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e e Approximately 60 percent of the Upper Basin land area is under Federal administration, 15 percent is Indian Trust land, and 25 percent of the area is State, corporate, and individual land. The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service ~dminister about 58 percent of the public land, most of it under the multiple-use doctrine. Grazing and crop production are two of the most important land uses. Forests cover about one-third of the area. Extensive outdoor recreation use is made of both public and private lands. Historically, the Basin has been sparsely populated. However, the population began to increase significantly about 1965. Since the 1980 census, the increases have been attributed to the so-called Sun Belt phenomena. However, the most dramatic local population growth patterns are related to expanding energy development industries. Service industries to serve the energy and recreation communities also account for a significant portion of the popula- tion growth. B. The No Action Alternative The no action alternative presents no impacts due to changes in the precipi- tation regime, runoff, streamflow, or water yield in the Basin. The negative effects due to failure to augment the Basin's water supplies by cloud seeding mayor may not be offset by other augmentation methods. C. The Cloud Seeding Alternative The environmental effects of increasing precipitation by seeding clouds over a short term (research mode) and over the long term (operational mode) have been discussed in National Environmental Policy Act compliance documents. Short-term environmental effects have been discussed in the Colorado River Basin Pilot Project Final Environmental Statement [7J, the Project Skywater Programmatic Final Environmental Statement [2J. and the Sierra Cooperative Pilot Project Environmental Assessment [8J. Potential effects of widespread and prolonged application of precipitation management were considered at the Skywater IX Conference [9J, and received preliminary evaluation in the Project Skywater Final Environmental Statement [2J. The studies of the effects of precipitation increases on ecological sectors in the San Juan Mountains were an important part of the Colorado River Basin Pilot Project. The results of these studies are found in the San Juan Ecology Report [10J. Cloud seeding research activities in the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, the Medicine Bow Mountains, and the Cascades have been accomplished without adverse environmental consequences. In addition. many Western States have supported operational cloud seeding programs or have issued permits for private sector programs. Certain environmental issues have been related to winter orographic cloud seeding as a result of these research and operational experiences. Some of these issues have been laid to rest by the scientific community. Others will required continued data collection and monitoring in order to judge their importance and impact. An array of historical studies have concluded that incremental increases in precipitation over the short terms of research mode cloud seeding programs do 9