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Show have been replaced by less nutritious ones and by weeds of little range value. The widespread erosion is seen from the extensive system of arroyos cut deeply into valley fills and light soils, gullying on the open hillsides, and wide- spread sheet erosion which has taken the topsoil, exposing surface roots of pinon and juniper trees over thousands of acres. It is shown by the rapid sedimentation of the Pecos River reservoirs. It is also evident in the great quantities of sediment in the Rio Grande-and the extensive sediment de- posits at the head of Elephant Butte and through- out the river channel above there. The present average deposition of sediment in the valley between the mouth of the Ghama River a few miles north of Espanola, and San Marcial at the head of Elephant Butte Reservoir, an airline distance of some 175 miles, amounts to about 12,000 acre-feet a year in addition to an average annual deposition of 10,000 acre-feet of sediment in Ele- phant Butte Reservoir. Deposition in this reservoir is estimated to have been at the rate of 23,000 acre- feet annually from 1916 to 1920; 18,000 acre-feet from 1916 to 1935; 10,000 acre-feet from 1935 to 1940; and at a somewhat lower rate since 1940. The rate of deposition in the valley above the reser- voir, as well as in the reservoir itself, in recent years is considered to be somewhat less than the average rate over a long period. Generally, there has been an insufficient decrease in numbers of livestock to bring the range back to its original condition, although in some parts of the basin there has been marked improvement. Once the range has reached a depleted stage, it takes relatively few animals or only a small amount of misuse-such as grazing too early-to keep the range from recovering. Most of the area in the basin below Fort Quitman is range land. Few facts are now available on range use in this area. Some of this range is known to be generally in poor condition. The lands are not so steep, the soils are less erosive, and the area is warmer and drier than in the Upper Rio Grande sub-basin. A considerable area of range land is woodland, that is, it contains a small pine, the pinon, and juniper. Also some of this area contains mesquite. The pinon, whose nuts have commercial value for use in confectionery, is not reproducing well under overuse of the range, but both the juniper and the mesquite are spreading, the latter quite rapidly, and taking over extensive range areas. Neither plant is palatable. These plants are replacing the forage and are further reducing the carrying capac- ity of the range. The accessible forest lands have suffered from extreme exploitation. The fact that a considerable area was inaccessible at first led to excessive cutting on lands that are easier to reach. Timber cutting has been generally conservative on national for- est-comprising about half the forest land-and on Indian lands. Heavy cutting of pine stands has been the rule on State and private lands with little effort to provide for a new crop. Logging on all types of land has been careless and wasteful and many skid trails have deeply eroded. Fire is still a problem, although forest fire control has been im- proved on all lands recently. Cultivated dry farm lands comprise only a little over 1 percent of the watershed. Wind erosion is serious in the eastern and northern part of the Pecos drainage. In certain parts of the basin, dry farm tracts are small and intermingled with deteriorated range lands. These tracts are sources of abnormally high runoff and large quantities of sediment. On the Mescalaro Indian Reservation, only 72 acres are irrigated, but some 9,000 are dry-farmed out of a total area of some 460,000 acres; the balance of the area is range. Diverse ownership of land as between public and private groups is a complicating factor. The com- plexity of ownership is illustrated by data from a sample study made in 1938 of that part of the Rio Grande Basin in New Mexico above Elephant Butte Reservoir. There are about 12,738,000 acres, of which 6,442,000 acres were in Federal ownership, and 797,000 acres owned by the State. The area of these lands, mostly range land of one kind or an- other, and their ownership as reported in 1938 are shown in table 3. Land ownership is complex. There are many ownership groups, many owners, many types of ownership, many agencies administering various public or semipublic lands, and many diverging views as to use and management. A confusing pat- tern of land ownership, distribution, use, and man- agement has resulted. In the New Mexico part of the upper basin particularly, the situation is greatly complicated by the fact that even large landowners do not own lands in solid blocks. Some of the Spanish land grants, Indian lands, and pueblos are rather compact without outside holdings, and some individuals or groups have been able to build up their lands into more or less compact blocks. Most of this complicated ownership pattern is the outgrowth of various national land policies which 327 |
