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<br />xi <br /> <br /> <br />o <br /> <br />N SYLLABUS <br />",.J <br />~": <br />~ An inventory of major wetland areas in the Arkansas, White, <br />and Red River Basins, including those areas now inadequately served <br />by existing drainage works, shows that there are approximately <br />14.7 million acres of land that could produce more farm crops by <br />removal of excess surface or subsurface water and by correction of <br />related salinity problems. The Red River Basin contains 8.5 million <br />acres of wetlands, the White River Basin, 3.3 million acres, and <br />the Arkansas River Basin, 2.9 million acres. The States of Arkansas <br />and Louisiana have 7.6 and 4.7 million acres of wetlands, respec- <br />tively, and Kansas and Oklahoma have 0.9 and 0.8 million acres of <br />wetlands, respectively. Wetlands in other States total about <br />0.7 million acres. There are small isolated tracts in upland areas <br />that were not included in the inventory of wetland areas. <br /> <br />About 7 million acres of land in the Arkansas, White, and <br />Red River Basins have drainage works and improvmments. 'rhe existing <br />drainage works that can be considered effective are located in the <br />Grand Prairie region and in the Arkansas River Valley between Fort <br />Smith and Little Rock in Arkansas, in Louisiana, and in some smaller <br />localized areas in other States within the AWR Basins. A large <br />percentage of the presently installed drainage works are only par- <br />tially effective. In a number of cases drainage enterprises have <br />been unsuccessful. Most of the past failures of drainage under- <br />takings can be attributed to financial reverses due to economic <br />conditions. in the depression years of the 1930 decade, insufficient <br />flood protection, inadequate design, particularly with respect to <br />group laterals and major outlets, failure to establish a complete <br />system of laterals and field drains in order to properly drain <br />individual farms within the drainage enterprises, and poor mainte- <br />nance of ditches and related works. <br /> <br />The wetland areas have been studied to determine those <br />lands physically and economically feasible for improvement by <br />drainage. Three groups of wetlands were excluded from the study <br />for improvement. These were: .lands in existing, authorized, and <br />proposed reservoirs, floodways,and unprotected areas between levees. <br />and streams and swampy lands; large expanses of commercia]ly-owned <br />timber tracts that occupy wetlands; and wildlife refuges under <br />public control. The total wetland area of these groups is 2.9 mil- <br />lion acres and is mosly woodland. Study of the remaining 11.8 <br />million acres of wetlands shows that it is feasible to drain 6.5 <br />million acres. Proposed group-lateral and on-farm drainage systems <br />would serve 5.5 million acres, and similar works combined with <br />proposed channel and major drainage improvements and other flood <br />control works would make drainage possible on an addition 1.0 million <br />acres of wetlands. The proposed projects and programs for some areas <br />are premised on the prior construction of certain flood control <br />projects. The proposed improvements would vary in areal extent from <br />