To Help Control Floods 



609 



country is now beginning to specify 

 effective management procedures. Ex- 

 perience and research show that effi- 

 cient watershed management is usually 

 the best possible forest and range man- 

 agement. Good forests, good range, 

 good soil, good water go together. 



GEORGE W. CRADDOGK has worked 

 with the Inter mountain Forest and 

 Range Experiment Station since 1929. 

 His work has included 4 years of re- 

 search on spring-fall sheep range in 

 Idaho and summer range in Utah, 4 

 years on watershed research in Idaho, 

 4 years on flood-control surveys with 

 the Intermountain Region, and since 



1946, he has been in charge of water- 

 shed management and protection re- 

 search. Mr. Craddock is author and 

 coauthor of many publications on sub- 

 jects relating to his research. He holds 

 degrees in agriculture and forestry 

 from the University of California. 



CHARLES R. HURSH is forest ecol- 

 ogist in charge of the Division of Forest 

 Influences, Southeastern Forest Ex- 

 periment Station. He was graduated 

 from the University of Missouri in 

 1917, and received a doctor of philos- 

 ophy degree from the University of 

 Minnesota in 1923. Dr. Hursh joined 

 the staff of the Southeastern Experi- 

 ment Station in 1926. 



TO HELP CONTROL FLOODS 



GEORGE R. PHILLIPS, BERNARD FRANK 



Many of our serious water problems 

 have their roots in the misuse of land. 

 The same human activities that ag- 

 gravate water-shortage difficulties also 

 contribute to uncontrolled water sur- 

 pluses and all the misery and destruc- 

 tion they bring in their wake. Basically, 

 the flood-control program of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture aims at more 

 than the repair of damaged watersheds. 

 Even more important, it seeks to help 

 those who now hold the land in trust 

 to pass it on unimpaired so that the 

 national health and strength will be 

 maintained. 



Large acreages of our finest bottom 

 lands lie increasingly exposed to the 

 threat of recurrent floods. Many farms 

 are ruined beyond repair by the re- 

 lentless cutting away of fertile fields 

 that border on streams. The safety and 

 productivity of the extensive industrial, 

 community, water-supply, and other 

 developments are seriously endangered 

 by the murky flows that so often orig- 

 inate on the improperly handled crop, 

 forest, or range lands. 



Much more damage is caused an- 

 nually on the average by the more fre- 

 quent floods on the smaller tributaries 



than by the large, spectacular floods 

 on the main streams. Flood and sedi- 

 mentation damages alone now amount 

 to well over 300 million dollars each 

 year throughout the United States. 

 More than 100 million dollars in losses 

 occur on the Mississippi River system 

 alone damages that are mostly above 

 and beyond the growing losses in the 

 storage capacities of reservoirs due to 

 filling with material carried down from 

 eroding watersheds. 



Progress has been made in the build- 

 ing of works on our major waterways 

 to reduce the flood losses. Comparable 

 progress will have to be made in treat- 

 ing watersheds to reduce the greater 

 aggregate damages we find on the 

 smaller streams and to slow down the 

 rate at which sediment is ruining reser- 

 voirs. 



Engineering developments cannot 

 by themselves overcome the problems 

 of floods, because they operate only 

 after the floodwaters have concen- 

 trated in the main channels. 



We must begin where the floods be- 

 gin. We must retard the runoff and 

 reduce or prevent the loss of soil from 

 the watershed lands themselves, be- 



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