RANGE PRESERVATION AND EBOSION CONTROL. 3 



the efficiency of the watershed in maintaining a permanent flow of 

 irrigation water is greatly decreased. 



The importance of preserving the upper few inches of soil on the 

 high ranges, and with it the vegetative cover, in order to regulate 

 the stream flow, to maintain indefinitely the forage crop for grazing, 

 and incidentally to prevent destructive erosion, is not always fully 

 nppreciated by the stockman and farmer. This is more especially 

 true in localities where there is not an ample supply of irrigation 

 water. 



In the belief that more water would find its way into the irrigation 

 canals if the vegetative cover were appreciably thinned out, there 

 has been a tendency in some localities toward destructive grazing. 

 For instance, several sheep owners have expressed a desire to be per- 

 mitted to graze Ephraim Canyon so closely as to pack the soil 

 firmly and to decrease appreciably the present density of that vege- 

 tation. They believed that a large amount of the water that is 

 returned to the air in the form of evaporation from the vegetation, 

 as well as that held by the rich surface soil, would, by thinning out 

 the ground cover, be made available for irrigation. While it is true 

 that if a given canyon were grazed destructively more water would 

 undoubtedly rush down the water channels, and as a result a greater 

 acreage of farm land could possibly be irrigated in early spring, 

 there would be less water for subsequent irrigation at a time when 

 the crops were seriously in need of it. With the destruction of the 

 vegetative cover not even the lands most advantageously situated 

 would have the benefit of a continuous stream flow for subsequent 

 waterings during the season when even a light irrigation might 

 result in the production of at least an average crop. In addition an 

 enormous acreage of choice farm land would be destroyed by sedi- 

 mentation, to say nothing of the high cost of upkeep of the irriga- 

 tion ditches themselves. 



Most farmers and live-stock growers adjoining the National For- 

 ests who are dependent upon the watersheds within the Forests for 

 their irrigation water are likewise dependent upon the cool summer 

 ranges for the maintenance of their stock. To graze a'ny portion of 

 the range destructively defeats the necessary economic balance 

 between the range and live stock, on the one hand, and the farm land 

 and farm crops, on the other. Much of the agricultural land ad- 

 joining the National Forests is so remote from railroads as to make 

 the live-stock industry a necessity in the economic harvesting and 

 marketing of the farm crops. And aside from the loss of various 

 public and private improvements as a result of torrential floods and 

 sediment deposits, there would remain only a small amount of forage, 

 mostly inferior, on the watershed after three or four seasons of 



