SURVEYS OV FOREST RESERVES. 147 



dry almost as soon as the snow had gone. These observations, if cor- 

 rect, indicate that denudation of the mountain slopes by forest fires 

 may be expected to influence, perhaps seriously, the flow of their 

 dependent streams. 



IRRIGATION IX WASCO COUNTY. 



Among the people of the country the only demand that has arisen 

 for a protection of the water supply seems to be confined to a portion of 

 Wasco County consisting of the section between the Deschutes Eiver on 

 the east, the Warm Springs Indian Reservation on the south, and the 

 Columbia Eiver on the north. Here is a strip of territory varying from 

 10 to 15 miles in width, bounded on the east by the Deschutes Eiver 

 and on the west by the forested area of the Cascade Mountains. This 

 strip of territory is a plateau devoid of trees and divided by east and 

 west canyons into separate blocks. The largest of these blocks is the 

 one lying immediately south of the canyon of White Eiver abutting 

 upon the Deschutes River on the east in a canyon wall nearly 2,000 feet 

 in height. This block is known as the Waupinitia Plain or Juniper Flat. 

 The jirincipal industry of the whole strip is wheat raising. The rain- 

 fall is so limited that the wheat crop is frequently a failure, and from 

 the peculiar situation of the plain, drained on three sides and receiving 

 no streams from the fourth, many of the ranches during the summer 

 droiight are wholly without water. When the wells "go dry," water 

 for household purposes, and sometimes even for stock, must be hauled 

 by wagon, the ranchers in some cases being compelled to go 8 miles for 

 it, making a round trip of 16 miles. To remedy the difficulty, irriga- 

 tion ditches are now being constructed to carry water to the ranches 

 to be used chiefly for watering stock, for domestic purposes, and for 

 irrigating a garden patch and a small orchard. 



I was told by iMr. Samuel B. Driver, a rancher living near Wamic, on 

 one of the blocks of the plateau north of the Waupinitia Plain, that 

 the adjacent streams — Rock Creek, Gate Creek, and Three-mile Creek — 

 have shown a gradual decline in the last ten years in the amount of 

 their summer flow. This decline he attributes to the trampling of the 

 ground by sheep in the mountains at the head waters of these streams. 

 He believes that within thirty years there will be no water in the stream 

 beds in the fall of the year. To these statements should be offset the 

 contrary evidence of other residents. The sheep men in general, and 

 some of the ranchers, maintained that the decline of water was wholly 

 accounted for by the tapping of these streams with irrigation ditches. 

 As a sheep packer tersely expressed it in the idiom of the region, "Why, 

 the creeks can^t pack enough water to fill the ditches." 



I made careful inquiry for actual records of summer water levels, 

 but could learn of none. Some valuable information in this direction, 

 however, was secured from Mr. W. N. McCorkle, of Tygh Valley, who 

 for eighteen years has maintained a grist mill on Badger Creek, another 

 of the streams on the head waters of which sheep are grazed in summer. 

 Only one irrigation ditch, carrying 12 inches of water, has been taken 

 out of this stream. About three- fourths of, the water carried by the 

 stream in summer is used by the mill. Mr. McCorkle states that this 

 creek has no higher nor more turbid spring floods in recent years and 

 carried no less water in summer than formerly. This is the only 

 information I coiild secure in the nature of a stream measurement. 

 Certainly the mill owner would have noted any important diminution 

 iu a margin of only one-fourth. 



