WATERSHED PROJECT NEEDS 



Certain types of soil and water conservation needs cannot be adequately 

 solved by local people except by their action through local groups such as 

 soil conservation districts, drainage districts, irrigation districts, ir- 

 rigation companiesj, and counties, towns or municipalities. Aid from State 

 and Federal agencies may also be needed^ These conservation needs are pri- 

 marily forms of water management, such as flood prevention, agricultural 

 water management, nonagricultural water managemento 



The Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act, Public Law 566, as amended, 

 makes it possible to meet many of the soil and water conservation needs that 

 cannot be met under other programs of assistance to agriculture or through 

 federal public works projects on maj^or rivers, planned and constructed by 

 such agencies as the Corps of Engineers or Bureau of Reclamation. The De- 

 partment of Agriculture administers this law which provides a means by which 

 local organizations can apply for and obtain assistance in the planning and 

 installation of works of improvement for flood prevention and the conservation, 

 development, utilization, and disposal of water in watershed areas not exceed- 

 ing 250,000 acres in sizeo 



This part of the Inventory gives the nature and scope of the water management 

 problems that can be met by project action of organized groups such as these 

 authorized by Public Law 566<> It does not give an evaluation of the economic 

 feasibility of the projects. In Montana 565 small watersheds or planning 

 units (250,000 acres or less in size) with s total of about 94 million acres 

 were studied. The Inventory estimates (1) there are 245 small watersheds or 

 planning units (250,000 acres or less) on which the water-management problems 

 cannot be solved without the installation of structural measures for water 

 management, (2) the extent or magnitude of the need for each development, and 

 (3) the types of water-management problems requiring project action associated 

 with each of the planning units, including (a) flood prevention to reduce 

 floodwater and sediment-damage and erosion, (b) agricultcral water develop- 

 ments, and (c) nonagricultural water management for municipal or industrial 

 water supply, fish and wildlife, recreation, and other nonagricultural water 

 developments. 



The following definitions are applicable to terms used in Table 10 and the 

 preceding discussions 



Watershed-pro.iect problems are water-management problems that r-annot be solved 

 by the individual actions of the people affected 'orj them. Ordinarily a project 

 to meet one or more of these problems requires project action for installation 

 and group benefits for justificationo 



A watershed or planning unit consists of any watershed, planning unit, or 

 combination of not more than 250,000 acres which has a flood-prevention or 

 agricultural water-management problem of sufficient magnitude to require pro- 

 ject action. In Montana there were 565 such watersheds delineated. 



25 



