20. Leitch, J. A., and D.F. Scott. 1977a. A selected annotated bibliography 

 of economic values of fish and wildlife and their habitats. Agricultural 

 Economics Miscellaneous Reports No. 27. Dept. of Agricultural Economics, 

 North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, North Dakota State 

 University, Fargo. 132 pp. 



The first section of this annotated bibliography contains a Ill-reference 

 bibliography of wetlands economic literature. Leitch is a professional 

 economist, and the discussion that accompanies the annotation is expert and 

 incisive. The discussions are terse, but usually convey at least the subject 

 matter of the referenced text. 



21. Leitch, J. A., and D.F. Scott. 1977b. Economic impact of flooding on 

 agricultural production in northeast central North Dakota. Department of 

 Agricultural Economics Research Report No. 120, North Dakota Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, North Dakota State University, Fargo. 57 pp. 



The study area for this report is really the Devil's Lake basin region of 

 North Dakota; this is a part of the Red River drainage basin. The drainage 

 pattern of this closed basin includes numerous streams and some shallow lakes 

 near the lower end of the basin. The lakes are interconnected by some of the 

 streams. During the spring runoff, streamflows exceed channel capacities, and 

 the overflow floods thousands of acres of adjacent cropland. Summer thunder- 

 storms can also cause flooding of nearby farmlands. These floods cause 

 significant crop losses and other types of damage to farms located in the region. 

 Attempts to develop flood reduction plans for the basin have not been completely 

 successful. The failure to completely implement these flood reduction plans is 

 partly due to the fact that the flooded zones provide nationally significant 

 nonmarket amenity values by providing wetlands and wetland habitat for migratory 



waterfowl . 

 » 



The North Dakota State Legislature recognized the need for a flood 

 reduction plan that would reconcile environmental and farm interests, and it 

 passed a 1975 bill to create a Devil's Lake Basin Advisory Committee. The 

 committee was charged with developing a water resource conservation plan for the 

 basin. Leitch and Scott used two questionnaires to investigate farmers' 

 attitudes toward wetlands and the dollar value of total flood damages and flood- 

 related income losses. The first questionnaire was administered to a large 

 group of farmers in the Devil's Lake basin region; the second was a more detailed 

 follow-up to the first that was used to establish quantitative per acre flood- 

 related damages. The per acre flood-related damage estimates for the Devil's 

 Lake basin farmers was $8.71 {1974 dollars), using long run agricultural output 

 price relations, and $13.03 (1974 dollars), using 1974 price relations. Damages 

 to nonagricultural property were not included in these estimates. The flood 

 frequency used to estimate the annual damage was 0.3. Flood insurance and 

 disaster payments were deducted from the per acre farm damage estimates. The 

 respondents indicated a desire to drain about 36% of the wetland acreage on their 

 farms; this wetland acreage totaled to 6% of their total crop acreage. Half of 

 the respondents indicated that they suffered wildlife related damages. 



23 



