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<br />0022~Q <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />12. son. CONSERVATION SERVICE <br /> <br />There are relatively few watershed improvement projects in the <br />Republican River basin, under the Department of Agriculture program, <br />The Dry Creek Pilot Watershed project in Red Willow County, Nebraska, <br />was completed in 1959. This demonstration project covers an area <br />of 55.3 square miles and includes 7 floodwater detention structures <br />controlling a tots1 drainage area of 29 square miles. In Yuma <br />County, Colorado, the Wray Watershed Protection Project was com- <br />pleted in 1961 under the provisions of the Watershed Protection and <br />Flood Prevention Act (P.L. 83/566). The project embraces an area <br />of 3.7 square miles including the city of Wray, Colorado. Flood- <br />water detention structures control runoff from about 80 percent of <br />the watershed. In addition, four other watershed districts have <br />been organized to sponsor projects under the provisions of Public <br />Law 556, Eighty-third Congress. In Nebraska, districts have been <br />organized to sponsor the Dry Creek South Watershed project of 37.0 <br />squsre miles in Red Willow County and the Silver Creek Watershed <br />project of 28.6 square miles in Red Willow and Frontier Counties. <br />In Kansas, Organizations have been completed for projects on the <br />Buffalo Creek Watershed, area 144.6 square miles. in Jewell, <br />Mitchell and Cloud Counties and on the Five Creeks Watershed, area <br />115.6 square miles, in Clay and Cloud Counties. Three other water- <br />shed districts are pending organization, two along Dry Creek and <br />Peet Creek, small left bank tributaries of the lower Republican <br />River in Kansas, and the Upper Republican Watershed at the head- <br />waters of the South Fork of the Republican River in Colorado. <br /> <br />13. LOCAL PROJECTS <br /> <br />Local interests have attempted to control bank erosion at <br />various places along the Republican River, chiefly by using old <br />car bodies as revetments. These have been effective except in <br />cases where the protection was not extended far enough to prevent <br />flanking by the river. Local protection has been provided at many <br />bridge abutments and there has been some cutting and chemical <br />spraying of willow growth to maintain the channel capacity at bridge <br />crossings. In 1957, a group of farmers bulldozed the willow growth <br />and sandbars.from the Republican River channel for a distance of <br />3-1/2 miles upstream from State Highway 14 bridge at Superior, <br />Nebraska, at a cost of about $5,000. This reach of the river is <br />comparatively narrow but the improvement appears to have been <br />helpful locally. A large number of farm reservoirs and stock ponds <br />are scattered throughout the basin. having an estimated aggregate <br />capacity of .35,000 acre-feet. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />19 <br />