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<br /> <br />. <br /> <br />total cost of $28,706,000. It is a trial program, to demonstrate what <br />can be dorie by local groups in partnership with the federal government. <br />Soil conservation districts and other groups are sponsoring projects and <br />furni$hing leadership to obtain participation of all local interests which <br />maybe benefited. Local contributions comprising rights-of.way and <br />easements, conservation ~reatment on watershed lands, and part of the <br />cost elf structures, will be. about half the total project cost on private <br />lands. Local interests will assume respOnsibility for futur.e maintenance. <br /> <br />The Soil Conservation Service will furnish technical assistance. <br />The Forest Service will carryon the program in the National Forest <br />portions of these watersheds. Other Federal;J1and-administering agencies <br />will pl!.rticipate in developing the watershed plan and carry out measures <br />needed to protect their own lands from erosion and flood damage. Agencies <br />involved are under pressure because the funds. appropriated must be obli- <br />gated in fiscal year 1954 or revert to the Treasury; A busy year is ahead <br />for the Department. <br /> <br />II <br /> <br />i <br /> <br />Designated watershed protection projects in the Colorado River <br />Basin are the White Tanks Project and the S!luaw Peak-South Moantain <br />Project, both in Arizona. Several are just outside the Basin, in Colorado, <br />New Mexico, Utah, and California. <br /> <br />the long-range welfare of irrigated agriculture depends on stopping <br />the deterioration of watersheds and reducing the sediment which clogs <br />westerp. streams, fills storage reservoirs, causes heavy costs for clean- <br />ing canals, and, in many places, seals irrigated soils so water can't <br />penetrate adequately. This program is intended to demonstrate how part <br />of the job can be done. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Watershed Management in the Fraser Experim.ental Forest <br /> <br />Studies to find out what kind of timber management will produce. the <br />greatest sustained yield of water with minimum erosion and sediment have <br />been unl:l.er way by the Forest Service for 15 years in the Fraser Experi- <br />mental Forest in the northeast corner of the Colorado River Basin. Effects <br />of different methods of tree cutting on interception of snow, evaporation <br />and trarispiration from the snow pack, and time of melting have been <br />studied., Control plots were left in a natural state to compare with <br />harvested plots. All the thinned plots shOWed considerable increase in <br />water cQntent of snow on the ground. There was indication that the more <br />open str"ip-cutting might increase evaporation from the snow. More snow <br />reached the ground in stands of aspen than in lodgepole pine, but less <br />accumulated in open grass lands--again indicating more evaporation where <br />there ar'e no trees to protect the snow pl!.ck from. sun and wind. <br /> <br />These conclusions are being tested in another way by measuring <br />water arid sediment yield from a pair of adjacent forested watersheds <br />which have been gaged for eight years to find the natural relation between <br />precipitation and water yield. Now the timber will be harvested from one <br />watershed of 714 acres. Logging roads have been built and their effect <br />on water yield and sediment is being studied. Next, six million board <br />feet of mature timber will be removed, half in 1954 and half later. The <br />effect of'each step will be evaluated by measuring the flow of water from <br /> <br /># <br /> <br />-9- <br /> <br />1 _ <br />