect those watershed lands. In 1934 Congress passed the Taylor Grazing Act which provided protection and management of the last of the public lands. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or its predecessor was set up to administer the public domain under this act. |
