The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-11-02
HORNa COUNTY EROSION
SURVEY JUST COMPLETED

BIG HORN6COUNTY sEkOS1ON i
SURVEY JUST COMPLETED
Part Of Program BEING Carried
Ont by lGevernment Soil
Specialists.
Another step, in the govern
mentas conservation policy de-
signed to benefit every section
was carried out a few days ago
as two soil specialists from the
Q. e. D. T., Pacific Northwest Fro
sion Control Project at Pullman,
Washington, completed a recon-
n~aissance erosion survey of Big
Horn county. These men have
had special training in soil erosion
control in connection with the
OO,000- acre project in the Mos.
cow-Pu1lman region. Present plans
of the interior department. In
clude making such a survey Of all
agricultural counties in Idaho,
Washington, Oregon and Mon
tana. It is possible that Wyoming
and Utah will be included in this
survey. The field men will spend
from several days to two weeks
in each county, depending upon
the time necessary to gather the
desired information. It will then
be checked and filed so as to be
made available.
This reconnaissance work has a
three-fold purpose:
/. To get a complete picture
of the kinds OF erosion in the
area. Farming, grazing, and
timbered areas, with special en-
phasis on the farming lands,
will all be studied.
2. To form an estimate Of prob
able future erosion judging by
present conditions and present
utilization of the land.
8. To learn what control meas
ures can be used to" best advan-
tage in each locality.
While it is true that the seri-
BUSINESS Of the erosion problem
may vary in different sections,
we must not lose sight of the fact
that this vital problem, demanding
immediae attention, exists in some
degree in every section of the
country. : Thus, while your. level
valley land may not be eroding,
it may be that your neighbor who
farms the slopes adjacent is send
ing you, without his" compliments,
several tons of fertile topsoil each
season. In most instances you do
not welcome this Layer of silt
which covers your meadow lands,
your highways and machinery.
Erosion: by water may be caused
by rainfall or by melting snow. In
either case the farmer is vitality
concerned with reducing the run
of since soil moisture is recog-
nized as being a limiting factor
In crop production. Not only is
this truei but we must also real
ize that only by reduction of run
on will floods be stopped and
erosion checked. Thus, the eros
ion control program includes not
only direct erosion control but
reducing floods, decreasing high
way up1keep, raising the water
table, increasing yields, profits,
and present and future land val
ues.
. This erosion may be of four
types: -
1. Sheet washing, which may
60 on :,practically unnoticed, is
most damaging as it rapidly re-
moves. the productive topsoil from
the slopes and ridges.
2. A. combination of sheet
washing and Outlying, which is
much more noticeable and is the
beginning of the third stage.
3. Gullying-a damaging, spec
tacular type Of erosion caused
by excessive run-off and lack Of
vegetation. =.
4. Soil slips and land slides
appearing on steep slopes. In
addition to this list we must add
the probelm of wind erosion re-
sultng in soil blow and excessive
drifting.
35,000,000 acres of valuablesfa +
land In the United States have be-
come w~ind-swept wastes. or gully
made miniature mountains by the
action of wind OF water or both.
These $500 900 acres Of formerly
valuable land not longer farmed
stand out as abandoned wastes, a
monument to the folly of man.
This gigantic figure does not
even include the millions of acres
Of overgrazed range lands or tim
bered areas, nor the vast areas
abandoned in the drought stricken
states this year.
High production may not be
Immediately reduced by erosion.
However, It is plainly evident that
n-nnmnmico nxod.1a4iaa ~i