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<br />oot6i~> <br /> <br />Under the intensive cropping common to much of <br />the cultivated area, soil fertility would decline rapidly <br />if nutrients were not replaced. Commercial fertilizer <br />application and rotation with soil.building crops hold <br />this form of deterioration to a low level. <br /> <br />Legal and Institutional Problems <br /> <br />Legal and institutional influence over land use <br />and management varies with ownership and location. <br />Public land managing agencies operate under laws <br />that generally allow each agency to do an adequate <br />job of development, protection, and administration <br />of its lands. However, certain aspects need improve- <br />ment. Because the public land laws were developed to <br />meet earlier needs, many of them are inadequate to <br />meet either current or future needs. Policy direction <br />that could provide a basis for comprehensive resource <br />management programs is lacking. <br />Standards for the prevention of soil erosion, for <br />instance, are essentially nonexistent. Presently, some <br />States have limited laws controlling various land uses <br />which are embodied in forest practices acts, fish and <br />game laws, etc. However, no legislation is consistently <br />applied to all lands. For example, there are no legal <br /> <br />Land Resources <br /> <br /> <br />constraints on the ranchers who cause erosion by <br />overgrazing, nor are there any effective restrictions on <br />recreation developments that cause deterioration of <br />soil and vegetation. <br />Federal programs aimed at protecting watershed <br />lands sometimes fail to serve the needs of the Pacific <br />Southwest. Deterioration of vegetal cover on large <br />areas oflow-value land often results in sediment-laden <br />floods or mudflows downstream in heavily populated <br />areas. Extensive land treatment often costs more than <br />can be justified under current criteria for economic <br />evaluation, because little weight is given to less <br />tangible benefits associated with keeping the uplands <br />intact. <br />The legal environment relating to private land is <br />more permissive than that for public lands. Optional <br />programs of technical assistance and financial incen. <br />tives toward resource conservation are offered to <br />landowners. Only in a few cases-forest practices acts, <br />for example-are legal constraints placed upon man- <br />agement of private rural land, although zoning of <br />urban land to limit kinds of uses is common. <br />Regulatory laws controlling the use of land, partic- <br />ularly those affecting land in private ownership, are <br />ineffective or nonexistent. <br /> <br />31 <br />