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N lol-~ N- o Two SHOTEL telemetry weather stations were installed to provide climatological 'data for calculating evapo-transpiration (ET) rates as an estimate of crop consumptive use. However, access to weather information was inadequate for calculating a preciseET, so the final irrigation balances for eleven irrigation events will be estimates; The electronic components to monitor irrigation flows on the twelve sites will be in place ,by the end of Barch 1985 ready to collect irrigation data for the entire 1985 irrigation season. .' The software to handle theH&E data processing and evaluation, not commercially available, is being developed locally with programming assistance from the 'Fort Collins Computer Center. The data handling sophistication built into ~he program will improve ,as, more 'experience is gained with, data acquisition ,and evaluation. Programming isprogres,sing well, but we anticipate the need, ,for a great deal more programming time ,in fiscal year 1985. More work is scheduled to develop and implement an economic monitoring and evaluation program. An economic-evaluation worksheet similar to the ,one used by SCS staff may be' a way ,to provide the baseline information on'selected sites. A follow_up system need,S to be !1eveloped to track the economic impacts of the onfat'lll irrigation improvements., To fully implement an H&Eeffort with economic evaluation and irrigation water management ,follow-up, additional, personnel will be required. Fiscal year 1984.has been a valuable.learning experience for theH&E staff. The new technology that allows collecting the types of information needed to monitor irrigation flows,brought its own unique set of challenges as equipment 'was beinginstalle~ and tested. The 1985 irrigation 'season provides the oppor-, 'tunity for collecting data needed to provide significant new insights'into, understanding irrigation improvements and design needed to provide new. levels of reliability for making irrigation improvements for salinity control. Uinta Basin. Utah Salt load monitoring will be done on 39 'sites representing dominant soils, geology, crops and irrigation systems. Data from sites with unimproved , , irrigation systems and from sites before, improvement of .the ,irrigation system will be the reference baseline from which salt load reduction is estimated. Wildlife habitat quality and quantity is monitored on cover types for six key wildlife species using habitat evaluation procedures (HEP) developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Habitat unit values calculated fromHEPdata evaluate wildlife habitat quality. Vegetation trend transects and cover type, mapping by electronic analysis of, remotely sensed images is used to monitor ' habitat quantity. Data will be collected once every three years on ninety wildlife habitat sites. Ground water will be monitored on wetlands to be correlated with vegetation, wildlife habitat quality and irrigation systems. -23-