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W --l W W 3. Economy The economy of the Colorado River Basin is based on manufacturing, irrigated agriculture, mining, forestry, oil and gas production, live- stock, ~nd tourism. In the Upper Basin, the mineral industry now oversha~ows activities of the agricultural and forestry sectors, and this is expected to continue. The major effects of outdoor recreation and tour,ism are reflected in that these industries as a group contribute the greatest share to the area's total economic activity. In the Lower Basin, the economy has experienced a significant transi- tion from an agricultural-mining base to a manufacturing-service base. Growth i,n the manufacturi ng sectors has been one of the major factors in the ove~a11 economic growth of the Lower Basin, and this trend is expected to continue. However, agriculture will continue to play an important role in the Lower Basin's economy. 4. Land Use and Ownership There are approximately 162 million acres of land in the Colorado River Basin. Most of the land in the Basin is classified as rangeland. Irrigated 1 ands account for approximately 3 mill ion acres and are about equally divided between the Upper and Lower Basins. The Colorado River Basin as a whole can be characterized as a sparsely popu1atea, relatively undeveloped region. About 65 percent of the Basin i~ publicly owned, including National Forests and Parks, monu- ments, r~creation areas, game ranges and wildlife refuges, and federally owned lands administered by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). About 15 perce\1tof the land area is in Indian reservations. Figure 2 shows the distribution of federally administered lands in the Basin (BLM land not shown). About 3 percent of the area in the Basin is irrigated crop or pasture 1 and. 5. Cultural Resources Archeological and cultural resources tend to be concentrated along the Colorado'River and its tributaries, where the earliest settlers and Indians lived because of the availability of water. Common to virtually all of the Colorado River system is the desert cul- tural tr~dition. The desert culture tradition was a pattern specialized to exploit a broad range of available desert resources including both plants and animals, It involved both hunting and gathering activities and required movement to take advantage of the various plant and animal resources as they became seasonally available. In addition, there is physical evidence of more specialized cultures along th,e Animas, San Juan, and Little Colorado Rivers as well as the main river. Village sites are found as far west as the mouth of the Grand Canyon and along the Virgin River to its confluence with the Co lorado. II-9 i - .'< " _:,d~_': ~~ ~ _.,~ii..,,.~,,_~, ,~=