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B46 DROUGHT IN THE SOUTHWEST, 1942-56 Dolores River basins and the Rio Grande basin, where runoff was above the long-term mean in only 4 of the H years 1943-56. The forage in these 7 counties suf. fered severely, even at high altitudes. The mountain meadows, an important source of feed for livestock, were frequently' dry and the stock forage inadequate during the drought. Drought caused some reduction in power genera.tion at the several small hydroelectric plants in the area, and some municipalities were short of water. UTAH The southern half of Utah was affected by drought for as long as any part of the Southwest, and the southern two-thirds was included in the Federal Government's drought-aid program as of the end of 1956. The livestock industry probably felt the drought. more severely than any other part of the State's econ- omy. In some areas, the carrying capacity of the range in 1956 was reduced about 40 percent, In other areas, as early as 1951, parts of the range were unused because of failing springs and dry waterholes, In 1951 and in some years since, water was hauled to sheep and cattle in Sevier, San .Juan, Beaver, and Kane Counties, Effect of the drought on hydroelectric-power production is illustrated by data from the Southern Utah Power Co" serving Washington and Iron Counties. The annual generation of hydroelectric power exceeded 13 million kwh in 1952 and was greater than 11 million in each of the wet years 1941-45 and 1947-50, In the drier years the generation was generally less than 10 million kwh and reached a low of 7.7 million in 1956. NEVADA It may appear anomalous that southern Nevada, one of the most arid parts of the United States, has recently experienced a drought more intense than any since 1904, and yet the economic effect has been less than in any other of the seven Southwestern States, The explana- tion is that because of the prevailing aridity, there are fewer people to be affected; and those few utilize chiefly the water supplies of greatest dependability. Exclud- ing the Las V"gas metropolitan area, southern Nevada has fewer than 25,000 people in an area larger than the State of Indiana, Many of these people obtain water from springs of fairly uniform discharge or from ground-water reservoirs of large storage capacity. Lo- cal runoff has long been recognized as undependable, because it occurs only as a result of exceptional storms; thus the only developed surface-water supplies are those brought from other States by the Virgin and Colorado Rivers, and the flow in the Colorado River, as regulated by Hoover Dam, was adequate for the smal! requirements in Nevada. Thus the drought d- fected chiefly the domestic and wild products of the rangeland, which deteoriorated during the years of less than average precipitation, The effect of drought on the rangeland was severe enough that the four southern counties were declared a drought-emergency area by the Federal Government and eligible for aid to cattle- men. This aid was given mainly as subsidies to buy hay, ARIZONA All Arizona in 1956 was within the drought-disaster area eligible for Federal aid for livestock feeding, Spe- cial relief was given to the Navajo Reservation by dis- tribution of 28,000 tons of feed grain to tribal stock owners in late 1956, As suggested by the type of relief, those .parts of .the economy that depend up<>n soil mois- ture obtained directly from precipitation were severely affected by the drought: livestock and wildlife depend- ent upon the range, and dry farming, Dr, Roberl Humphrey, range-management specialist of the Uni- versity of Arizona, after an inspection of the ranges of southern Arizona in December 1956 said that condi- tions varied from a 10 percent kill of perennial grasses in some areas to as high as 80 or 90 percent in others. The Flagstaff office of the Forest Service reported that after 1947 the grazing period was progressively reduced until in 1956 it was only about 55 percent of that per- mitted in 1947. Few figures are available to show the adverse effect of drought on wildlife, but studies by the Arizona Game and Fish Department of the antelope, deer, and elk population indicate lower population, lower vitality' of the survivors, and lower reproduction. Drought may affect the quality of wildlife food, as well as the quan- tity, as indicated by a study of quail by the Arizona Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit of the University of Arizona in 1956; it was found that the quail are now taking less preferred foods and covering more territory to fiU their crops. The lack of specific nutrients is perhaps more serious than a general food shortage. Water may be the- Hnutrient" that is lacking during seasons when there is no succulence in the form of green growing plants or juicy fruits. Certain vitamins may also be unavailable when the birds are on a diet of dry seeds without green leaves or suc- culent fr~its. " Only about 50,000 acres is farmed without irrigation in Arizona, mostly in the northern part of the Sta.te, In the dry-farming area in the vicinity of Flagstaff, the Agricultural Stabilization Conservation office re- ported a reduction in acreage of pinto beans and small grains from 20,000 in 1949 to 14,000 in 1951, an increase to 18,000 after the wet year 1952, and reduction to 10,000 acres by 1956, Crop production in lliiltl WII8 poorer than the number of acres would indicate, for beans produced only 'about 30 percent of normal yield per acre.