BOARD01635

• Board Meeting Date: 3/26/1945
• Description: Table of Contents and Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Minutes

,
i

and to the above estimated depletio~ of potential irrigation projeots
listed in the Report, Colorado says that an allowanoe might properly be
made, for the depletions of additional irrigable, arable and pasture lands
that may be expecte~ to be irrigated, whioh additional depletions are es_
timated by Colorado engineers at 318,000 aore feet annually in Colorado,
and 205,000 acre feet annually in other Upper Basin States, or a :total of
523,000 aore feet annually in the Upper Basin. The severalfaotors in-
volved in said estimation, foreoast, or assumption, may be outlined as
follows:

(a) Irrigable Lands. Aooording to the 1940 u. S. Census, the
irrigable lands under existing irrigation enterprises whioh the con-
struoted works were oapable of supplying with water exoeeded the aoreage
irrigated by 34~,779 aores in the Upper Basin, of whioh 205.258 aores
were in Colorado. Some of suoh irrigable lands are to be served by the
potential projeots listed in the Report, b~ the remaining irrigable
lands may in time and probably will in pe.r1t be irrigated through aotiv-
ities- and agenoies other than the Bureau of Reolamation.

(b) Arable Lands. Acoording to land olassifioation surveys
of the Bureau of Reolamation, the Class 1 and 2 arable lands in western
Colorado aggregate 706,480 aores, - a surveyed and olassified aoreage
whioh Colorado says- is inoomplete. Of the said aoreage. 471,~30 aores
are to be irrigated by the potential proj eots 1 !sted in the Report. Of
the remaining 235,150 aores (or more) of arable land knOYlIl to be sui t-
abl~ for reclamation by irrigation, a fraotion thereof may be included
in the previously mentioned ,(a) irrigable lands; another part may be des-
tined to remain unirrigated; but the balance of the arable lands may, and
in time probably will, be irrigated by pr,ojects other than those listed
in the Report, even thoug~ physioal oonditions and the soattered looations
of such lands require that reolamati.on be accomplished by numerous develop-
ments of suoh small individual magnitl/.de that they fail to interest the
Bureau of Reclamation.

I:
I

I "Ii
II!
Ii
1'1
"\'
i'!:
"

(0) Pasture Lands. The Deed for and possibilities of pasture
irrigation are ignored in the Report. Aooording t6-the 1940 U. S. Cen-
sus there were 131,92~ aores of irrigated pasture in western Colorado,
in addition to meadowlands from whioh native hay orops were harvested.
Li vestook produotion is one of, the most important of the wealth produo-
ing industries in Colorado, and in oonneotion therewith there is a grow-
ing need for additional irrigated pasture lands. Livestook interests in
Gunnison County claim both the need and the opportunity for an addition-
al 220,000 aoree of irrigated pasture in that oounty alone. and other
livestook: produoing areas in western ColoradO have similar planlf or hopes
for inoreasing the acreage of irrigated ~ pastures. Colorado says that
the Bureau of Reolamation should oonsider the opportunitieB for the re-
olamation of pasture lands by irrigation, and that allowanoes for the
probable ultimate depletions of sueh lands should appear in the Report.
together with those or the previously mentioned irrigable and arable
lands developed for harvested orops.

'I

,
,I,!