Laserfiche WebLink
<br />001J36 <br /> <br />Draft - 9/81 <br /> <br />- <br /> <br />Idle. This wiLl produce a grave crisis for irrigated agriculture <br />In the region. <br />The Division of Planning's low projection predicts that by <br />the year 2000 only 5,880 new people will reside in the Northern <br />High Plains, an average annual Increase of only 1.02 percent. <br />The high projection for the same ye.v involves 13,000 new resi- <br />dents which translates to a pe~centage change over the 21 years <br />In question of less than 50 percent. Further analysis by the <br />Oivlslon's personnel Indicates that the actual growth will trend <br />toward the low to medium projectIons. The historic data do not <br />adequately account for the effects of the rise In the price of <br />energy, the relat Ive decline of farm prices when measured In con- <br />stant dollars over the last decade, or the tightening in the <br />availability and rise in the cost of agricultural loans. These <br />forces will likely spur an exodus of young people to regIons such <br />as the Platte and Arkansas or to the northwestern part of the <br />state, depending on the growth of the energy industry on the <br />Western Slope. In a word, the future growth of the Northern High <br />Plains Region is problematic at best. <br />Arkansas <br />The Arkansas Region .Includes the entire southeast portion of <br />the state. (The counties included in this regIon for population <br />purposes are: Baca, Bent, Custer, Crowley, Chaffee, 20 percent <br />of Cheyenne, El Paso, Fremont, Huerfano, Kiowa, Las Animas, <br />Prowers, 40 percent of Teller, Lake, Pueblo, Otero and Lincoln.) <br />It includes more counties or portions of counties than any other <br />hydrologic region. (Twenty percent of Cheyenne County and 40 <br /> <br />7 <br />