A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 437 



CONDITIONS ON LAND IN VARIOUS TYPES OF OWNERSHIP 



In general it may be said that watershed requirements are being 

 met reasonably well or are in process of being met on the 21,913,000 

 acres of forest lands in the Colorado River Basin included in national 

 forests. Fire protection is afforded, range conditions are improving 

 under the system of management in effect, and timber cutting is 

 regulated. Some areas that w r ere seriously depleted when the national 

 forests were created are not yet in satisfactory condition to safeguard 

 watershed values. In southern Utah, for example, where the balance 

 between the forces that build up soil and those that tear it down is 

 extremely delicate, many national-forest areas are still affected by 

 abnormal erosion. Lumbering, fire, and insects have been partly 

 responsible, but the major factor has been the extreme grazing use to 

 which the plant cover was formerly subjected. Although forage con- 

 ditions are generally better within the national forests than elsewhere 

 in the locality, from a run-off and erosion standpoint large areas within 

 the national forests are still in a critical condition. Likewise within 

 the national forests in the important Salt and Gila River drainages in 

 Arizona and New Mexico, there are areas where abnormal sheet and 

 gully erosion have not yet been corrected. These are chiefly granitic 

 and clay soils from which the top layer has been removed and on 

 which, because of normally low rainfall, it is difficult to restore a 

 satisfactory cover. 



Generally, however, within the national forests of the Colorado 

 River Basin the forest cover is in a satisfactory condition for erosion 

 control and for water delivery. Research is justified to determine 

 further possibilities for the discharge of water in maximum quantities, 

 at times when it is most needed, and in a condition largely free from 

 undue silt burden. 



On the national parks in the Colorado River Basin timber cutting 

 and the grazing of domestic livestock have been materially restricted 

 or eliminated, which should facilitate restoration of herbaceous and 

 shrubby vegetation within these areas and increase their protective 

 value. On the Kaibab Plateau, however, some overgrazing of the 

 underbrush by deer is occurring which, if continued, may adversely 

 affect the watershed-protection values of the forest. ^ 



The seriousness of erosion within Indian reservations of the basin 

 is emphasized by Lee Muck, Percy E. Melis, and George M. Nyce in 

 their report to the Committee on Indian Affairs of the United States 

 Senate entitled "An Economic Survey of the Range Resources and 

 Grazing Activities on Indian Reservations". 71 This report reads in 

 part as follows: 



* * * It can be said without exaggeration that the control of erosion pre- 

 sents a grave problem in the management of every Indian reservation in both New 

 Mexico and Arizona. On many reservations the situation is quite acute and in 

 every case the principal contributing factor has been overgrazing. When the 

 soil of this territory has been laid bare by overgrazing it is peculiarly subject to 

 erosion, and the climatic conditions, particularly the prevalence of sudden and 

 violent summer storms, tend to further aggravate the condition. When these 

 soil and climatic conditions are considered in connection w r ith the excessive num- 

 ber of stock that have for years been grazed on these areas, the disastrous progress 

 of erosion in this region is readily understood. * * * 



Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the United States. Part 22. Hearings before a subcomittee 

 of the Committee on Indian Affairs, of the United States Senate, 71st Cong., 2d sess., 1932. 



