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<br /> <br />military, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, <br />and Agricultural Research Service. About 12 million acres, or 4 <br />percent, of the nearly 284 million acres of privately held lands <br />are Indian lands. Title to this land is held in trust by the <br />U.S. Government, but it is legally considered private land owned <br />either by individuals of native American or Indian descent or by <br />tribes. <br /> <br />Based upon estimates made for the U.S. Water Resources <br />Council's 1975 National Water Assessment, approximately 298 <br />million acres or 92 percent of all land in the Missouri Basin is <br />used for agricultural purposes. More than half of the <br />agricultural land is used for pasture and rangeland. Forest and <br />woodlands occupy another 26.3 million acres. Forest and woodland <br />and pasture and range acreages are expected to decline during the <br />next quarter century, contributing to a moderate overall decline <br />in total agricultural lands. <br /> <br />. Dryland farming is the second largest type of agricultural <br />land use in the basin, exceeded only by pasture and rangelands. <br />These nonirrigated croplands are projected to increase over the <br />next 25 years by some 2 percent from their current level of <br />nearly 90 million acres. <br /> <br />Irrigated cropland, estimated at 11.4 million acres in 1975, <br />constitutes about 4 percent of the present agricultural total. <br />Irrigation is projected to be applied to an additional 2.8 <br />million acres by 1985 and to 5.9 million acres by 2000, covering <br />more than 17 million acres by the year 2000. <br /> <br />The basin's urban and transportation lands are expected to <br />expand from the present 7.4 million acres by 10 percent by 1985, <br />and by 23 percent by the year 2000. Estimates of Missouri Basin <br />land and water acreage for 1975, 1985, and 2000 are summarized in <br />table 2. <br /> <br />WATER RESOURCES CHARACTERISTICS <br /> <br />The Missouri River Basin is, in general, well endowed with <br />surface and ground water resources. However, the occurrence and <br />availability of water is highly variable, subjecting portions of <br />the basin to recurrent local and seasonal Shortages. <br /> <br />Surface Water Availabilitv <br /> <br />Precipitation annually provides more than 500 million acre- <br /> <br />-24- <br />