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Show 50 I appreciate the opportunity to come and cry on your shoulders. I'll tell you, it was a disheartening program for me to gather this information because I knew how bad I felt but I had no idea how bad some of my neighbors felt. Thank you. [ The prepared statement of Mr. Bowler follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF R. LEON BOWLER To Whom it may concern The drought conditions that exist in South Western Utah today are the most severe that I have seen in my 70 years of living there. The negative impacts to the economy of this drought condition are very significant and could leave long- term deficiencies, especially in the farming and ranching industry. In Washington and Iron Counties, there are 42,000 head of beef cattle that rely on range land pasture to support their feed needs. These range lands have not received sufficient precipitation over the last few months to sprout grass and feed for the cattle herds. As a result of the range land conditions, cattle grazing has been cut by at least 50 percent, and in some cases eliminated. These conditions have forced cattle ranchers to explore other options which include buying high priced hay to feed their herds, look for pasture options in other regions, and selling the herds. The drought has caused local feed supplies to diminish and local feed prices to escalate to the point that buying feed for range cattle is not feasible. Pasture options in other regions is not feasible as well, due to the long freight distance and short length of stay. Selling off the herds is also not a feasible option. Due to the depressed prices in the cattle market, most ranchers would not be able to pay off the bills associated with their herds, and building future herds would be almost impossible. Many ranchers have already lost a significant number of cattle to death loss due to the drought conditions. Also, watering springs and wells have dried up, causing serious problems with cattle herds. Water supply is at its all time low and most water reservoirs will be empty by the middle of June. Even the virgin river is running 20 percent of normal, with normal being defined as very slim this time of year. The South Western part of Utah must be designated as a disaster relief area, and funds should be appropriated from Congress to address the extreme drought conditions that exist, especially for those in the farming and ranching industry. Thank you. Mr. Leon Bowler Financial Disclosure The Rules of the House of Representatives require that each person who testifies before Congress who is not representing a governmental entity must reveal his or her sources and amounts of federal funding fay agency and program) which directly supports the subject matter on which he or she is testifying before the Committee. Any funds received during the current fiscal year or either of the two preceding fiscal years by the witness or any entity represented by the witness must be disclosed. In accordance with these rules a financial disclosure statement was requested of Mr. Bowler, but he did not submit the item. Mr. CANNON. Thank you, Mr. Bowler. We appreciate those candid and stirring remarks. I spend a lot of my time in that part of the state and it is one of the areas I call home. I haven't been back there very much recently, and your statements are startling re- |