Report on the lands of the arid region of the United States, with a more detailed account of the lands of UtahPowell, John Wesley
History
Report on the lands of the arid region of the United States, with a more detailed account of the lands of Utah
Powell, John Wesley
Irrigation -- Utah; Irrigation -- West (U.S.); Public lands -- United States; Rain and rainfall -- West (U.S.)
On the whole, it appears that the white man causes a greater percentage
of the precipitation in snow to be melted and a less percentage to be
evaporated directly. This follows from the destruction of trees and of
grass. By reducing the amount of vegetation he gives a freer flow to
the water from rain and melting snow and carries a greater percentage
of it to streams, while a smaller percentage reaches the air by
evaporation from the soil. By the treading of his cattle he diminishes
the leakage of the smaller water channels, and conserves the streams
gathered there. By the same means and by the digging of drains he
dries the marshes and thereby enlarges the streams. In all these ways
he increases the outflow of the land and the inflow of the lake. He
diminishes the inflow in a notable degree only by irrigation.
The direct influence of irrigation upon the inflow is susceptible of
quantitative statement. Four hundred square miles of land in Utah and
Idaho are fertilized by water that would otherwise flow to the lake,
and they dissipate annually a layer of about 20 inches. To supply these
20 inches the drainage district of 16,000 miles yields an average layer
of 0.5 inch, and this yield is in addition to the 1.4 inches required
to maintain the increase of lake surface. The total augmentation of the
annual water supply is therefore represented by a sheet 1.9 inches in
depth covering the entire district.
The indirect influence of irrigation, and the influences exerted by the
grazier and the woodman, cannot be estimated from any existing data,
but of their tendencies there can be no question. To some extent they
diminish local evaporation, and induce a larger share of the rainfall
to gather in the streams; and to one who has contrasted the district in
question with similar districts in their virgin condition, there seems
no extravagance in ascribing to them the whole of the observed change.
In the valley of the Mississippi and on the Atlantic coast, it has been
observed that the floods of rivers are higher than formerly, and that
the low stages are lower, and the change has been ascribed by Ellet
and others to the destruction of the native vegetation. The removal
of forests and of prairie grasses is believed to facilitate the rapid
discharge from the land of the water from rain and melted snow, and to
diminish the amount stored in the soil to maintain springs. In an arid
country like Utah, where the thirst of the air is not satisfied by the
entire rainfall, any influence that will increase the rapidity of the
discharge must also increase the amount of the discharge. The moisture
that lingers on the surface is lost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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