FOREST AND RANGE RESOURCES OF UTAH 



LAND USES AND CONTROL 



LAND AND LAND USES 



Utah, with a land area of 52,597,760 acres, is the eleventh largest 

 State in the Union. It is rich in mineral resources, but these occupy 

 only a small portion of the total area, and for the most part they are 

 underground. The area adapted to farming is also small, chiefly 

 because of low rainfall, rugged relief and limited supply of water 

 for irrigation. According to the Utah Agricultural College, the 

 land in cultivated crops in 1927 amounted to 1,871,000 acres, or only 

 3.6 per cent of the total land area. Because of the limited supply 

 of water for irrigation, only approximately 2,500,000 acres, or about 

 5 per cent of the total, can ever be farmed successfully by agricul- 

 tural methods now known. Land utilization in the State is about 

 as shown in Table 1. 



Table 1. — Land utilization in Utah 



[Figures are only approximate] 



Kind of land 



Acres 



Per cent 

 of land 

 surface 



Irrigated land ' . __ . . ...... .... 



1,371,000 

 500, 000 

 5, 000, 000 

 39, 000, 000 

 5, 000, 000 

 1, 726, 700 



2.6 





1.0 



Timberland (4,74S,000 acres within national forests, mostly used for grazing) 



Other grazing land . . ... ... .. 



9.5 

 74.1 





9.5 





3.3 







Total land surface 2 . . .. ... ... 



52, 597, 760 

 1, 795, 840 



100.0 













54, 393, 600 









1 From Bulletin 204, Utah Agricultural Experiment Station {2). 2 



2 From Annual Eeport of Commission of the General Land Office for Fiscal Year ended June 30, 1929. 



It will be noted that over 83 per cent of the land surface is used 

 for grazing. If the waste is excluded from the land surface, 90 

 per cent is used for grazing. 



FACTORS INFLUENCING LAND USE 



SUEFACE RELIEF 



Surface relief and precipitation are two factors which greatly in- 

 fluence present and future use and value of land in Utah. (Fig. 1.) 

 Temperature, soil, transportation facilities, and general economic 

 conditions also govern the use of land, but precipitation and relief 

 have a greater effect. Kelief will be discussed first because of its 

 effect on precipitation. 



Utah is characterized by mountain ranges or narrow high plateaus 

 with valleys in between. In the main, the mountain ranges run in 

 a general north and south direction. The Uinta Range in the north- 

 eastern part of the State and the mountains north of Price are im- 

 portant exceptions, both running practically east and west. The 

 Uinta Mountains are the highest in the State, averaging well over 

 11,000 feet, and include Kings Peak with an elevation of 13,498 feet, 

 the highest in Utah. 



The principal mountain group is the Wasatch Range, which ex- 

 tends from the northern boundary of the State as far south as 



2 Italic numbers in parentheses refer to Literature Cited, p. 101. 



