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Show set up with emphasis on the management phases with too little regard for contiguous private lands that must be used in combination with public lands. Apportionment of grazing privileges on public lands may be based on prior use at the expense of dependency and commensurate property considera- tions. Such allocations do not always encourage adjustments needed to bring a better balance be- tween people and the range resources. The prior use premise often throws an impediment in the way of fair distribution of public land privileges, par- ticularly in areas where radical land-use adjust- ments are needed to develop a diversified crop and livestock economy. (13) The paucity of population and resources is in general responsible for a general lack of basic information about the basin. This is felt particu- larly in research on land management practices. Although investigations have been carried on by State and Federal agencies, not much attention has been given the over-all problem. Much of the rea- son lies in the predominant Federal ownership and the lack of Federal backing of watershed research. Particularly needed are improved techniques of artificial revegetation, the use of supplementary up- stream engineering devices, methods of handling livestock and forage under a wide variety of condi- tions, limits of use for various key forage plants on different sites, and the economics of range land use and conservation. Some of the problems and maladjustments of range use might have been prevented or offset by a broad-scale education campaign, based on research. Although livestock specialists have been added to agricultural college extension staffs, most effort has gone into animal husbandry rather than into range management. Some operators are practicing good range management on their own lands or on lands they lease or otherwise obtain or control. These are in the minority. Their methods, practices, and results, if generally known in the industry, should become a powerful force in obtaining good manage- ment on millions of acres of critical watershed lands. (14) The difficulty of working on the 26 million acres of Indian tribal lands is a real one. Where white lessors hold Indian land, they can be required by law to practice good land management. How- ever, where Indians manage their own allotments, serious difficulties arise. This is particularly true on the Navajo Reservation. In part, this can be remedied by the acquisition of additional land for Indian use, but this problem has many other aspects deserving attention and remedy. Social effects of overgrazing.-Overgrazing is a practical example of the law of diminishing re- turns. Conservative stocking would permit main- tenance of the basic range resource. There is little doubt that for the long run more income could be produced from the range by lighter stocking and improved management. Depleted ranges and increases in poisonous and nonforage plants lower the total weight and the quality of the live- stock products marketed. Losses among range cattle are two or three times as high on overstocked range as they are on the well-managed ranges. Over much of the range area, the lamb crop is only 60 to 70 percent and the calf crop is only 50 to 60 percent, too low in either case for the most profitable production. The final result of range depletion often is un- profitable operation and forced liquidation of the individual enterprise. During periods of drought and low prices, the economic and social effects of range misuse accumulate rapidly and result in loss of farm homes and ranches, broken communities, heavy relief burden, and general community disorganization. Not only range lands in the basin have deterio- rated; agricultural lands also have eroded because of improper irrigation practices, bank cutting, and other reasons. In the Safford Valley, over 10,000 acres of irrigated land have been destroyed since 1876. Some 1,500 acres were lost in 1916. The 4 to 8 feet of fine soil have been replaced by a sand and gravel wash on which water-loving vegetation now grows. Water diversions and silted canals are responsible for the loss of considerable agricultural land along the Santa Cruz River. Channel changes here also have caused extensive damage to the rail- road. Deepening and headward cutting of this channel have also resulted in draining out water which formerly helped replenish local ground waters. Some mountain valley lands in both the lower and upper basins are seriously eroding, pri- marily because of poor cultivation and irrigation practices on sloping lands. Experience has shown that while such losses can- not be restored, it is possible to irrigate land without such heavy erosion. Conservation practices on lands in the Gila, upper Colorado, and Duchesne River drainages have demonstrated that such erosion can be prevented and some eroded lands restored to productivity. 911610-51- -29 427 |
