Amended Work Plan Kiowa Creek Watershed

Home Browse Search

- 5 - Flooded hay land which is not completely ruined by gullying or by sediment deposition, usually remains unproductive for several years. Dry crop land which has been damaged by gullying or sedimentation is usually retired to pasture because further cultivation is not practical. Damage of the kind described above may be extremely local. Moderate floods which cause serious damage in the upper reaches of the watershed may not cause noticeable damage in the main channel a few miles down- stream. Surface run -off from numerous small side drainages cuts gullies and deposits sediment on important acreages of crop and pasture land. Another serious consequence is the change which has taken place in the larger channels. Banks are undercut and the channel scoured in one reach while large amounts of sediment are deposited in another. The scouring may lower the water table under adjacent meadow lands to the point where they no longer produce much forage. Other channel reaches have lost so much of their capacity that they no longer can carry flood flows. Damages from future floods will be increased due to over -bank flooding and sedi- ment deposition along these restricted sections. In the past 20 years at least 2,000 acres of fertile, sub - irrigated and very productive meadows in the lower part of this watershed have been lost because of these changes in stream channels. Channels which could have been jumped across in 1935 are now an eighth to a quarter of a mile wide in many places. Twelve direct water diversion rights within the project have been abandoned in the last 30 years because of an increasingly unreliable stream flow and the difficulty of diversion and ditch maintenance due to channel cutting and changing and sedimentation. EXISTING WATER MANAGEMENT PROJECTS As a result of the 1935 flood, the Corps of Engineers constructed rock and earthen dikes in 1946 and 1947 to protect the towns of Elbert and Kiowa from future flood damages. These structures.are designed only to protect the two townsites from flood waters. A CCC Camp was established between the towns of Elbert and Kiowa to aid in clean -up work following the 1935 flood and to help farmers and ranchers to get a start on conser- vation programs for their farms and ranches. The Kiowa Soil Conservation District, organized in 1941 with flood control as one of the main features of its program, has made considerable progress in helping land owners and operators to adopt and install measures to stabilize the watershed and reduce run -off and erosion. A notable achievement of the District is a growing consciousness of proper land use on the part of the people through- out this area. Approximately 13,000 acres of land within the Kiowa district which cannot be cropped safely have been retired to grass. Other district accomplishments include the constructing of 146 miles of terraces and crop and pasture land diversions, and over 400 stock water and erosion control dams. Plans are being developed for the continued retirement of crop lands which are best adapted to permanent cover with the aim of having all land used in accordance with its capabilities. With help from the District Elbert County has incorporated conservation and flood protection features in its road and stream crossing plans.