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<br />The economic misfortune of the ski industry flowed through to numerous <br />other closely related industries. Commercial airlines serving Colorado, for <br />instance, lost revenues estimated at $15 million. In eight Colorado counties <br />economically dependent upon skiing, retail sales dropped $7 million, while hotel <br />and restaurant revenues slipped to levels about 29 percent below those of the <br />previous winter season. <br /> <br />The employment picture of those Colorado counties where skiing and tourism <br />provide the economic base was deceiving. Due to general trends of growth and <br />expansion, employment figures were higher than ever on countywide bases. <br />However, employment figures for ski-related businesses were approximately 15 <br />percent below previous years. The 15 percent employment drop could, in fact, <br />have been more drastic had not many ski-related business operators retained <br />skeleton crews in hopeful anticipation of snow and customers. <br /> <br />1.2.2 AGRICULTURE <br /> <br />Statistically speaking, the impacts of the 1977 drought upon Colorado <br />farmers and ranchers were subtle. Given the drastically reduced precipitation <br />and water supply during 1977, crop and livestock production did not appear to <br />have been proportionately impacted for the year. Cattle and calf inventories <br />rose by 5 percent during 1977, while total income from crops dropped from about <br />$705.5 million in 1976 to about $685.3 million in 1977, for a loss of just over <br />$20 million. Generally, crop production in Colorado increased during 1977, so <br />the $20 million income loss during the year is attributable in part to the <br />reduced prices which often accompany increased supplies of agricultural <br />products. <br /> <br />The relative stability of Colorado agriculture indicated by the Statewide <br />production and income figures is deceiving. Due to rising production costs and <br />low commodity prices, net farm income has shown a sharp downward trend over <br />recent years, falling from $540.6 million in 1974 to $115 million by the end of <br />1977. The lack of moisture during 1977 merely aggravated a bad situation. <br />Constantly rising production costs were exacerbated by farmers having to buy <br />temporary or additional water rights to supplement their own lagging supplies; <br />or having to bear additional pumping costs to fulfill water needs which, in <br />better years, were supplied by streamflow. The lack of moisture during 1977 <br />greatly reinforced a pattern which had emerged during the relatively dry years <br />since 1974; the widening gap between the number of acres planted and the number <br />of acres harvested. That gap, on a Statewide basis, was almost four times as <br />large by the end of 1977 as it had been at the end of 1973. <br /> <br />The drought also seriously afflicted ranchers, especially on the Western <br />Slope, where 1977 precipitation levels were low enough to prevent the replenish- <br />ment of rangeland forage. The resultant lack of grazeland on the Western Slope <br />meant that ranchers were forced to sell off some of their cattle prematurely at <br />reduced prices, rent graze1and from public and private owners, or obtain feed <br />supplements from the open market. Each alternative nbvious1y meant increased <br />costs to the rancher. <br /> <br />18 <br />