OCR Text |
Show Land areas by resource groups are depicted by Figure 5. The Region's cropland area contained about 1,8 million acres of which 98 percent was classified as irrigated in 1965. Of the total cropland area, 1.6 million acres were actually available for crop pro- duction. The nonirrigated cropland, 31,000 acres in 1965, is located on lands above 4000 feet elevation where annual precipitation of 16 inches or more is usual. The total area used for grazing by domestic livestock in 1965 was about 76 million acres, which is about Qk percent of the total land area of the Region. There are 30 million acres of forest and woodland in the Region, of which 5.5 million acres are classed as commercial timber producing lands. In general, the forests occur above U000 feet in elevation. The forest lands of the Region contribute an average of about 2.8 million acre-feet of water annually to streamflow and important but unmeasured quantities of water to underground aquifers. About 31,000 acres of regional lands are included in classified watersheds to provide high quality domestic water to local municipalities. Urban and industrial uses occupied about 513,000 acres in the Region in 1965. In 1965, more than 68 million acres were used for outdoor recreation, although there were only 5.5 million acres of designated recreation lands. Most of the Region provides habitat for game and nongame species of fish and wildlife. It is estimated that 76 million acres contribute materially as important habitat for wildlife, and most are open to fishing and hunting. Of the total habitat, 3.2 million acres were managed primarily for wildlife in 1965. Thirty-two million acres, both publicly and privately owned, are administered under the principle of multiple-use with fish and wildlife being one of the important resources. The remaining acreage is important and productive in varying degrees to many game and nongame species. Thirteen areas, comprising nearly l.k million acres, were designated for wilderness management in 1965, while 660,000 acres were used for transportation and utility purposes. A large portion of the k.l million acres used for military purposes is desert or semiarid mountainous ter- rain, although some of this land was once productive as rangeland or cropland. The actual acreage used for mineral production in 1965 was only 75,000 acres. 29 |