The Inventory acreage includes all land excepts (1) urban and built-up 

 areas as defined on page 9 .^ and (2) land owned by the Federal Government 

 other than cropland operated under lease or permit, 1/ The Inventory was 

 developed from basic data regarding (1) present acreage in major uses and 

 (2) acreage of each land use classified by physical problems affecting its 

 use (appendix 2) , The estimates of needs for conservation treatment, for 

 each major land use, were based on acreages expected for 1975 and the con- 

 dition of the land or of the vegetative cover as of January 1, 1958, with 

 due regard to the basic economic framework and the locally applicable in- 

 formation and experience in solving conservation problems. 



The inventory of watershed project needs is an estimate of the nature and 

 scope of water-management problems thatj, if met, would require watershed 

 projects of a type and size that are exemplified by those which qualify 

 for assistance under Public Law 566, as amendedo All lands were included 

 without regard to type of ownershipo The data were reported by water- 

 shed-planning units and summarized for the state. 



The Department Soil and Water Conservation Needs Committee developed the 

 policies, procedures, and national economic assumptions under which the 

 Inventory was developed. It furnished guidance so the Inventory would be 

 compatible with inventories for other states and it has reviewed and ap- 

 proved the data on which this report is based. The Montana Soil and Water 

 Conservation Needs Committee acted in a similar capacity with the Area and 

 County Needs Committees, 



A County Soil and Water Conservation Needs Committee with agency repre- 

 sentation similar to that of the State Needs Committee and with guidance 

 from Area Committee members developed the Inventory for each county. 

 After review and approval, data from county inventories were combined 

 to form the State Inventory, 



The County Needs Committees were responsible for determining the basic 

 data on land use for the Inventory of Soil and Water Conservation Needs. 

 These estimates of land use are summarized in Tables 1, 2 and 3, Data 

 by counties are given in Table 8, The estimates of land use were based 

 on soil-survey data provided by the Soil Conservation Service and on 

 other basic information supplied by the Forest Ser^/ice and on that avail- 

 able from State and other Federal agencies. 



The Montana Inventory was begun November 7, 1956, and accepted by the 

 USDA Department Committee January 13, 1961, 



1/ Conservation needs estimates are already available for most of the 

 land under the jurisdiction of Federal agencies. 



