Gunnison news-champion., 1909-05-14
3M UAyu onaneavAnm
NJ C. ~" 4 Saw -
GssaAsA easnnk NAho =

of Ce0oita. dto ranch lee eotireiy
% oss s,de Of tie crsek and 10 over
. nile ioag After the water Is
.Ast OF in late July aud August, an
foct tall winter cosDss. there Is a
As0s s,rssm how.ax Oft the lower
80, iaso the wssss ditch Be~,des
tAis ditcA, which ceatains probably
tOe Ssss Of water, there is cons,snt
ssspAgs heck into the Cebolla itself,
aleaG the water front All this
Ootsg 10 available lower down the
stream TO be used over and over
sad over again. liefore this ranch
land waa sstered this lower portion
where the water now runs IN late
summer Sufficient to water 800 acres
Of Delta orchard, was as dry as
bone
News-Champ,on 10 very much in
tererested In this matter. for water
conservation is the greatest economic
problem in Colorado. How shall we
make every drop Of water that falls
on these hills Of the utmost use?
We can only do 1t by holding back
the spring food water How shall
this DO accomplished? BY trees
Nonsense Did We not have the
greatest and most destructive floods
forty years ago when the virgin for
ests were undisiurbedY That is
where the Aoeds come from. Held
hack by the shade of the timber till
late in May aud June it then goes
all st once. The saying back east
used to be about floods in the Miss
issippi, When the wafer comes out
of the trees
Build reservoirs then? Good But
the number Of available reservoir
sites, where large bodies of water
can be collected at reasonable cost.
is limited. What then? Why hold
it back in mountain meadows. Every
high ranch is a reservoir of the ut
most economic Importance TO the
lower valleys. Each l60 acres of
moontain hay land soaked with food
waters of May and June returns
more water TO the stream in July
and August than a township Of
Pinchots trees, granting that said
trees do not use up more moisture
than they retain.
But we may run short OF ranch
land? Certainly, but the term
mountain meadow" does not mean
iust the level land, easily irrigated
and cleaned for ranching Turn the
water anywhere on mesa or slope.
Anywhere, just SO it runs into the
ground and is held back But on
steep slopes it will run away and
collect again in gulches? Yes, that
is a detail that must be worked out,
but experience of our mountain
ranchmen is proving that the water
can be controlled almost ywhere,
and that fine range grass Will grow
wherever water touches. BY follow
ing the slope of the hills, and using
care till the sod forms water can be
turned almost anywhere The sod
once set. more and more can be used.
But who would do this irrigating of
the mountains? To be sure the
rangers would be doing much more
valuable work than any they now
accomplish if set to work at this
useful occupation, but outside of
that, is there a ranchmtn in the high
mountains who would not be glad to
take section or more and distribute
the flood water, for the range it
would produce 1t is true this
range would not pay for construct
ing the high line bitches. That
must be done by the national or
state government as conservation
measure, but the laterals and the
distributing would we believe large
lv he secured free of cost by settlers
Think of the hundreds Of thous-
ands of acres Of range this would
double and triple in value Think
of the encouragement this would be
for still further settlement and the
making of actual homes, each one of
which becomes an additional reser-
voir of this invaluable water supply.
This is the ''GunnisJn Idea" of
water conservation on large scale
in the Rocky Mountains. Is it not
an Idea worth pushing? 1t not only
actually conserves the floods, but it
makes homes instead of trackless
forests Instead of using the water
once on lower valleys, it uses water
at the top, where the precious drops
may be diverted over and over again
in their journey to the sea, until
literally worn out by evaporation,
perhaps to be again precipitated in
increased summer rains.
Will tie idea work out? Ask anv
experiapced rapchnen what he