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Mr. Valentine. The Committee may be interested in the conclusions Ron, You could g1ve them a run down on what your findings were. Mr, Alden R. Hibbert. Well, I looked at the possibility of generating augmented water supply in the C~lorado River Bas~n throu?h Vegetation Management and Snow Management 1n the Colorado R1ver Bas1n, Doth the Upper and Lower Basins separately. The overall consensus is probably research and application studies. If every acre of land were managed for specifically water yield, a great deal of water could be generated, at least on site, In the final analysis however, the application of such measures to land is rather extreme and something much less than this would be the final result. Land managers' view- point, water yield must be taken in perspective and the trade~off recognized with other land uses, Thus the more realistic level of management for water yield is something for less than the maximum potential, I used, as an example, to generate water, say, 750,000 acre-feet, what would have to be done to generate that much water? This is only a hypothetical example of what would be necessary to get it, this doesn't mean this would be a recommended or a realistic level of management, but I did use this as an exan~le of what would be required to get it and outlined this in the report. The land manager must then look at these and ~ith other priorities in mind, say whether or not such a level would be reached. I didn't arrive at any conclusions to this but it does give something to look at and the land manager can say, well, it's still too high or this could be reached or it may be exceeded. But at least it's a place which to look at, a level of management that mayor may not be reached. That's about where this particular report is now. . Mr. James, What would be some examples of management strategies, alternative strategies for increasing the yield? Mr, Hibbert, Would you reframeyour question? Mr. James. What would be some examples of the management strategies that you would use? Mr. Hibbert, Okay, for example there are several million acres of Aspen in the Colorado River Basin. If this Aspen type is to be kept in the ecosystem, some type of management or fire or natural regeneration of the particular type eventually has to be done and in doing so, water can be one of the spin-off resources of the system, either by clear cutting and allowing to regenerate say on an eighty- five year cycle which would allow timber harvest to be part of the management of the ecosystem, or maybe shortening the rotation age to twenty-five years to enhance wildlife habitat. Increasing the browse production from its system. This would increase water yield even more. But there are various ways in which these vegetation types can be managed. In the wind swept Alpine Zone, mountain grasslands, sage brush in some areas, snow fencing might be a way to increase water . B-8