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Table 9 - SUMMARY OF MAJOR LAND USE AND WATER AREAS Upper Yellow- Western Eastern Platte- Middle Low.. Missouri Item Missouri slone Dakota Dakola Niobrara Missouri Kansas Missouri Basin (Thousand Acres) Agriculture I 50,3B2 43,152 47,2B9 34,399 60_7B7 14,901 37,IB2 24,300 312,392 Recrcaliun2 519 1.40B 334 3B 377 37 36 65 2,814 rish & Wildlirc2 IR2 34 101 427 254 60 21 69 1,14B Transporr<Jtiun, Urban. Ruill-up, and Other 1.200 243 BSB 1,536 1,474 565 1,1B9 5B5 7,6BO Water ArcaJ 670 345 472 902 654 174 336 266 3,B19 Milll.:filllllJlI~try 3 9 3 1 6 2 6 3 33 Military 7 9 269 0 123 6 106 102 622 - - - - - -- - - - Tolal 52.963 45.200 49,356 37,303 63,675 15,745 3R,R76 25,390 328.508 'Includes cropland, pasture and range. forest, and olher agricultural lands. 2Laml area only. 31ncludes water area used primarily for n:creation, fish, and wildlife. ancillary land lJtiliz<JliolJ. Likewise, WJter in the hasin is used <.In indetcrmin:.lble number of times, but no attempt was ll1<.Jde 10 reduce such use to surface ::Jeres. Agriculture At the time of early settlement, most of the Missouri Basin not in forest was covered by'a "sea of grass." Roughly the 1001h Meridian separated the short- and taU-grass regions as shown earlier ill t1gure -15. The tall grasses, mainly big bluestem, switch grass. and Indian rice grass, covered the eastern plains and prairie. The western area was covered with a mixture of middle length and short grasses, mainly blue graIllma, buffalo, western wheat, little blue stem, and sideoats gramma. interspersed with sage. Over-grazing of some areas has eliminated many of the taller species so that now these areas are predominantly short grass ranges. Most of the original tall grass Jreas, except on the hummocky (dune) lands. have been converted to cropland. Much of the mixed grass areas remain and now make up most of the land in pasture :md range devoted to grazing, pre- dominantly in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, western Nebraska, and Norlh and Soulh Dakola_ These vasl grasslands reOect Illan's use and management. Some areas are flOW in better condition than ill their natural state, while other areas have deteriorated because of over-utilization. Grazing of pasture and range and forest land remains the largest majol use of agricultural land in the basin. with about 61 percent (189 million acres) of the area devoted tu this use. The highest proportion of grazing occurs in the Upper Missouri, Yellowstone. Western Dakota, and Platte-Niobrara subbasins where more than two-thirds of the area is pasture and range, as shown in table 10. In the Eastern Dakota, Kansas. and Lower Missouri subbasins, approximately two-fifths of the land is in pasture and range, and in the Middle Missouri one-f1fIh_ 40 ~.;;it ~i~~~~~ """'.., ..... fI'" .. --'I ......, ..",' f , f,t -1t' Vast Grass/ands Support the Livestock Industry Total cropland in the basin is estimated at 104 million acres or one-third of the agricultural land. The Middle Missouri Subbasin is 1110st intensively tilled with 75 percent of the area devoted to crop production. The Eastern Dakota and Kansas subbasins are about 60 percent cropland, the Lower Missouri Subbasin is 42 percent, and the Yellowstone Subbasin is but 8 percent cropland. Seven percent of the cropland ill the basin is irrigated :lggregating 6.9 million aCres. There also are 0.5 million acres of irrigated pasture. The Platte-Niobrara Subbasin has the largest area irrigated, or 3 million acres. Other import~mt areas of irrigation are in the Kansas Subbasin with 1.7 million acres, and the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone subbasins, each with about I million acres. Smaller amounts of irrigation are found in the other subbasins. Forestry Of the 28 million acres of forest land shown in figure J 6, 73 percent is in the Rocky Mountains alld Black