WASTING OUR WEALTH
Netboy, Anthony
Wasting Our Wealth By Anthony Netboy READERS of The Progressive and comparable journals are regularly exhorted to face up to Menaces—the menace of militarism, of McCarthyism, of monopoly. Too...
...The report of the President's Water Resources Policy Commission makes it clear that much of our expenditures are wasted, owing to a lack of coordinated policies, the subordination of common sense to political pressure, and bureaucratic lobbying...
...World War II used up a substantial portion of our natural wealth...
...It was the first report of the President's Water Resources Policy Commission, "A Water Policy for the American People," and it was full of warning to the people of the United States...
...Typical of what is happening to our cropland is the fact that in Kansas 40 million acres—three-fourths of the state—are eroding because of mismanagement...
...In many areas acute shortages of water are limiting industrial and agricultural development...
...The reforestation problem on non-farm commercial timberlands is more staggering...
...He is the co-author (with Bernard Frank) of the newly published book, "Water, Land, and People...
...IV Time is getting short...
...Except for Federal lands, little is being done to save our forests...
...To begin with, the manner in which the forests are universally cut is a menace to soil stability, especially in mountainous areas...
...The traveler can see for himself the truth of these statements...
...In addition to this damage, logging roads do much harm to the watershed...
...In fact, there are no current programs adequate to meet our urgent need for preservation of these renewable resources...
...Hoover Dam, expected to last for several centuries, is likewise in danger, even though engineers are taking steps to sidetrack and keep out of the reservoir the silt that is ceaselessly washing down from the unstable watershed...
...When a large portion of the cover and litter on the ground is removed by loggers or destroyed by fire, the soil becomes hard and resists the entry of water, so that erosion begins and floods follow...
...Too rarely, however, are they confronted with an equally destructive, and in some ways more deadly menace—the menace that springs from the remorseless depletion of our croplands, ranges, forests, and water resources...
...The President's Water Resources Policy Commission declares that "figures are not available to establish a trend, or even to determine whether we are gaining or losing ground in the conservation of topsoil...
...They are usually miserably built and laid out with no regard to natural drainage...
...Only 95 million acres were in reasonably satisfactory condition...
...Where does the trend in the condition of our natural resources lead us...
...Foresters believe that the heavy toll of forest fires—more than 20 million acres are burned out annually —is also a major factor in our mounting water shortages...
...Some of the present programs, such as the $6 billion Pick-Sloan Plan now under way for developing the water resources of the Missouri River, are regarded as wrongheaded if not misbegotten...
...Although a vast Federal program of soil conservation was launched more than a decade ago, little or nothing is known of its progress...
...That is why it is imperative that we give heed to the somber warnings of the men who wrote the document we have quoted—and try to impress their findings on the men who represent us in Congress...
...The Commission concludes that "our Federal programs have not brought the situation under control...
...II In the 15 years since this report was issued, relatively little has been done to bring back the range...
...What of our great western ranges...
...Finally, we must utilize "all of these services which water resources offer in such a way as to contribute to the continued building of a strong nation...
...Because of widespread poor farming practices, along with overly intensive cultivation to grow bumper crops, much of our farmland is in poor shape...
...By 1985 this gigantic development will begin to lose its usefulness...
...And our forests...
...The gullies speed up the movement of displaced soil and water long after the loggers have departed...
...Some of the big dams, such as Hoover Dam on the lower Colorado (completed in 1936 at a cost of $165,000,000) and Elephant Butte on the Rio Grande, are losing their utility because their reservoirs are filling up with mud...
...million acres were eroding and impairing watershed services...
...III The raping of our forests also has grave consequences for the watersheds...
...It was found that more ANTHONY NETBOY, government official and free-lance author, formerly served with the U. S. Forest Service...
...There must be "a simple procedure for determining whether the money to be invested in a river basin program will be well spent," and a long-range investment program to assure the safety and maintenance of our renewable resources...
...In 1946, 30 years after its construction, one-fifth of Elephant Butte's capacity had vanished and its usefulness had been reduced to 50 years...
...than half the forage on this vast domain was gone—the results of a few decades of intensive use...
...The nation is saddled with immense areas of once productive forests—in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, and southeastern and far western states—which no longer have many trees, yet are not suitable for other uses...
...It is our croplands, ranges, and forests—together with our mineral resources—which provide the precious substratum of our prosperity...
...This will mean, said the Chief Forester in his annual report for 1947, that "the flood protection provided by Lake Mead (its reservoir) will gradually disappear, that large areas of irrigated land will eventually go out of cultivation, that power output will be reduced, and that business and industry dependent on these power and water resources will decline...
...About 590...
...In the entire Missouri Valley it is estimated that two-fifths of the land has been damaged by erosion...
...Forests have been and are being logged with little or no thought for future production—in the Douglas fir country of the Northwest, white pines of Idaho, redwoods of California, yellow pines of the South, hardwoods of the Appalachian Mountains, and maple and spruce of the New England States...
...A decade of high meat and wool prices, in fact, has intensified the use of this land, and today conditions are even worse than in 1936...
...In Iowa, the water courses run black after a downpour— evidence that the soil is washing away...
...Eroded rangeland not only contributes to floods but is a great menace to our water developments...
...Far greater than these injuries, however, is the effect of heavy cutting and forest fires on the water-holding capacity of the soil...
...In my own state, Maryland, which has a great deal of rich farming country, the rivers and creeks are choked with yellowish silt—particles of soil —after every rain...
...Despite these expenditures, we do not seem to be getting on top of the situation...
...There are no headlines for soil erosion, no radio jabber to warn us of forest depletion, and yet this menace strikes at the very heart of our national well-being and, over the long haul, endangers the foundation on which our entire economy rests...
...In the uplands of the South, the situation is even worse, though figures are not readily available...
...The last exhaustive survey, comprising 728 million acres of western grazing lands, which produced 75% of the nation's wool, 55% of the sheep and lambs, and about one-third of the cattle and calves, was made in 1936 by the U. S. Forest Service...
...Dragging the trees over the ground dissipates the water-absorbent litter, bruises the soil, and digs channels on the forest floor that invite gullying...
...This undertaking, pressured through Congress by the Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Engineers, has been seriously criticized by scientists, administrators, and land planners because it does not provide for land restoration, reforestation of timberlands, reseeding of ranges, and other upstream measures to safeguard the expensive downstream dams, navigation, and irrigation works...
...The Federal Government alone is spending annually over a billion dollars on water development projects, $300 million on agricultural land conservation, and over $200 million on other conservation projects...
...It says: We must have "clearly defined regional and national goals...
...A reforestation program, such as was started by the Civilian Conservation Corps and WPA in the 1930's, is urgently needed...
...A healthy forest cover protects the soil, filters the water, and lessens the debris load of the streams...
...The nation no longer has large reserves of unused farm and forest land," warns the Commission...
...The Forest Service concluded that it would probably require "more than 50 years of management to restore the depleted range sufficiently to carry even the 17.3 million livestock units [then] grazed, and probably an additional 50 years to restore it to the nearest possible approach to its original grazing capacity of 22.5 million units...
...The President's Commission, therefore, has done the nation a great service by demanding that we reorient our thinking about natural resources and reformulate our public works programs...
...The Soil Conservation Service admits"that each year the equivalent of half a million acres is permanently lost to production, and in addition, a quarter of our cropland is in critical danger of losing its topsoil, while another quarter is eroding rapidly...
...The decimation of our timbered lands, as anybody knows who lives in a region where timber is or has been a major resource, is a national scandal...
...We must plan "for a river basin as a whole instead of having a patchwork of plans for separate purposes...
...More than one-third of Nebraska is badly eroded...
...Much of this anemic-ally-stocked land is not only an economic burden to its owners, but is eroding or producing rapid run-off and is thus an actual or potential menace to the watersheds...
...Just recently a document covering vital aspects of this significant struggle of man and nature was laid before the public, but press and radio, with only a few distinguished exceptions, gave it the silent treatment...
...On the great bulk of private timberlands —propaganda of the forest products industries to the contrary—there is little evidence of good forestry, and practically none that takes into consideration watershed values...
...So the muddy water collects along the roads and runs off in swift rivulets...
...It is estimated that about 44 million acres of eroded farm woodlands alone need replanting, but at the rate of progress in recent years this program would take 40 years...
...Suppose we have a look at what's been happening to them...
...All targets fall far short of that mark...
...The planned military destruction of World War III will be catastrophic, but the unplanned destruction of our forests, soils, and other resources will be just as deadly in the long run...
...Natural rather than sectional interests should determine our water development programs...
...From them come the food and fiber, the enormous agricultural and industrial production which have made America the most prosperous nation on earth and equipped us to serve as the granary and arsenal of freedom...
...It is, therefore, of crucial importance to adopt whatever measures are necessary to halt further depletion...
Vol. 15 • February 1951 • No. 2
