, 1899-12-21
VOL. 8. NO. 81.
SCARCITY OF WATER
ON BRUSH CREEK.
One of the Best Streams in the Coun-
try for the Irrigator Beginning to
Fail as a Result of Sheep
Grazing in the
Mountains.

>OAiN III ~ ItdNt Il
talk with you about this forest re-
r. question:" said a couple of
prominent Brush creek ranchmen
quite recently. You know that
Brush creek is considered one of
the best and surest streams in
this part of the country as to the
quantity of water it carries. Well.
sir, it has begun to fail the past
two or three years. We were
crossing the stream the other day.
this gentleman and myself, and l
called his attention to the fact that
there was scarcely six inches of
water in the creek where, years
since, there vas never less than a
foot at this season of the year. 1t
did not begin to fail in a very
marked manner until last year.
when we had to swap water all
along the creek to get u second
alfalfa crop matured. If the water
in the creek fails ever year, as it
has the past two, it will not be
long until we will know what scar
scarce water means. Just think
of the amount of snow there was
in the mountains the past winter.
too. Do you wonder that we be-
gin to feel alarmed over the stu
atom"
"To what do you attribute this
failure of water?' we asked.
80 the grazing of sheep in the
monntains,' one of them replied.
"Why, is it possible that sheep
are grazing up in the Medicine
Bow range in sufficient numbers
to make "A difference in your water
supply already"
Certainly. Didn't you know
that they have been grazing their
sheep up on the head of Brush
creek, French creek and Pass
creek? Why, sheep in large num-
bers have been running up in
there the past three or four wears.
Every year their numbers increase
and they get farther back into the
mountains. They go clear up on
to the top of the range where they
find the very finest kind of feed"
We took pains to enquire of
other ranchmen living on the
creek and find that our informants
had not overstated the case, but.
being conservative men, had
rather understated it.
Il can tell you something that
will surprise you, perhaps said a
man to whom we related the above
conversation. Il was up in that
country the past two summers
with a surveying party, you know,
and | saw enough to convince me
that the sheep will soon destroy
the great natural reservoirs that
now exist on the headwaters
of all streams that head in the
Medicine Bow range in southern
Albany and Carbon counties.
''The sides of those mountains
in many places are like a great
big sponge. These spongy spots,
thousands of them, are all the
way in size from a section of land
to a township-and in some places
even larger. The water soaks into
those places and comes out below
in the shape of springs and
streams, some of which are quite
large. Those spongy places grow
a kind of weed that stands up
about three feet high, which the
sheep are very fond of. There
We're, | should judge, in the neigh
borhood of 10000 sheep right in
on the head of the Medicine Bow
river, Pass creek and Brush creek,
and of course l did not see nearly
all that there we're in the noun
tains, but | took pains to note
what damage, if any, they were
doing. l fonnd that they had not
only cleaned up the grass in the
forests but had begun devouring
the weeds on those spongy, DOGGY
places. You know that a sheep is
light and car 20 almost anywhere,
and they we're just destroying the
protection to that ground as fast
as they could. l look to see those
natural reservoirs all tramped into