4000 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Water requirements at fishing lakes and fish hatcheries are based on consumptive use. Additional quantities necessary for circulation, aeration, and the like reenter the streams as return flow and are not lost. Estimated consumptive uSe for the region in 1965 for fishery purposes is shown in the following list. State Acre-Feet Arizona Colorado New Mexico Utah Wyoming 564 2,659 224 3,220 30 Total 6,697 Fishery developments within the basin have expanded since 1965. The 1974 level of consumptive water use for these purposes is estimated as some 18,000 acre-feet for facilities within the portions of the five States concerned. Although the effects would be less direct than upon the fishery resources, the use of water for energy development is also expected to affect the land-bas'ed wildlife resources within the basin. Expanded energy production would require additional land for power sites and transmission facilities and also result in a diverse array of socio- economic impacts such as increased human populations, suburban growth, allied service industries, expanded road networks, and the like. In view of these possibilities, comparable 1965 reference information is presented also for the wildlife resources. Two-thirds of the region is in public ownership under Federal, State, or local administration. Because of this preponderance of public lands, large populations of forest and rangeland wildlife continue to exist and provide abundant opportunity for hunting by residents and nonresidents alike. Table 5 shows the land status within areas of key habitat (defined as that part of a species' range that is limiting or controlling of its numbers) for selected species of wildlife and illustrates the relationship of wildlife to public lands. Of the species inventoried only waterfowl use private land more extensively than public land. The relative importance of various plant types within key habitats for selected wildlife species is shown in Table 6. For example, the two types of vegetation that characterize winter habitat for mule deer-- a zone of pinyon-juniper at higher levels and a zone of northern desert shrub, predominantly sagebrush, at lower elevations. 19