WSP04775

• File Number: 8042.A
• Description: Section "D" General Studies, Other States
• State: AZ
• Date: 7/22/1963
• Author: Joseph F Arnold
• Title: Arizona Watershed Program-Objectives, Genesis, and Citizen Participation
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

structures, The Acaas not designed for vegetativeeaniPulation, Also, it
would have required a considerable amount of negotiation to apply a program
administered by the Soil Conservation Service to lands administered by the
Forest Service.

This reconnaisance did call at ten t ion to the Beaver Creek Watersheds.
These were later selected by the Forest Service in the fall of 1956 for a
detailed treatment and watershed study when $100,000 was made available by
the United States Congress through the efforts of Senator Hayden. The Bea-
ver Creek project embraces 276,000 acres and involves the joint efforts of
both Forest Service Research and Administration.

Watershed Studv

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Following the 1954 meeting of the Tall Pines Farm Bureau and the watershed
tour of 1955, the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association, Arizona State
Land Department and the University of Arizona entered into a formal agree-
ment on December 5, 1955, to make a study of watershed conditions on the
vast Salt and Verde drainages. Dr. George Barr, Head of the Department of
Agricultural Economics at the University, was given the responsibility of
assembling scientists best qualified to make the watershed study. Partici-
pants in this study included: C. A. Anderson, 1\1anager of the San Carlos
Irrigation District; Dr. H. H, Biswell of the University of California; Mr.
Charles F. Cooper of the University of Arizona; Mr. A. R. Croft, Forester
for the Forest Service in Utah; Dr. L. D. Love, Research Forester for the
Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station; Mr. Jay H. Price,
retired Regional Forester; Mr. p. B. Rowe, Hydrologist for the California
Forest and Range Experiment Station; and Dr. H. G. Wilm, then Associate
Dean of Forestry at New York State College and presently Commissioner for
New York's Department of Conservation. I resigned from the Forest Service
to participate in this study.

..

Each participant in the watershed study was taken on an extensive tour of the
Salt and Verde Watershed by Mr. West. Based upon their individual experi-
ences and training, each scientist submitted a report on the possibility of
increasing water yields through proposed treatments of vegetation types.
These reports were brought together and edited by Dr. Barr and published in
a document titled, "Recovering Rainfall". It was released in October, 1956,
at a dinner meeting of leaders representing many interest groups.

Like any new and novel idea, the Barr report aroused considerable public
debate. But regardless of the debate, it provided a starting point for a plan
of research and action that has since become the Arizona Watershed Program.

WATERSHED MANAGEMENT DIVISION

I>

In his closing remarks at the end of the first watershed tour sponsored by the
Tall Pines Farm Bureau in 1955, Mr. Kel Fox recommended supporting a
bill that would create a division in the State Land Department for the purpose
of coordinating the many diverse activities of a Watershed Program. Pas_
sage of Senate Bill No. 12 in March of 1956 by the State Legislature provided
the means for setting up the Watershed Management Division.

The Division first outlined a programofwatershed practices based on recom-
mendations of the Barr Watershed study. To encourage action on these
recommendations, the Division now provides liaison between the Arizona

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