-«r„ 



This area behind Surry Mountain dam formerly was hayland and paslure. 



It is now cleared of buildings, trees, and bushes, but little used. 



It o«>uld furnish seasonal pasture. 



roads has led to the abandonment, under-utilization. and eventual unavail- 

 ability of agricultural lands. Some tracts can still be used if made more 

 accessible. With future projects, a network of access roads {for agricultural, 

 fire-prevention, recreational, and woodland-forest management use) needs 

 to be planned and built as an integral part of the project. Such a network 

 would also be essential to implement an effective warning service to lessees. 

 Corps' personnel at the four projects studied have done an outstanding job 

 in keeping lessees informed about possible flooding conditions. 



Using Lands in Accordance with Their Capabilities 



Early in the program, land should be classified as to its most desirable use. 

 both for agriculture and other purposes. Tracts should be laid out which 

 can be operated efficiently. Expectations of frequency, duration, depth, and 

 season of inundation should be considered as an integral part of capability 

 analysis. Here, there is need to recognize that mere inundation does not 

 preclude land from agricultural use and a pressing need to so convince pro- 

 spective users. The record of users in the four projects studied shows only 

 minor damage to crops and hayland over the period since project construc- 

 tion. In most instances, these were associated with tracts which were adapt- 

 able only for pasture. Hence, risks are greatly over-exaggerated and thus 

 far there have been no major floods during the growing season. (See Tables 

 2 through 5.) 



In connection with the adaptability of reservoir lands for agricultural use 

 there is need for specific information under local conditions on the toler- 

 ance of various crops and forage to inundation for different stages in 

 development, as well as the effect of duration and depth. McKenzie and 



43 



