WSP11679

• File Number: 8101
• Description: Arkansas River Basin Description
• State: CO
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 2
• Date: 1/1/1944
• Author: USDA - SCS
• Title: Physical Land Conditions in the Western and Southwestern Baca County Soil Conservation Districts - Colorado
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

002315

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available to the. association. The dis-
trict then subleased land to the Sandy
Soil Association, which in turn hired
the district to do necessary cl'osion-
control work on the lands. In 1940,
arrangements were made whereby soil
conservation districts in Colorado were
eligiblc for loans from the Farm Sccu-
rity Adm!nistl'ation. '1'he southeastern
district, however, has continued to
borrow from local banks.
Much of the blowing land was under
absentee ownership and owners were
reluctant to sign long-term leases, es-
peeiaUy since the monetary considera-
tion was only a dollar plus a promise
to treat the iand for erosion eontrel at
no cost to the owner except an amount
equal to his payments under the Agri-
cultural Conservation Program. No
provision was made for the paymont of
taxes, Sinr.e, it was impossible to secure
long-term leases under this arrange-
lucnt, I-year leases were resorted to.
Although thc Colorado law permitted
the districts to installnceessary erosion-
control measures on blowing fields and
charge such costs Co the land as taxes,
this provision was used in only four
cases,
Under these arrangements the west-
e-rn district was successful in leasing a
total of 62,173 acres of land by January
1, 1941. Some of this was pasture and
some well-stabilized idle land. Of this
land, 30,906 aeres have been planted to
dose-growing sorghums for erosion con-
'trol. Thc southeastern distriet has
leascd 12,128 aeres, of whieh 6,522
acres wore planted to sorghums.
Five-year looses were reeeived on all
unstabilized land owned by the State,
This land is being stabilized and retire,d
to native vegetation by the distl'iet
under the Agrieultural Conservation
Program.
In the early stages little thought was
o-iven to a long-time program of better
fand use, since the first problem was to
tempora,.jly stabilize blowing land.
After opm:ations ha.d been under way
for some months and thousands of
acres had been leased and temporary
erosion-control measures effected, th0
farmers through their distl'iet board of
supervisors began to look further ahead

and change from an emergency program
to a more permanent one.
By January 1, 1942, 236 farmer-
district cooperative agreements) cover-
ing 149,741 aeres, had' been signed in
the western district and 86 such agree-
ments) covering 56,389 acres of land) in
the southeastern district. These'1,gree-
ments are entered into by the farmers
with the districts for the purposes of
erosion control and conservation farm-
ing. The district agrces to furnish
necessary technical assistance in formu-
lating and executing with the farmer a
5-year plan of conservation operations
designed to achieve maximum safe land
use consistent with the capabilities of
the land and the desires and abilities
of the farmer. The farmer agrees
to follow this plan on his land and to
furnish such labor and materials as may
be required for execution of the plan.
The distriet further agrees to lurnish
certain types of heavy equipment and
limited quantities of labor where they
arc available. All plans are based on
thc inventory of the land as revealed
by the physieal survey and arc worked
out with full consideration of the eeo-
nomic set-up of the farmer.
Praetiees that arc being put into cffed
to control erosion and bring about im-
proved land use on one of the farms
in the western district are shown in
figures 13 a.nd 14. Figure 13 shows the
physical survey and the classes of land
according to its capability for use on a-
larm in the hard-land area. Of the
620 acres) exclusive of farmstead and
r9ads, about 30 acres are in land-
eapability class III, 510 aeres in class
IV, and 80 acres in class VI. The
soils bclong to groups 4, 5, and 6,
Erosion ranges from slight on the range
land to very severe on part of the
cultivated land. Land use at the time
the survey was made is also shown in
figure 12. Pasture covered 360 acres
and crops 260 acres. The conservation
survey revealed that some land of
class VI was being cultivated, and an
economic study showed the unit was not
large cnough to provide sufficient in-
come. It was found that 640 acres,
largcly class IV land, which joined the
farm, could be leased. The lease was

Western and Southeastern Baca County Soil Conservation Districts, Colorado
4GR20n 0 -44---5

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