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<br />and Arizona the National Forests were visite~ by one of the most damaging <br />series of fires of record. Nearly 42,000 acres burned over on watersheds <br />in the Colorado River Basin. To minimize flood hazards created by fire <br />the Secretary approved the emergencY expenditure of $20,000 in reseeding <br />by airplane 3,000 acres of the watershed above Globe, Arizona. <br /> <br /> <br />The Agricultural Research Administration worked with the Agricultural <br />Research Conunittee of the National Reclamation Association in a study of the <br />needs of Western irrigation agriculture, and ,in developing a recommended <br />program of research. ' <br /> <br />The Farmers Home Administration, in i cooperation with the Bureau of <br />Reclamation, completed a study of farm credit problems on the Coachella <br />Project. Loans were made to settlers in the 'Yuma area. Under the program <br />of small water facility loans the FHA has under consideration the improve- <br />ment and extension of the main canal of the irrigated area near Fort Lewis, <br />Colorado, on the La Plata River. <br /> <br />All of you, and your children and their children, have a tremendous <br />stake in the watershed and farm lands of the, Colorado River Basin. Inthe <br />pictures that I am showing, the emphasis is 1lpon that work of the USDA that <br />has to do with the conservation of water on farms, the control of soil <br />erosion on farm, range and forest, and the improvement of the watersheds of <br />the Colorado River. Over the years ahead, these upstream soil and water con- <br />servation measures will be of great importance in assuring perpetuation of <br />irrigation agriculture and of the great munioipalities and industries being <br />'developed upon the basis of Colorado River water. <br /> <br />This resume of USDA activities was followed by the showing of 35 <br />colored slides illustrating the following conditions or activities: <br /> <br />(a) Typical watershed situations within the' principal water and silt <br />producing areas of the Upper Colorado River Basin. <br /> <br />(b) Erosion control practices on dry farming areas in Utah. <br /> <br />(c) Erosion and its control in irrigation farm areas. <br /> <br />(d) Effects of the Mt. Pleasant, Utah, flo~d of July 1946, and watershed <br />measures being taken to minimize the likelihood of future floods. <br /> <br />(e) Adverse affects of fire on forested watershed lands. <br /> <br />(f) Range land reseeding on public and privately owned lands. <br /> <br />(g) Recovery in the Davis County, Utah wat$rsheds ten years after treatment. <br /> <br />(h) A small water facility that can be financed under the loan program of <br />the Farmers Home Administration. <br /> <br />. . . .. . . .'. . . . <br /> <br />-4- <br />