224 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



Provided with Water for irrigation, or- 

 chards and meadows, villages and towns, 

 and in a few years even cities would 

 greet the eye. The increment to agri- 

 cultural wealth in the state following the 

 irrigation of these lands would aggre- 

 gate more than sixty millions of dollars, 

 and several hundred thousand people 

 would be added to the population of the 

 state. Irrigation must come first, and 

 in order to irrigate these lands the right 

 to use the waters of Snake River must, 

 of course, be unquestioned. 



The prospect of early irrigation and 

 settlement of these large areas has ex- 

 cited interest in the possibilities of power 

 development in that region, and a few 

 promoters have been quick to take 

 advantage of imperfect laws and have 

 obtained power rights on the stream. 

 These power plants are to be located at 

 Shoshone Falls, a point where the river 

 makes a vertical drop of more than 200 

 feet. The choice of a site for this en- 

 terprise is most unfortunate, as it is 

 below practically all the irrigable lands 

 in Snake River valley. It would require 

 the use of all the storage facilities on the 

 South Fork of this stream and more, or 

 about 1,000,000 acre feet, to furnish the 

 water claimed for this purpose alone. 

 If the splendid storage facilities are to 

 be used for this purpose, there would 

 be a supply of water in the river for 

 irrigation for only about three months 

 of each season, or during the flood 

 discharge of the stream. On the other 

 hand, if these lands are to be re- 

 claimed, there will not be any water 

 in the river at this point for power 

 purposes for several months during 

 each season, as all the water will be 

 diverted above this point. More than 



70 per cent of the irrigable lands of the 

 valley will have to be furnished with 

 water for their late irrigation, neces- 

 sitating the utilization of practically 

 every storage site existing in that drain- 

 age basin for that purpose. 



The nature and magnitude of the 

 conflict between these interests should 

 be readily understood. The impending 

 conflict might be easily obviated if a 

 site for power development were selected 

 above instead of below large bodies of 

 irrigable land. American Falls offers 

 an ideal location for the development of 

 water power. It is located above nearly 

 400,000 acres of irrigable land, the late 

 water supply for which, to the extent 

 of nearly 3,000 second feet, will have 

 to be furnished from reservoirs. This 

 supply will have to pass these falls, in- 

 creasing the discharge of the river dur- 

 ing its lowest stage from 2,000 to 5,000 

 second feet, enough for the creation of 

 over 20,000 horse power, which can be 

 developed at very reasonable expense, 

 and without conflicting in any way with 

 the rights of irrigation in any part of 

 the Snake River valley. 



The development of cheap power is 

 very essential and is a powerful agency 

 in the building up of any country. The 

 foundation of the development of any 

 arid country is not power, but irriga- 

 tion, and the right to the use of the 

 streams for any other purpose must be 

 subservient to irrigation rights if such 

 development is to be full and complete. 

 When it is realized that at best proba- 

 bly not more than 4 per cent of the arid 

 portion of Idaho can ever be reclaimed, 

 there should be no question as to the 

 desirability of having these resources 

 fully utilized. 



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