The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1903-09-26
FOR RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS
WORK BEING DONE BY THE MEMBERS OF THE IRRIGATION

Urging the immediate and absolute
repeal Of the desert land act. and
the Communication clause of the home
stead act, as recommended in the re-
port of the senate committee on pub.
lie lands in the last session of con-
gress.
Recommending the appointment of
a commission by the president of
the United States to investigate and
report such further amendments or
notifications of the land laws of the
United States as may be desirable to
promote the actual settlement and
development of prosperous popula-
ton on the public domain, the bet
ter utilization of the grazing land and
the preservation of the forests by
right use.
Urging appropriations for forest
preservation, because of the fact that
the forests are to a large extent the
sources Of the water supply through.
out the entire arid region and their
destruction will mean the destruction
of agriculture in these regions.
That the forests reserve law should
be SO modified as to permit the ex-
portatiOn of forest reserve timber
from the state in which such timber
Is cut whenever It shall be established
to the satisfaction of the secretary in
charge Of forest reserve that the sup
ply Of timber. in any reserve is clear
ly in excess of the local demand, and
That the congress of the United
States should Immediately repeal the
lien land provision of the forest res
ervation act, and enact law whereby
private land within forest reservations
or the improvements thereon may be
acquired by purchase or condemna-
ton.
That water sheds which have been
denuded Of their forest growth by fire
or otherwise should be reforested by
the national government and thereaft-
er be preserved by stringent laws
from injury or destruction from graz
ing by livestock, and the forest re-
serves should be enlarged to include
the water sheds Of all streams furnish
ing water to communities dependent
on the water supply therefrom for
water for irrigation.
That the secretary of agriculture
be urgently requested to make some
forestry experiments In the vicinity
of Salt Lake City, conducive to a fur
Their development and preservation of
said watersheds and the protection of
the water supply.
Urging that the national govern
ment should proceed with all prac.
ticable expedition to complete the
surveys and make the necessary plans
and estimates for the construction of
the great reservoirs and canals neces-
sary to regulate for navigation and for
the utilization for irrigation and power
of the enormous volume of flood
water that now runs to waste in such
great rivers as the Columbia, Sacra-
mento, the Colorado, the Rio Grande,
the Arkansas and the Missouri and
their tributaries, and that as soon as
and ready for construction,
and approved by the secretary of the
interior, these great engineering
works should be built just as rapidly
as actual settlers will take the lands
and build homes on them and repay
to the government the cost of the
of the works, and a loan
to the reclamation fund in the treas
ury of the United States should be
made each year by congressional ap-
for the full amount which
the secretary of the interior may an
nually recommend to congress as the
which should be made availa-
BILE for disbursement for construction
during the ensuing year, all such
loans to the reclamation fund to be
repaid to the fund in ten annual in
stallments as provided by the national
irrigation act
That 1t is the sense of this congress
that the storage of waters in the ex.
tensive catchment basins of the west.
ern rivers for the prevention of floods
and for power and irrigation is both
possible and practical. and that the
government should supplement its
present policy of levee construction
by comprehensive reservoir system
the arid region, not only
Tor the purpose of conserving the
water for irrigation, but also for the
of life and property in
he lower reaches. The waters thus
conserved would be of inestimable
value and a blessing to the people
n the arid and semi-arid district. We
believe that irrigation and flood pre-
n