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Show nents of a program should not be interrelated in principle if the interrelation is not clearly estab- lished in the physical and economic sense and based on a reasonable future period for analysis. Specific land management measures.-Although some reduction in range overuse is being made in some localities. Federal land administering agen- cies should undertake a much strengthened program of remedial measures looking toward an immediate reduction in range abuse without waiting upon funds for restorative measures. Consideration should be given to the possible purchase of base ranch properties used in connection with "permitted stock" on public lands, as a means of reducing overstocking of such lands.47 Federal land managing agencies should place pri- mary emphasis upon the need for land restoration and management in this basin when recommending and presenting financial needs to budgetary and legislative bodies, in order to permit water resources development programs to go forward unchecked. A large program of range revegetation and manage- ment is essential together with supplemental engi- neering works. This will be costly. No leases of Federal land should be granted with- out requiring a limitation upon use that will permit gradual restoration of the land. No new grazing privileges should be granted for the use of Federal lands that would endanger watershed values or delay the early recovery of the range. Federal land managing agencies should under- take a program of consolidating Federal lands through purchase or exchange to achieve unified management. Federal land managing agencies should acquire key tracts which control the use of extensive areas of deteriorating public land and upon which grazing permits are based, on those high runoff and sedi- ment source areas which cannot otherwise be made to provide good watershed conditions. Acquisition also should be undertaken to broaden the economic base of the Indians. Federal land managing agencies should under- take an approach to all intermingled lands, public or private, within the exterior boundaries of their units so as to persuade the owners to accept the high conservational use of land that their interest and that of the region and Nation demands. Such public administration of intermingled lands should 47 Permittees in some cases now are buying such prop- erties and retiring grazing preferences on their own initiative. help provide watershed restoration at minimum cost to all concerned. States should undertake to consolidate scattered lands, combining them into economic administra- tive units and placing them under conservation management. Tax delinquent lands should be placed in ad- ministrative units so that restorative measures can be applied to them. There should be greater coordination among the many public land administering agencies to effect more uniform policies of procedure and manage- ment, and more coordinated approaches to the management problem so that the public may obtain full values from its lands. A greatly expanded Federal financial program is essential to achieve these ends on both public and private lands. 3. Sedimentation and Sediment Control The Problem Seriousness of sedimentation, its effects on a water program, and means of sediment control in this basin. The Situation Sediment is a major factor in water resources de- velopment of the Colorado. The fact that 100,000 acre-feet or more of sediments are deposited an- nually in Lake Mead has aroused national concern as to the useful life of man's engineering works on the river. The suspended sediment as measured at several stations in the basin has been estimated to be about as follows: River and station: Estimated load Colorado: acre-feet per square mile Lake Mead_________________________* 0. 64 Grand Canyon______________________ 1. 08 Little Colorado, Grand Falls______________ . 91 Colorado, Lees Ferry____________________ 1. 09 Little Colorado, Cameron________________ 1. 07 Colorado, Cisco_________________________ . 50 Green, Green River______________________ . 38 San Juan: Bluff______________________________ 1. 20 Blanco____________________________ . 77 State Line_________________________ .66 Gunnison, Bridgeport____________________ . 33 Gila River, San Carlos___________________ . 25 Salt River, Roosevelt_____________________ . 72 1 The estimate of 0.64 acre-feet at Lake Mead is believed to be low. (Thomas Maddock, Bureau of Reclamation, Proceedings, Sedimentation Conference-Pacific South- west Federal Inter-Agency Technical Committee, 1950.) 429 |