6 Miscellaneous Circular hi , U. S. Depi. of Agriculture 



VALUE OF WATERSHED PROTECTION AS A FLOOD PREVENTIVE 



The effect of watershed protection on floods is shown by an ex- 

 perience which the town of Manti, in central Utah, passed through. 

 Some 20 years ago, when the watershed had been subjected to over- 

 grazing and fires, floods were extremely frequent and destructive, 

 rushing out of the canyon above the tow T n and doing great damage 

 not only to the town itself but also to the fertile fields located on the 

 alluvial fan at the mouth of the canyon. In a few years damage 

 estimated as high as $125,000 was done. Conditions got so bad that 

 some of the more pessimistic talked seriously df moving away and 

 abandoning the town, because they believed that it w r as destined to 

 be forever subject to destructive floods and that prosperity could 

 never exist there. After the creation of the Manti National Forest, 

 in 1904, the watershed was carefully protected from overgrazing, 

 fires, and other destructive use. As a result, at the present time 



«>»%*.. 



Fig. 2. — Behind the Arrowrock dam on the Boise River, Idaho. The Boise River rises on 



national forest lands 



Manti Canyon is singularly free from floods. The water flow is even, 

 the town prosperous. 



City Creek, which discharges out of a rough and precipitous can- 

 yon into the very heart of Salt Lake City, has, as a precautionary 

 measure, been protected for many years from all forms of use. In 

 1923 this canyon w T as undoubtedly subject to as heavy a rainfall as 

 Farmington Canyon, a short distance north, from which issued a 

 destructive flood. If such a flood had come out of City Creek the 

 property loss w T ould have been enormous, but the stream rose only 

 about 4 inches. Watershed protection has a very real value in 

 dollars and cents. 



THE LUMBER INDUSTRY 



EARLY HISTORY 



Hardly were the Mormon pioneers established in Salt Lake Val- 

 ley when there came an insistent demand for wood for houses, barns, 

 furniture, fuel, and many other purposes. The rush of gold seek- 

 ers to California in 1849 brought a boom to the region, and more 



