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<br /> <br />o <br /> <br />C.~I <br /> <br />C> SUMMARY <br />-J <br />C7:l <br /> <br />~ The Upper Colorado Region comprises 72,639,000 acres, of which <br />72,234,000 acres are land and 405,000 acres are water bodies of more <br />than 40 acres. Of the 72,234,000 acres of land, approximately 2,225,000 <br />acres are cropland, 23,987,000 acres are in forests and woodlands, and <br />the remaining 46,022,000 acres are in grass and browse rangelands, <br />barren areas, and urban ,and built-up areas. Alpine mountain peaks and <br />barren and inaccessible land are extensive while the urban and built-up <br />areas constitute a small fraction of 1 percent of the region. <br /> <br />Nearly two-thirds of the land area is in public ownership under <br />Federal and state administration. The remainder is privately owned, with <br />slightly more than half of this in ownerships of local governments, cor- <br />porations, and individuals and the remainder in Indian tribal or <br />individual ownerships held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />j <br />I <br />, <br />, <br />! <br />1 <br />, <br /> <br />Soils and their associated climatic environment influence and may <br />determine suitability and use made of the land. Characteristics of the <br />soils vary greatly from place to place. Soils suitable for irrigation <br />comprise 17,515,000 acres or approximately 24 percent of the total land <br />area. Application of constraints related to development costs reduces <br />the acreage suitable for irrigation. <br /> <br />Irrigated cropland produces the major part of the food and fiber <br />in the region. All of the irrigated cropland is privately owned and <br />it supports most of the livestock during the winter months. There are <br />1,622,000 acres of land that are presently irrigated and an additional <br />7,058,000 acres of land that are suitable for irrigation. The acreage <br />suitable for irrigation far exceeds anticipated needs for irrigated land. <br /> <br />Dry cropland is mainly used for winter wheat production under a <br />summer fallow system, but pinto beans are an extensive row crop in the <br />San Juan-Colorado Subregion. It is expected that the 603,000 acres of <br />dry cropland will decrease in the future as suitable lands are diverted <br />to irrigated cropland, urban, and other uses. There is little opportu- <br />nity for the development of new dry cropland. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />Grazing on 60.4 million acres produced 57 percent of the feed for <br />livestock in the base year.' Grazing will remain the largest single <br />source of feed during the planning period. This will require corrective <br />measures to overcome the effects of past and current overgrazing and <br />must be accomplished on a useab1e area which will be reduced to about <br />53.3 million acres. Intensive management supplemented by land treatment <br />is proposed to accomplish this objective. <br /> <br />i <br /> <br />