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Show of Land Management and Indian Affairs, the Na- tional Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Serv- ice, all in the Department of the Interior, are re- sponsible for about 17 million acres of watershed land in Colorado and New Mexico. Most of these lands are grazed under permits. About 70 percent of this area was public domain land, included in grazing districts in 1934. Misuse of these lands by overgrazing and fire prior to this time resulted in widespread erosion. This watershed damage has continued despite efforts of a conservation program. Some of the lands have partially recovered as a re- sult of the increased moisture of the last decade in the Southwest and also because of some reduction in grazing intensity. The grazing district lands are grazed under Fed- eral permits as part of private operations. Experi- ence has shown that even with full legislative au- thority, improvements in range management can be made very little faster than the livestock industry is willing to accept them. Extensive structural treatment in most of the areas, however, is a necessary adjunct to manage- ment if the serious sedimentation problem is to be solved. The bulk of funds available to Interior De- partment agencies has been devoted to the man- agement and rehabilitation program. Experience has shown this to be inadequate for the job to be done on these public lands and much less than the financing and other assistance now being provided by the Government to the conservation program on private lands, or on some other types of public lands. Some of the most critical sediment-source areas, particularly above Elephant Butte Reservoir, are under administration of several Federal and State agencies. These are among the worst eroding lands in the basin, and some carry too much livestock. A soil conservation program is under way on the Fed- eral and Indian lands and has been successful when associated with adjustment of livestock to range capacity and other measures of improved manage- ment. However, this program of revegetation and management suffers because funds are not avail- able to build all the supporting structural measures needed. Fire control for the range and brush cover on these lands is inadequate to provide the necessary protection to soil and water resources. State Extension Services of Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, cooperating with the Federal Extension Service, are carrying out an educational program to show ranchers and farmers the part good range management can play in erosion control and the stability of the livestock industry. Agricultural experiment stations of these States, cooperating with the Federal Office of Experiment Stations and the Southwestern Forest and Range Experiment Sta- tion, are trying out new grasses under conditions of low and erratic rainfall, experimenting in reseeding deteriorated grasslands, and developing new and improved range management methods. They have shown that a range in good condition usually will produce more pounds of meat at lower cost than an overstocked range depleted of its palatable forage plants. The State land commissioners are responsible for State-owned lands. The commissioners have sel- dom required good management of State range lands. These State-owned properties are handled in the same way as the lessees handle public domain or private lands in the same operating unit. Some public-spirited private owners handle all the land in their units, whether Federal, State, or private, on a sound basis. Soil conservation districts, which are farmer- and rancher-administered local units of government, ob- tain technical and other services from the Soil Con- servation Service and other Federal agencies to help operators within the districts to lay out and apply measures for conservation of soil and water. Of the 45.6 million acres within districts at this time, farm planning has been completed for hold- ings totaling 12.8 million acres. Some measures and practices suggested in these plans are being carried out on an equivalent of 6.8 million acres. In the 50 agricultural counties within the basin there are farmer-elected county and community committeemen in each county who administer the Agricultural Conservation Program of the Produc- tion and Marketing Administration. This local administration permits local adaptation of the pro- gram to meet the conditions and needs of the farmers within their respective communities and counties. Soil building practices eligible for assist- ance under the ACP are limited to those practices recommended and approved on individual farms by the county committee and which are carried out in accordance with specifications and standards established by the State PMA Committees through consultation and advice of the State Technical Com- mittees. County committees use program funds to encourage the performance of the measures that will meet specific conservation needs on a farm and which will not be performed in the desired volume 301 |
