National Academies Press: OpenBook

Land Use and Wildlife Resources (1970)

Chapter: New Patterns on Land and Water

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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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Suggested Citation:"New Patterns on Land and Water." National Research Council. 1970. Land Use and Wildlife Resources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9576.
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New Patterns on [and and Water MODERNIZATION OF AGRICULTURE A productive and efficient agriculture is one of the great strengths of the United States. Applications of new knowledge and techniques have made it possible to engage a steadily declining proportion of the population in food and fiber production and, at the same time, in- crease the quantity, quality, and variety of output. The rising trend in farm production had its beginning in the late 1930's and early 1940's, as the national economy recovered from a catastrophic depression and geared for war. It has yet to show signs of slackening. In 1967, American farms turned out a volume of food and fiber that exceeded by 3, percent the volume produced in 1950. Trend toward Large Cropping Units This increase in production seems all the more remarkable when the circumstances are considered. From 1950 to 1967, the number of farms in the nation dropped by about two and a half million. In order to utilize the work potential of machines and offset rising costs of labor and materials, commercial farmers have increased the size of their operations. Farmers harvested 34 million fewer acres in 1967 than in 1950, and farm employment declined by 5 million persons in the 1 7-year period. The small subsistence farm is rapidly passing out 55

56 Land Use and Wildlife Resources of existence as older operators die or move. A major portion of the abandoned acreage is in the eastern United States, lands once reclaimed Tom the primitive forest. Thus, the area is now in various stages of re- version to forest, and its wild fauna is changing accordingly. The foregoing trends, accepted without further inquiry, sometimes lead city dwellers to the specious conclusion that our agriculture is undergoing a national decline. But it is the essence of economic and technologic progress that a nation devote progressively less of its activity to the production of basic necessities and more to endeavors that make life more stimulating and enjoyable. The 37 percent increase in agricultural yields in 17 years represents an accomplishment strikingly different from the progress shown in our historic development. Until early in this century, farm output in- creased with the growth of population and with the expansion of that population westward to bring new lands under the plow. In the decade after 1870, a time when settlement of the West was in full swing, the number of farms rose by half, and production showed a similar rise. After 1880 the rate of establishment of new farms slowed somewhat as the better lands were settled. In the 40 years it took for the num- ber of farms to reach a maximum, the acreage in crops nearly doubled. Expansion of cropland still was the principal means of increasing agricultural yield, and the volume of crops for human use also nearly doubled. The recent major spurt in production came long after the peak of are al expansion. In fact, with this growth has come a reduction in the need for more cropland. Land so used dropped from 377 million acres in 1950 to 342 million in 1967. During that period, farmers over the nation withdrew from crops an acreage exceeding the land area of New England. On the northern plains, farmers withdrew more than 1 acre in 20, primarily in response to programs instituted to re- duce grain surpluses. But the proportionate shrinkage has been sharp- est in the South. There almost 1 acre in 4 has been converted from cropping to other uses. Causes and Effects The extensive and rapid reduction in crop acreage has been effected in several ways. In part it represents the withdrawal of whole farms from agriculture, particularly those surrounding urban areas, and many in submarginal areas. Some of the decrease can be attributed to land-rationing programs the government has sponsored since 1950. But much of it stems from the discovery by farmers that, within

New Patterns on Land and Water 57 broad limits, it is more economical to increase yields through im- proved methods than to cultivate more land for the same amount of product. In the 1 7-year period, crop production per acre rose nationally by nearly 50 percent and in some parts of the South by about 100 per- cent. Such changes have been the basis for predictions that by 1980 we can readily supply our sharply increasing domestic requirement for farm products and increase exports moderately with even further re- ductions in our cropland base. The advent of the tractor and other motor-driven equipment re- leased millions of acres of land that had been used in producing feed for horses and mules. Between 1930 and 1967, land used for this pur- pose was reduced from 65 million acres to 4 million acres (Economic Research Service, 1 968a). Thus, an area equivalent to 80 percent of the cultivated land in the Corn Belt was added to land available for producing human food. Indirectly, availability of this acreage made it possible for managers to assign less intensive uses to marginal lands that previously had been cultivated. The ability of agriculture to achieve striking improvements in pro- ductivity while constantly yielding part of its land to nonfarm uses suggests that the structure of the industry has been substantially changed. The change has evolved as a response to the persistent pres- sures that accompany national economic expansion. That it has been healthy for segments of the industry is evidenced by the increased size of the average farm. Today's "average farmer" operates a farm twice the size of the one run by his 1940 counterpart. Expansion of farm enterprises has long been a characteristic of American agriculture. In the days when labor was a major component of farm input, farmers expanded their operations as new tools, better horse-drawn equipment, and new methods slowly improved the work capacity of labor. Although the largest gains in acreage per farm have occurred since the advent of the tractor, a national trend to larger management units was well under way by the turn of the century. The trend continued in the North and West even as the number of farms was pushed higher by the establishment of new farms. Prevalence of the sharecropper system in the South delayed by several decades the beginning of the trend in that region. But since 1940 southern farms have displayed a spectacular gain in acreage. Changes in the economic pattern have been accompanied by major changes in the ecological pattern on the land. Poorly managed "patch farming" produced ex- cellent quail habitat and a colorful kind of hunting; unfortunately,

58 Land Use and Wildlife Resources the larger modernized agricultural unit does not do so well for wild- life by-products. Generally, when small farms are converted into large management units, wildlife habitat deteriorates drastically (see Chapter 41. This deterioration undoubtedly has occurred on a broad scale. Early tabu- lations from the 1964 Census of Agriculture indicate that about three fourths of the 2.2 million loss in number of farms occurred among units of less than l DO acres. In fact, more than half the farms that disappeared were less than 50 acres. Ownership and Tenancy The American agricultural "revolution" has featured not only a major overhauling of the land-use pattern and a shift to mechanization but also a significant change in the tenure of farm operators. By 1959, about 80 percent of all farms were operated by owners and part owners, in comparison with only 57 percent in 1935. Between 1935 and 1959, the proportion of all farms worked by tenants declined from 42 percent to- less than 20 percent. In the South, the proportion of farms operated by sharecroppers changed from 10.5 percent in 1935 to slightly more than 3 percent in 1959 (Economic Research Service, 1 966). Who owns and manages the land has important implications in the long-term outlook for soil and water conservation as well as for other values not associated with immediate returns. There is little incentive for a sharecropper or tenant to invest his efforts in management for the future or to consider a by-product such as wildlife. There is, in- stead, a real incentive to emphasize practices promising the greatest income in the shortest time. An increase in the proportion of owners and operators of farms means generally greater attention to scientific methods. However, the end result is likely to be a specialized, more intensive land use, and this is largely inimical to the kind of management that benefits wildlife. That this is not true of all types of agriculture is evident from Chap- ter4. I m pacts of Change Combined effects of the foregoing trends appear to be promoting specialization in agricultural production. Sharp differences in cropping systems are developing, even within long-established production areas. To exploit their available resources, farmers are making not less than three kinds of major organizational adjustments:

New Patterns on Land and Water 59 (1 ) Crop production is being shifted to areas of expansive, level, productive soils that lend themselves to mechanization and to inten- sive use of fertilizers and other chemicals. (2) Within these areas, farmers with a suitable land base are confining their attention increas- ingly to a few regionally adapted crops. (3) Location shifts accom- panied by specialization make it possible to exploit the capacities of costly field equipment and frequently to achieve a higher degree of efficiency than is possible with a more diversified operation on less productive soils. When supplementary enterprises are reduced, it is often the livestock group that is dropped. These reorganizations are resulting in major changes in the cropping pattern and the agricultural landscape-changes that significantly affect the potential for recreation benefits. Improved land manage- ment and greater industrial values reduce the economic position of wildlife, which, in most cases, depends in part on the presence of uncropped areas and semipermanent types of vegetation (see Chapter 41. These essentials of the wildlife habitat are being wiped out by the efficient technology that is taking over our best soils. Trends in drainage are a case in point: Excess water is a problem on much cropland in the humid part of the country. Nationally, about 1 12 million acres need further artificial drainage for maximum agri- cultural use (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 19651. Half of this acreage lies in the Corn Belt and the lower Mississippi Valley, two major areas where the rapid shift to large-scale cropping is occurring. The alluvial and glacial soils are pocketed with sloughs, potholes, and other wet depressions, which provide excellent wildlife habitat but commonly are an agricultural liability (Chapter 51-. Some of the earlier attempts at drainage left spoilbank barriers or resulted in ir- regularly shaped fields poorly adapted to the use of multirow equip ment. Land grading for improved drainage and the removal of surface irregularities is increasing. Artificial reshaping to a constant slope, a practice originating in the arid West as an aid to irrigation, is now used in humid areas. The Soil Conservation Service provides techni- cal assistance in land forming and by 1966 had contributed to these practices on 13.6 million acres. Of this total, 190,000 acres was classi- fied as drainage land grading, requiring detailed engineering survey and layout; 8.6 million acres as irrigation land leveling; and 4.9 million acres as land smoothing or rough grading to remove irregularities. As part of the readjustments in land use, livestock operations are becoming more specialized. In the Corn Belt fewer farmers feed cattle and hogs, and the average size of such enterprises is increasing.

60 Land Use and Wildlife Resources Poultry production (non-land-based) is being shifted to sites of low agricultural value. Cotton raising is moving (as fast as artificial restraints permit) to irrigated areas in the Southwest and California. In the three Delta states this crop is being shifted from small hill farms to the level fertile soils of the Delta proper. Even more corn is being raised in the Corn Belt; this region has increased its proportion- ate share of the national crop by a third since 1950. While the north- ern plains area is still dominant in wheat, production is increasing on the southern plains. The great advantages of mechanization and irri- gation in vegetable production have caused a concentration of these crops in the California Central Valley and level lands in the south- eastern states. The pasturing of livestock is declining in the Corn Belt, the Lake States, and the Northeast, and is gravitating to range- lands of the South and West. The largest percentage gains in live- stock production have been in the Delta and southeastern states. All these trends have added to agricultural efficiency and yields. The land-use picture is one of a highly technical and specialized food and fiber industry taking over almost exclusive use of the most fertile and productive lands of the continent. Correspondingly, marginal farming is on the decline, thus making way for uses more compatible with land capabilities and public demand. Where such areas are not pre-empted for human occupancy, wildlife, forests, and recreation are likely to improve their standing as social and economic benefits. Federally financed programs dealing with soil and water conserva- tion problems on a national scale have profoundly influenced prac- tices and attitudes as they relate to land use. Extensive knowledge of land capabilities, collected over the past three decades, serves as a guide in determining the wisest and most profitable use for a given tract of land. In addition, there has developed a conservation con- sciousness in both farm and nonfarm people to a degree unknown before. Gains and Losses in the Agricultural Base Our uses of land have by no means adjusted fully to the agricultural potential, nor are they likely to do so. Charles E. Kellogg has esti- mated (unpublished data) that we have some 50 million acres of soil used for crops-or with an official cropping history that makes them eligible for crop uses-that are not suitable for farming under any known combination of practices. On the other hand, about 230

New Patterns on Land and Water 61 million acres of soils (leaving out temporarily idle areas, federal lands, highways, and urban sites) suitable for cropping are not so used. Most of this land has a cover of brush, trees, or grass. Despite the striking decline of land in farms, cropland acreage, and number of farms, a substantial acreage of new land is being brought into cultivation through drainage and irrigation and in other ways. Eight states have increased their cropland harvested up to 1965: Dela- ware, to which vegetable production has shifted as urbanization has taken over cropland in other states; Florida, where drainage and irriga- tion have brought large acreages into sugarcane, citrus, melons, and tomatoes; Arkansas, which reflects the effects of drainage and clearing of Mississippi Delta alluvial land; and Montana, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, and Washington, where irrigation developments have brought about net increases in cropland. In total, these eight states added to their cropland harvested by 1.9 million acres; the total decrease in the 48 contiguous states was about 43 million acres. In view of the fact that major problems of American agriculture are associated with surpluses, adding new land is open to question. This is especially true since the most readily available land has been taken up, and today the reclamation of more desert, swamp, and low forest lands is a high-cost enterprise. Also, it is frequently destructive of outdoor recreational environments and wildlife. Although pressing need for human food worldwide may eventually require that more lands be brought into this type of production, there should be a more careful weighing of costs and values than in the past. He w Cro plands by Irriga lion The availability of irrigation water makes cropping possible on the highly mineralized soils of the arid West, and it supplements rainfall on many areas in the humid eastern states. In rice culture, irrigation is a routine requirement for profitable yields. Irrigated land on farms throughout the United States totaled more than 37 million acres in 1964. Seventeen western states accounted for more than 33 million acres. Nationwide, land under irrigation is now increasing at the rate of 780,000 acres annually, and in the period 1949 to 1964, western states accounted for 80 percent of the increase. The total area of irrigated land is now approximately 40 million acres. Changes in irrigated acreage are uneven within regions and within time periods because of variations in availability of water, the amount of rainfall, and demand for products. Although irrigated acreage in the West increased by 6.5 million acres during a recent 10-year period,

62 Land Use and Wildlife Resources acreage decreased substantially in three of the states because of a shortage of surface water. In the Delta states, restrictions on rice acreage resulted in a decrease of total acreage irrigated, despite a marked increase in irrigation of cotton and soybeans. A survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1965) appraised irrigation potentials based on the limiting factors of soil suitability and the availability of water within watersheds as planning units. It ap- peared that 66.9 million acres of cropland and pasture (slightly more than double the 33.2 million acres estimated by the Bureau of the Census to have been irrigated in 1959) would benefit from additional water. Although there has been a steady increase in irrigation, much of the land already was in crop production, particularly in the humid East. But much of the 9-million-acre increase in land irrigated between 1950 and 1965 in the 17 western states also comprised land previ- ously cropped under dry-land conditions. In the most arid states-New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada-the irrigated area increased from 2.7 to 3.0 million acres between 1950 and 1965, and most of this represents "new" cropland. From the standpoint of wildlife relationships, it is of interest to note that 51 percent of the irrigated cropland in the West is used for the production of livestock feed. In addition, more than 5 million irrigated acres in the region are in pasture or other nonharvested crops (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1 962b). About 56 percent of the irrigation water in the West is from streamflow, representing an annual withdrawal of some 120 million acre-feet (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1 962a). Major impound- ments help provide this large volume of water, and nearly complete use is being made of streamflow in some of the older irrigation areas; yet the search for new sources continues. The wildlife species most notably associated with western irrigated land from the latitude of Colorado northward is the ringneck pheas- ant (Hart et al., 1956; Yeager et al., 19561. This Asian gamebird was first naturalized in North America in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and has since shown its outstanding capabilities to survive in the presence of various types of intensive hay and grain agriculture. With- out question, irrigation has been the key to pheasant productivity in many valleys of the West. Where riparian lands are converted to intensive agriculture and settlements, the wildlife that inhabits native ranges is largely elimi- nated. In various western states such species might be deer, elk,

New Patterns on Land and Water pronghorns, javelins, Gambel quail, and white-winged doves. In decades to come, major changes in western fauna may be expected if extensive water developments are carried out on the scale envisioned by Senator McGee of Wyoming (19601: 63 Even with transpiration, evaporation, comsumption, and seepage into impervious aquifers, three-fourths of the water of our western rivers still discharges into the ocean. This means that the West has only begun to use its water. The Bureau of Reclamation, in its report to the committee tSenate Select Committee on Water Resources], states, "The amount of physically feasible water resource develop- ment remaining in the seventeen reclamation states is enormous." Their report summarizes 1,085 reclamation projects, both public and private, upon which construction has not yet been undertaken. The bureau estimates that 75 percent of the federal projects and 90 percent of the non-federal projects listed can be developed by the year 2000. Such a program would provide for the irrigation of 17 million acres of new land equiva- lent. It should pour over 4 million kilowatts of hydropower into our transmission systems. It would cost $22 billion. Plans for these major works involve the possibilities for weather control (especially cloud seeding) and transmountain river diversions. In the face of a prospective near-total mechanization of the hydrology and, indeed, the entire human environment, the position of wildlife probably has relevance as only one of an entire spectrum of outdoor resources requiring space and a (somewhat) natural scene. Such frag- ile amenities will take their place in planning insofar as the total ecological picture of defined goals and human population relation- ships is given critical and realistic consideration. This kind of policy appears to be extremely slow in developing. Added Acres through Drainage In common with irrigation, drainage has been an important means of bringing more land into crop production. Compilations of the Agri- cultural Research Service indicate that nearly 100 million acres of agricultural land had been "reclaimed" by drainage by 1960-more than 3 times the area made available by irrigation. In the United States there are still some 172.5 million acres of level, or nearly level, land that need group drainage outlets if they are to be used efficiently for cropping (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 19651. Almost two thirds of the acreage in watershed projects that would be feasible to drain for farming is in the eastern third of the country. Currently, the greatest area of development of new cropland through drainage is on the alluvial land of the Mississippi Delta, where almost a million acres

64 Land Use and Wildlife Resources were added between 1959 and 1964. Some new areas also are being developed on the southern coastal plain. In the humid eastern half of the United States, it has been common practice to invoke the authorities of local drainage districts to dredge the outlets of natural lakes to expose areas of organic soil for cultiva- tion. Through the same process, marshes large and small have pro- gressively disappeared. Extensive drainage projects helped to create some of the nation's most valuable croplands Parts of Indiana's famous Kankakee region exemplify this, as do Michigan's lake plains and the Black Swamp area of northwestern Ohio. Often such enterprises were speculative and failed as a result of poorly understood conditions, as in the case of Wisconsin's Horicon Marsh and Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp. Both of these "failures" are now dedicated to wildlife refuges. Drainage on lands already in cultivation must be continued for rea- sons of efficiency. This type of drainage is not to be judged by effects on wildlife, although frequently the benefits to one species may bal- ance the disadvantages to another. There is perhaps no other phase of land use where wildlife relation- ships are more clearly and more extensively influenced favorably or un- favorably than in drainage for the conversion of "idle" wet areas to agriculture. Nor has there been any other comparable area of disagree- ment between agricultural interests and the proponents of wildlife conservation. This is particularly true of government-sponsored, tax- supported drainage that in recent decades was in the anomalous posi- tion of contributing to the production of surplus, price-supported grains, while at the same time reducing a wildlife resource (especially waterfowl) for which there was unlimited demand. Historically, this process has gone ahead as though no valid reason existed for preserv- ing lakes, marshes, swamps, and other wet sites if these could be made to support any kind of cropping enterprise. Minnesota's legal basis for drainage exemplifies such statutes as described by Haik (19571: A typical law authorized the "County Board to establish any ditch, drain, or other water course, which ditch could in whole or part follow and consist of the bed of any stream, creek, or river, whether navigable or not, or any lake, whether meandered or not, and the Board could widen, deepen, straighten, change, lower, or drain the channel or bed of any creek, river, lake or other water course...." The authority granted by the legislature was very broad and was apparently based upon a policy that considered surface waters to be a common enemy which could be disposed of even if it meant taking property against a landowner's will in condemnation proceeding.

New Patterns on Land and Water 65 The validity of such laws was upheld in the courts, and in one opinion it was stated that: As a rule, drainage proceedings are begun for the sole purpose of reclaiming wet lands, primarily for the direct benefit of the owners thereof, and incidentally for the promotion of the public welfare by increasing the productiveness and taxable value of lands having little or no value unless drained. In drainage statistics there usually is no reliable indication of true re- lationships of costs to benefits, or identification of ecological effects of one kind or another. Thus, the recorded acreages are only an index of the scale on which such operations have been carried out. Commonly the scale is broad, as the Wisconsin Conservation Department found in a survey and evaluation of wetlands in 1954. Files of the State Drain- age Engineer showed that from 1906 to 1940 more than 900,000 acres had been involved in organized drainage (Dahlen and Thompson, 19551. Beginning in 1941, farm drainage was subsidized at the rate of 6 cents per cubic yard of earth moved and 40 cents per rod of tile put down. By the end of 1953, when this subsidization was withdrawn, payments had been made to one out of every four farms in the state, affecting the drainage of 1,692,750 acres.... Com- bining these figures, we arrive at a total of over two and one-half million acres, or 4,075 square miles. The authors noted that these operations did not always destroy wet- lands as wildlife habitat and that some projects were abandoned. How- ever, more detailed work in Racine County indicated that only 10,000 acres of wetland remained-a loss of 87 percent of the wetlands in 50 years. One obvious result of drainage is the loss of deep marshes, which are so important to waterfowl. With the exception of refuges and marshes along lakes or rivers, hardly an area remains in Racine County which could be called good for duck production.... An advantage recently gained for wildlife interests was the revision of Chapter 88 of the Wisconsin Statutes, the Farm Drainage Law. This revision requires that the Conservation Department be notified of hearings concerning proposed drain- age projects. In many instances the benefits to be derived from drainage are of less consequence than the detrimental effects of lowered ground water levels, loss of fish habitat in the outlet stream from siltation and warming, and the possible increase of flood danger due to acceleration of run-off. In cases con- cerning navigable waters, the Public Service Commission may be called upon to determine whether the proposed drainage is in the best interests of the public.

66 Land Use and Wildlife Resources In the present era of agricultural abundance and declining wetland wildlife, widespread reappraisal of drainage policies and economics is needed, as well as an updated consideration of private versus public values. Obviously, most of the loss off wildlife habitat through drain- age was unavoidable in the past, bu+ recognition grows that there is a logical stopping point somewhere on the continuum of conditions represented by a vast and variable array of sites that might be, and are being, drained. That this point has been passed on numerous occasions probably is indicated by the investments of public funds now being made for the restoration of aquatic habitats for fish, waterfowl, and other wildlife. Particular phases of the wetlands problem are given more detailed treatment in Chapter 5. Changes in Forested Lands While various types of farming have continued to expand into areas potentially suited to modern agricultural systems, there has been a corresponding loss of cultivated acreage on the marginal fringe. A his- tory of declining productivity and deterioration has shown that certain lands were overextended in row-crop culture; these are being gradually returned to the protective custody of trees and grass. Abandoned home- sites on every 80 acres of what is now dense forest or traces of old crop rows among giant hardwoods present vivid lessons in these land-use changes. Actually, reversions of cropland have taken place in the United States throughout its history. Forest land acreage in the United States has increased markedly since 1950. However, statistics on woodland in farms for the period 1959- 1964 indicate a decrease of 1 8 million acres. Over 10 million acres of this change occurred in the South and most of the remainder in the Northeast. In these two regions the change in land use involving the largest acreage is from cropland to forest. This paradox arises from a change in the census definition of a farm rather than from actual shifts in land use. Once an-entire farm is con- verted to forest, the acreage of woodland is no longer shown as a part of "woodland in farms" but is included in the total forest land acreage. In the lower Mississippi River Valley a major shift from forest to cropland is under way. Most of the land being cleared is for the produc- tion of soybeans. High prices and heavy demand for soybeans, ac- companied by improvements in drainage, have encouraged this change (Beltz and Christopher, 19671. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable hardwood

New Patterns on Land and Water timber are being destroyed to produce a crop for which surpluses are 67 in prospect. A1SO7 excellent habitat is being destroyed for deer, wild tur- keys, waterfowl, raccoons, squirrels, and other wildlife. Much of the land involved is subject to periodic flooding, making it uncertain for crop production. This is an example of destruction of a forest resource in short supply and elimination of excellent wildlife habitat for imme- diate economic return. Here the long-term values have been given only slight consideration. According to the 1959 Census of Agriculture, forests and woodlands occupied 614 million acres in the 48 states, indicating an increase of 13 million acres since 1930 (Bureau of the Census, 1962b). In the Northeast, Lake States, Appalachian region, Southeast, Mississippi Delta, and Pacific States, the growing of wood products is the prin- cipal use of land. In the Southeast, 63 percent of the land is in forest and woodland. Projecting needs and resource use from 1959 to 1980, the Secretary of Agriculture (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1 962b) reported the following changes in cropland and forest: The area of commercial forest land available for timber production was estimated at 530 million acres in l9S9. The amount expected to be available by 1980 is 537 million acres. This net gain results from an expected shift of 19 million acres of cropland and 8 million acres of pasture and range to commercial forest, compared with shifts from commercial forest to other uses of about 20 million acres. How- ever, in view of the timber demand situation and the fact that forest land will con- tinue to be sought for other uses, no surplus of commercial forest is in prospect. A net of 5 million acres of noncommercial forest land is expected to shift to other strictly nonforest uses. Thus, the overall gain in forest land area is only about 2 million acres. It is expected that the use of 34 million acres of forest land will be limited primarily to recreation or wildlife purposes in 1980, or 7 million more acres than in 1959. Successional stages in reversions from cropland to forest have major significance to wildlife production. Food and cover for many species are more abundant during earlier phases of succession than after the forest has formed a canopy. The nature of vegetation and duration of the transitional period from cultivated field to forest are influenced by climate, soil, seed and root stocks in the soil, and proximity of seed-trees. Even in fields that were cultivated for many years, the presence of viable seed and root stocks gives rise to a cover of fortes and grasses. Eventually the area is invaded by coniferous or hardwood forest.

68 Land Use and Wildlife Resources In the hill country of the Southeast, where fields are relatively small, the growing season long, rainfall abundant, and tree seed plentiful, dense stands of young pines may cover an area within 5 years after cultivation ends. An invasion by hardwoods follows, and for an ex- tended period brush growth provides excellent browse and cover for deer. In regions where soil moisture is severely limited, or the growing season is short, early successional stages are extended. Under these conditions the forte-grass cover gives way slowly to trees. Usually there are stages during which shrubs occur as colonies and later as the domi- nant vegetation. The importance of forests to wildlife and the benefits to be gained from wise management of both forests and wildlife are well described by Wingard and Heddleson (n.d.~: Forests cover over half of Pennsylvania. They are increasing slightly in area, sub- stantially in growth and volume of wood, and greatly in value for watersheds, open space, recreation and wildlife lands. The challenge of the future will be to scien- tif~cally manage the forests of the Commonwealth to provide all these goods and services in a satisfactory combination. These authors noted the great improvement in conditions and the increases in several important game species since the early part of this century. The wild turkey and beaver are now plentiful, and the deer herd yields a kill greater than it did in the thirties, when deer were three times more numerous than they are at present. Projected land-use adjustments for the next 20 years indicate the conversion of 7 million acres of forest to cropland. During the same period it is estimated that 19 million acres of cropland will revert to forest (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1962b). Reliable data on land-use changes from forest to grassland are not available. Although changes in acreage are indicated in census statistics, differences in interpretations and definitions are probably of greater influence than actual shifts on the land. Projected land-use change from forest to grassland in the period 1959-1980 should be 11 million acres and from grassland to forest 8 million acres, resulting in a net change of 3 million acres (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1962b). According to the national inventory of soil and water conservation needs of 1965, the shift of land use from forest to grassland in the period 1958-1975 is expected to be 14 million acres and from grass- land to forest 6 million acres, resulting in a net change of 8 million acres.

New Patterns on Land and Water Adjustments in Grassland Area 69 Agricultural summaries indicate that in 1964 at least 640 million acres of grassland plus 225 million acres of woodland in the contiguous states were used for pasture or range (Economic Research Service, 1968b). A1- though changes occur from year to year, it is generally agreed that al- most half of our land area is in permanent use for grazing livestock, and that about two thirds of this grazing land is in a grass or forte cover. Between 1900 and 1964 there was a decline of more than 100 mil- lion acres in land used for permanent grassland pasturage. Most of this change occurred between 1900 and 1920, when extensive areas of range were converted to dryland and irrigated cropland. Following the severe drought and dust storms of the 1930's, there was a shift of 14 million acres of cultivated lands to grass. Most of this change took place in the Great Plains and the Southeast. Unfortunately, high prices and de- mand for wheat during World War lI negated this conservative trend and resulted in even further destruction of range. Statistics related to land use on a national scale tend to conceal sig- nificant regional changes. The issue is further complicated by wide dif- ferences in climate and the characteristics of grassland vegetation in the eastern and western halves of the nation. Changes in the wording of questions on acreage of grassland and crop- land on farms in taking the 1964 Census of Agriculture make compar- ison with statistics from earlier censuses difficult, if not impossible. For this reason, the following discussion of land-use changes from crops to grass is limited to the 5-year period 1959-1964 (Bureau of the Census 1966: table 163. There was a decrease of 8 million acres, nationwide, in cropland used only for pasture for the period 1959-1964. At the same time, there was an increase of about 24 million acres in land listed as "other pasture." The soil class "improved pasture" shows an increase of about 13 mil- lion acres for the 5-year period. "Other pasture" areas increased by about 4 million acres in the North and by 8 million acres in the South between 1959 and 1964. Much of this land was in cultivated crops at one time. In the West, "other pas- ture" increased by a little more than 12 million acres. Although some of this was changed from cropland to grassland, much of it had not been cultivated. It seems fairly certain that a substantial acreage of cropland is being shifted to grassland. This change has important implications for wildlife through habitat changes and in the extent of the land involved.

70 Land as Living Space Land Use and Wildlife Resources The rapid increase of population in the United States has been particularly significant in the cities. That we have become a predomi- nantly urban nation is evident in the fact that lands used for urban purposes have increased from 10 million acres in 1919 to 29 million acres in 1 964 (Economic Research Service, 1 958b). Clawson ~ 1 959) stated: "It is our small cities that are the most lavish users of land; half of all the land used for urban purposes is in cities of less than 25,000, although such cities contain but one fourth of the urban population." He predicted that growth of this kind to the year 2000 would be par- ticularly significant in the West where the 2~/: million acres now used for urban purposes would become 8/ million acres. He noted that th areas taken over would include some of the most productive agricul- tural lands, especially irrigated valleys. He also said: The best available evidence is that the city idles and wastes as much land as it uses. That is, twice as much land is taken out of agriculture or other use, because of city growth, as is actually put to use by the city. The rest lies idle, hopefully "ripening" for later actual urban use but often blighted by unwise subdivision, excessive taxes, and fouled-up titles. Particular problems of this kind in the nation's most rapidly urban- izing state were described by Nelson (19613: In California, one of our major problems is the engulfment of prone agricultural land by suburbia. Each day some 375 acres of our best soils are being taken out of production. About 140,000 acres annually are being converted to nonagricul- tural use.... It should be noted that, of California's 16,000,000 acres of land suitable for intensive agriculture, only about 6,000,000 acres are Class I and Class II soils. Although national losses to urban development of various classes of cropland are not known in detail, Regan and Wooten (1963) stated that areas in special-purpose uses had doubled since 1920. Rural lands have been absorbed at a rate o' about 2 million acres per year. "About 54 million acres of land were devoted to urban uses, transport, and other intensive uses in 1959." Cities, towns, and roadways of various kinds accounted for 90 percent of the total. Vlasin (1963) has estimated that the 41,000 miles of interstate highways authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 will eventually require about 11/2 million acres of additional land. Interstate routes of this kind require 250 to 300 feet of right-of-way, and in agri- cultural areas most of the land must be taken from farms.

New Patterns an Land and Water 71 Information furnished to the Senate Public Roads Subcommittee in 1965 showed that streets and highways in the United States occupy about 22 million acres, of which all but 1 million is accounted for by rural thoroughfares. All forms of transportation were utilizing about 25 million acres by the middle of the century. Railway rights-of-way probably have passed their maximum, and further requirements for roadways and airports probably will not be significant in terms of our total land area. Projections indicate that a total of perhaps 30 million acres will be so used by the year 2000. CHANG ES I N WATE RS AN D WET LAN DS As was pointed out in Chapter 1, great areas of inland and coastal waters, marshes, and swamps furnished habitats for aquatic and semi aquatic wildlife in primitive times. The progressive disappearance or modification of such environments constitutes one of the most sig- nificant changes affecting wildlife in North America. Many such areas have become valuable agricultural land after being drained. The com- pulsion to drain what is commonly regarded as a "mosquito breeding wasteland" has likely had its own impetus. As will be seen, also, natural processes alter the character of aquatic sites over fairly long periods. I n I a nd Lakes a nd M arshes In the United States there are about 250 freshwater lakes with surface areas of 10 square miles or more (Bile, 19631. Alaska has about 100 such lakes, and 100 more are in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, and Maine. Twenty-three states contain all the lakes of this size. There are more natural lakes in glaciated areas than elsewhere, and glacial lakes are far more plentiful than those of other origins. No rule exists as to how large or deep a body of water must be to qualify as a lake rather than a pond. Also, lakes are found in all stages of filling up as they become bogs and marshes and, eventually, dry land. Thus, it is difficult to obtain precise figures on total numbers and acre- ages of lakes. However, the amount of water stored in natural lakes, ex- clusive of the Great Lakes, which hold an estimated 5,500 cubic miles of water, is much greater than the quantity in all our artificial reser- voirs (Bue, 1 9631. The smaller freshwater lakes are better known as recreation sites than for their contributions to economic development. In terms of geologic time, all lakes (including the largest), are tran

72 Land Use and Wildlife Resources sitory. It is their natural "life cycle" to be filled by erosion products from the land and by annual deposits of plant material; at the same time, shallow areas are sapped and desiccated by transpiration from their vegetative cover. A counteracting natural rejuvenation process can sometimes be seen in operation. In periods of extended drought, deposits of peat that had been largely preserved from decomposition in water are laid bare and dried out. They are exposed to air, and oxidation liberates soluble nutrients that will contribute to the fertility of the waters when flood- ing again takes place. In dry periods an even more radical kind of re- newal may occur when desiccated peat is ignited from a surface fire. The deposit may smolder for months, or even years, producing a deep cavity and ultimately open water when the weather pattern changes and rains return. In this manner an old bog or sedge meadow can be converted into a new lake that, after a period of leaching, is ready to start its life history again. The rate of natural aging, or eutrophication, of lakes is greatly influenced by the condition of watersheds. In particular it is accelerated by agricultural or other land-use practices that may induce erosion. The artificial fertilization of waters with agricultural chemicals or with sewage and other wastes may similarly produce excessive plant growth and deplete the oxygen (see Freeman and Bennett, 19691. Natural lakes and their bordering marshes also are being significantly reduced through direct occupancy by man. Shorelines commonly are the sites of summer cottages built on landfills at the water's edge. Practices that alter the natural character and affect the wildlife pro- ductivity of a body of water are increasingly being controlled through local or state zoning restrictions. Stimulated by widespread evidence that wetland wildlife was facing a developing crisis, the Fish and Wildlife Service carried out a national wetland survey (Straw and Predine, 19561. This included sites covered with shallow, temporary, or intermittent waters (marshes, swamps, wet meadows, potholes, sloughs, and river-overflow lands) but excluded the permanent waters of streams, reservoirs, and deep lakes. It revealed that there were 74.4 million acres of wetlands in the contiguous 48 states. Of this acreage, 63.5 million acres were categorized as inland fresh water and 1.6 million acres as inland saline water, the remainder being coastal water and wetland areas. It is estimated that, originally, the natural wetlands of the 48 contiguous states totaled 127 million acres. In historic times, more than 40 million acres have been converted to cropland or other dry-land uses by drainage and flood protection.

New Patterns on Land and Water A discussion of particularly critical wetland problems that affect wildlife is reserved for Chapter 5. Coastal Lowlands and Estuaries 73 Shaw and Fredine (1956) estimated that once about 4 million acres were coastal freshwater areas and about 5.3 million acres were coastal saline wetlands. An estuary has been defined as a semienclosed coastal body of water having a free connection with the open sea and within which the seawater is measurably diluted with fresh water from land drainage (Cameron and Pritchard, 19631. The estuary is an ecotone, or transition zone, whose boundaries merge gradually with the ocean, the freshwater environment, and the land. The edge relationships are dynamic and commonly in a state of change. The peculiar biological values of the estuarine zone were recognized by the President's Science Advisory Committee (19651. Salt marshes such as the Sapelo Marshes of Georgia have been found to produce nearly seven times as much organic matter per unit area as the water of the continental shelf, 20 times as much as the deep sea, and 6 times as much as average wheatland. The same report stated that over 90 per- cent of the harvest of sea foods from waters surrounding the United States is from the continental shelf, and nearly two thirds of that amount consists of species that depend for their existence on the estu- arine zone or must pass through the zone on the way to spawning grounds. Waterfowl and other types of water and marsh-dwelling birds are abundant in the estuarine zone, as are fur animals and other species. The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (1967), in an interim report on its estuarine programs, mentions that 78 of the 312 units in the Na- tional Wildlife Refuge system are coastal installations, of which 42 con- tain significant estuarine areas. In a review of the role of man in estuarine processes, Cronin ( 1967) states that prior to 1950 the effect of human activity probably was un- important and limited largely to silt from agricultural areas and disposal of human wastes. In the past 20 years, however, destruction of estua- rine areas has been accelerated. During this period at least 570,000 acres of estuarine habitat have been lost by dredging and filling. A1- though the data are scattered, they show clearly that the problem war- rants attention. Between 1954 and 1963, an estimated 45,000 acres of tidal wetlands from Maine to Delaware were lost; 20 square miles of Tampa Bay, Florida, have been filled and converted into residential

74 Land Use and Wildlife Resources areas. Of a former 435 square miles in San Francisco Bay, 17 square miles have been reclaimed and 240 square miles are in danger of being reclaimed. Of the original 300 square miles of marsh area surrounding the Bay, 240 square miles have been eliminated. Cronin (1967) stated: Vulnerability to human influence is a characteristic of estuaries. They lie in prox- im~ty to man's terrestrial habitat, produce large quantities of his food supply, and are doorways between the oceans and the land masses. Each receives the impact of many human activities throughout an entire watershed and many are subjected to the most intensive levels of use applied to any marine water areas. Siltation of estuaries is increased by deforestation, flash runoff, and poor agricultural practices. In the Patuxent River, Maryland, for ex- ample, deposits of sediment have accumulated to depths of 40 feet over recent (not fossilized) oyster beds. The Mississippi River carries into the Gulf of Mexico each year enough silt to form 38,000 acres, 3 feet deep. Narrow canalization of the river between high levees in- creases velocity and silt transport so that much of the load is deposited directly in the Gulf rather than in the basin by overflow. Sleighing total economic benefits for the present system against deterioration of the estuarine ecosystem poses a difficult problem. About one third of the population of the United States resides within a Simile coastal border. Most of these people, and many others who live far inland, use recreation facilities along the nation's seashores. The Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission (1962), using information from the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, reported that the shoreline along the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico totals 53,677 statute miles. In addition, Alaska has 33,904 miles of coastline and Hawaii 1,902 miles. Of the marine coasts of the contiguous 48 states, 17,455 miles were considered by the Commission to be recreation shores, but only 753 statute miles were open to the public. This mileage has been increased as a result of the establishment of national seashores and other recreation areas, but public access to much of the coast, whether for hunting, fishing, or other outdoor pur- suits, continues to be severely limited. R ivers and F loodplains Natural drainageways characterize the topography and land-use poten- tial of every part of North America. Flowing water is endlessly useful, uniquely beautiful, and vulnerable in many ways to degradation. Using information of the Geological Survey, Leopold ( 1962) gave a summary description of the nation's riverways:

New Patterns on Land and Water 75 The three million miles of stream channels in the United States vary widely in size and occur in a wide variety of topographic and geologic circumstances. Included in this figure of total length are those high mountain streams epitomizing wilderness beauty, the dirty and trash-filled channels too often coursing through our cities, and the majestic but turbid large rivers flowing in wide valleys of central United States and the flat expanses of the coastal plain. Human interference with the natural dynamics of rivers has been the rule rather than the exception, with far-reaching effects from the height of land to the coastal delta. Peak flows may be reduced by many upstream practices. Land treatments such as contour farming, terracing, reforestation, managed grazing, and other water-conserving practices re- duce runoff. Diversions of river water for human consumption and in- dustrial use and for irrigation of agricultural land are especially impor- tant in reducing river flow. On the other hand, rapid runoff from denuded slopes or from paved urban and highway surfaces increases flooding below the watershed and augments the transport and deposit of silt. In addition to providing habitat for many forms of life, rivers carry the excess of precipitation over evapotranspiration losses from the continents back to sea along with great quantities of sediment, debris, and dissolved materials. Leopold states that slightly more than half of all the materials carried by river water from continent to ocean is dis- solved load. The nature of such dissolved materials, the amount of sedi- ment, water temperature, depth, velocity, and other factors determine, to a great extent, the kinds and numbers of organisms the water will support. Although some of these streams and rivers run through canyons with few or no flood plains, Wooten et al. (1962) state that from 109 to 125 million acres, or between 6 and 7 percent of the land area of the United States, lie in the floodplains of rivers and streams. From earliest times, these overflow lands of river basins have been favored agricultural sites. The sedimentary soils are fertile, except where covered with sand or coarse outwash, but their use has been sub- ject to the acknowledged hazard of flooding. Since rivers and river junctions were commonly the choice sites for early settlement, the buildup of floodplains in cities followed, with recurring damage during times of heavy runoff. The extent of flooding in various sites ranges from high to low, and similarly there is wide variability in the possibili- ties and costs of controlling or mitigating floods. Flood control on some of our major river systems has been a matter of public concern for over a century. Greenshields ( 1964) describes the history of such work in the Mississippi system dating back more than

76 Land Use and Wildlife Resources 150 years. The best-known feature is the construction of some 3,500 miles of levees on the Mississippi and its tributaries. Included also are a growing number of reservoirs on the tributary streams to hold back floodwaters, cutoffs to speed flow down the river, revetment of flood control structures, bank stabilization, dikes, pumping plants, siphons, floodgates, and floodwalls. The magnitude of past and future works on the Mississippi system may be envisioned by the fact that it drains 1,246,605 square miles in 31 states and in 2 provinces of Canada. Since the beginning of this century, flood losses have averaged about $200 million annually, with great variability. Despite the spending of billions of dollars on structural measures since passage of the Flood Control Act of 1936, the yearly cost of destruction by floods has con- tinued to increase (Holmes, 19611. White et al. ( 1958) studied the flood problems of 17 representative urban sites. They estimated that at least 40 percent of the potential annual flood losses of the nation are occurring in the built-up flood- plains of towns and cities. Summarizing estimates of various types of damage costs as a "rough measure of trends," we arrive at the tentative conclusion that at present the damage potential in urban flood plains in the United States is increasing at the rate of about 2.7 per cent per year. When allowance is made for protection works which are reducing all losses at the rate of about 3 per cent per year, the net decrease is about .3 per cent per year. That is, every $6 of potential flood damage reduced each year by new flood pro- tection measures is offset by at least $5 of additional flood damage resulting from growth in the number and value of new residential, commercial, transportational, and industrial structures placed on the flood plains. Inasmuch as structural measures such as retention reservoirs, channel improvements, and levees have failed to halt the rise in flood damages, the use of nonstructural methods should be more fully explored. Be- fore these measures can be used to their greatest advantage, procedures must be developed for determining the optimum combination of mea- sures to apply in a given floodplain and the level of protection each should provide. The use of river overflow lands for agriculture, for example, bears on other uses of such areas and raises pertinent questions: When should a bottomland farmer have high-cost public protection against flood dam- age, and to what extent is this a personal-risk business? Under what conditions can we afford to control floods on floodplains? What future problems are involved in fostering a buildup on bottomlands that will no longer be protected when the reservoirs are silted in?

New Patterns on Land and Water 77 Would forestry, wildlife, and recreation constitute an adequate return from many of these bottomlands without large public investments for flood control? Such questions are the subject of increasing study as the total costs of flood damage and mitigation of flood loss mount. After an appraisal of Famous methods of regulating the use of floodplains, Murphy (1958) concluded that: Results of the extensive field investigation of past and present uses made of channel-encroachment laws, flood-plain zoning provisions, subdivision regulations, building codes, and other methods of flood-plain regulation indicate conclusively that as now applied they do not halt the continued increase of flood losses. The framework of enactment and environment of operation are insufficient to fulfill their publicized and appropriate role in the family of flood-damage-prevention methods. A critical factor in the continued unrealistic and uneconomic man- agement of flood plains is the type of justification being used by the Corps of Engineers for flood control works. This logic counts the savings gained through the protection of anticipated future develop- ments on the floodplain that will be stimulated by the proposed con- struction. This situation has been described by Krutilla (19661: For example, of 59 Corps of Engineers projects authorized by the 1965 Act that were 'justified' wholly or in part by flood control benefits, from 3 to 85~o of the total flood control benefits were accounted for by the expected future invasion of the flood plain. For half of all the projects, the proportion of benefits represented by anticipated future development in the flood plain amounted to over Who. Ap- proximately half of the sin~e-purpose flood control projects would not have been 'justified,' save for the anticipated more intensive use of the flood plain (enhance- ment benefits) stimulated by the flood control projects. In some measure, the acceptance of this kind of rationale appears to constitute an economic feedback for the automatic justification of many "flood control" projects. The continuing growth of floodplain problems was recognized by the Federal Council for Science and Technology Committee on Water Resources, which in 1966 recommended a fivefold increase in research on nonstructural alternatives to flood control. Also, a report by the Task Force on Federal Flood Control Policy outlines some of the prob- lems involved and makes recommendations for action. The related Ex- ecutive Order 1 1296 states: The heads of the executive agencies shall provide leadership in encouraging a broad and unified effort to prevent uneconomic uses and the development of the Nation's

78 Land Use and Wildlife Resources flood plains and, in particular, to lessen the risk of flood losses in connection with Federal lands and installations and federally financed or supported improvements. It is evident that in most communities the natural dynamics of streams and rivers are poorly understood and largely ignored in planning the course of urban development. Further studies and pilot experiments in this field are urgently needed, with such extensive uses as parks, for- estry, and recreation offering alternatives to the vulnerable, high-cost, commercial buildup that creates major problems to be solved at public expense. Relatively few of our rivers have remained in an unpolluted, unde- veloped, wild state. A growing body of public opinion recognizes that the damming of every stream for power or flood control is not desir- able. It is being increasingly recognized that there are many reasons for preserving diversity in the human environment. As part of this thesis, the "wild river" idea has merit. Man-made waters For 200 years, the widespread trend in water management was the reduction of surface waters and the desiccation of moist sites. How- ever, largely within the present century, and with the rapid develop- ment of engineering technology, there has been a contrary trend. The desirability of holding runoff for many uses, and in a variety of situ- ations, has gained recognition. In many regions an aerial view reveals the popularity and significance of water impoundment in systems of land use. Tanks, Ponds, and Small Impoundments Small storage reservoirs, an acre or so in extent and built by private landowners, constitute one of our most important and useful types of water management. Largely in the past 25 years, farmers and ranchers of the United States have built more than 2 million tanks and ponds having a combined surface area approaching that of Lake Ontario (Gambell, 19669. About 60,000 a year are constructed, of which about 10,000 are in authorized flood prevention watersheds and Public Law 566 (Chapter 5) watershed projects. Various government credit and as- sistance programs encourage the building of ponds with technical and direct financial aid. Edminster (1964) predicted that the number of ponds in the nation would rise by another 1.3 million by 1980. Under the stimulus of the Soil Conservation Service, larger ponds are being

New Patterns on Land and Water 79 built, with management emphasis on fish production and recreation. Reports on ponds in the South that are stocked with fish indicate that the percentage ranges from about 60 in Texas to nearly 100 in Ala- bama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. In the upper Great Plains region, ponds, tanks, and dugouts are becoming increasingly important in maintaining waterfowl production in spite of the loss of habitat occasioned by drainage in the prairie pot- hole country (Chapter 51. In land of irregular topography, and near the headwaters of streams, farm ponds and other small impoundments have many practical and esthetic benefits. They furnish water for live- stock, help distribute grazing pressure, store water for household use and irrigation, and offer some protection from floods and fire. A well- managed, landscaped pond adds beauty and value to the farmstead. It utilizes runoff from the farmed watershed and acts as a settling basin for silt. It delays the escape of water from the property, permitting the growing of a fish crop. Farm ponds add significantly to recreational possibilities in the rural scene. Headwater impoundments on streams can be important backstops to larger reservoirs, and they store water to maintain streamflow through dry summers. Relationships between wildlife and small artificial waters are dis- cussed further in Chapter 5. Large Reservoirs A compilation by the U.S. Geological Survey (Martin and Hanson, 1966) revealed that the surface area of 1,562 reservoirs (having at least 5,000 acre-feet of usable storage each), including eight in Hawaii, was 14,831,000 acres. The total storage capacity of these large impound- ments was more than 359 million acre-feet. Half of the states have no natural lakes as large as 10 square miles in area, but more than three fourths have reservoirs of that size or larger, and all have some im- poundments. The surface area of all our artificial reservoirs-more than 23,000 square miles-is nearly double that of the large natural lakes ex- clusive of the Great Lakes. California, Texas, and Colorado have the most reservoirs. On the basis of surface area, Minnesota, Florida, and Texas have the most water acreage of this type. As in the case of natural lakes, these reser- voirs vary widely in depth and in stages of silting. The water level of most is subject to relatively large seasonal changes. Although reservoirs may have the outward appearance of natural lakes, they are so constructed that most of the water is above the lowest outlet and can be released, whereas almost all the water of un

80 Land Use and Wildlife Resources regulated natural lakes is dead storage, or below the level of the outlet. Because of these features, most reservoirs serve several purposes, such as water supply, irrigation, flood control, and power generation. They are becoming increasingly important for recreation, providing a great deal of fishing and boating, and many are resting areas for water- fowl. On the shores of the larger reservoirs, such as those of the Ten- nessee Valley Authority, are state, county, and city parks; commercial fishing camps; resorts and boat docks; private clubs; camps for Boy and Girl Scouts, YMCA and YWCA, church, and educational groups; and lakefront lots for vacation homes. From the standpoint of fish and wildlife, reservoir construction has resulted in drastically changed habitat conditions. Wild rivers have been tamed to the benefit of some species of fish and the detriment of oth- ers, and bottomlands that once were important winter ranges for big game are now covered with water. Water from the reservoirs, when used for irrigation, has converted semidesert country into farm land, which inevitably eliminates some wildlife forms and enables others to multiply. In the case of reservoirs constructed in connection with large-scale multipurpose river basin development, we may note here that, while the purposes to be served will have a terminal economic life, either be- cause the storage reservoirs will silt up or because of the likelihood of eventual technological obsolescence, the damage done to the natural environment through the construction of permanent works is likely to be lasting. Other socioeconomic aspects of reservoir construction and irrigation projects are discussed in Chapter 5. PROB LEMS OF R EMNANT ECOSYSTEMS As might be expected, the extensive changes that have taken place in North American habitats since the time of settlement were largely the result of single-purpose enterprise. They took little account of what was being destroyed, with the result that today only vestiges of certain primitive habitats remain. The near-extinction of many animal species in this century is in most cases the result of eliminating the environ- ment on which such species depended. The pressure for land reclama- tion for human habitation and for agriculture is so great that certain endangered animals and ecosystems could easily be lost entirely unless strong measures are taken.

New Patterns on Land and Water The D isappearing G rasslands 81 On this continent, as in other parts of the world, semiarid grasslands have been particularly vulnerable to deterioration under regimes of heavy grazing or grain cropping. Darling ( 1956) has pointed out that truly nomadic peoples, such as the "Reindeer Lapps and western Asi- atic tribes," have used their extensive pasturelands in a manner similar to naturally adjusted herds of wild ungulates. In comparison, the more intensive exploitation of sedentary cultures has not been ecologically attuned and handled within the limits set by climatic extremes. In North America we probably have no grassland of any appreciable size that is exactly as it was in primitive times. At the least, it has been in- vaded by numerous species of exotic plants. According to that epochal work The Western Range (Forest Service, 1936), the tall grass of the prairie has decreased more than any other range vegetation. Originally this subclimax grassland extended as the "prairie peninsula" eastward into Indiana with outliers to central Ohio. In all, it covered some 252 million acres. Westward, conditions became steadily drier, and in eastern Nebraska the mid-grasses of the true prai- rie became dominant; these, in turn, gave way largely to short grasses on the high plains. Today some of the most fertile farms of North America occupy the tall grass country. A suggestion of what this rich flora was like may still be seen in old cemeteries and along railway rights-of-way in the Midwest. Native prairies, as modified by heavy grazing, still exist in blocks of some thousands of acres in the Nebraska Sandhills and the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas. These soils are obviously unsuited for cultivation. Large marshes of the northern prairies once were nesting grounds for the whooping crane, greater sandhill crane, and trumpeter swan. Prairie chickens occupied nearly all the tall and mixed grasslands, habi- tats that were lost progressively as the native sod was broken. The heath hen of the east coast barrens had disappeared from most of the mainland a century ago and became extinct in the early 1 930's. Other prairie chickens now are greatly reduced and on the endangered list. Probably the tall grass prairies were optimum range, at least for the greater prairie chicken, but today the bulk of remaining habitat is in the mixed grass region, where the land is too sandy or hilly to farm. Other components of the grassland fauna have been decimated. The bison and wolf are gone, and the pronghorn is largely restricted to intermountain grasslands and brushlands. The huge flights of eskimo

82 Land Use and Wildlife Resources curlews that migrated northward in spring across the prairies disap- peared late in the nineteenth century as a result of unrestricted shoot- ing, and the species may well be extinct. Extensive control operations and the breaking up of grasslands led to widespread decline of the black-tailed prairie dog and also its most dependent predator, the never abundant black-footed ferret. Efforts are being made by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, and others to preserve the ferret and its prey as part of the quasiprimitive ecosystem in parks and natural areas. The Gulf coastal prairie, including the part in Texas that supports remaining populations of the endemic and endangered Attwater prairie chicken, is undergoing extensive conversion to agriculture (especially grain sorghum and cotton) and grazing. Lehmann's ( 1 941 ) early surveys of the Attwater prairie chicken indicated that the area it occupied in Texas in 1937 totaled less than half a million acres, as compared with an original range of some 6 mil- lion acres of coastal bluestem (Andropogorl) prairie. He also considered the encroachment of mesquite, live oak, various acacias, and other kinds of brush (held in check by prairie fires in earlier times) to be an important factor in degrading habitat. He believed that overgrazing, es- pecially during drought years, speeded the transformation of grassland into brush jungles. By 1936 more than 2 million acres of former prairie chicken range were in cultivation, and thousands of acres of sod were being plowed annually, especially to extend rice farming. Pasture mow- ing, oil development, drainage, overhunting, and uncontrolled pasture burning were other factors listed as detrimental. The Attwater prairie chicken once was common from southwestern Louisiana southward to the Nueces River in Texas. It had disappeared from Louisiana by about 1919 (Lehmann, 1968), and the total re- maining population numbered about 8,700 birds in 1939. Another survey by Lehmann in 1967 revealed that in 30 years the regularly oc- cupied habitat had shrunk to less than a quarter of a million acres, and the population had declined to about 1,070 birds. Lehmann pointed out, however, that conditions are not hopeless for this species, and efforts on its behalf exemplify the possibilities in co- operation among agencies. Texas still has a "seed stock" and more than a million acres that can support more of these birds. Public interest in restoration is high. On Ellington Air Force Base a population of more than 100 chickens represents a hazard to air traffic; the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wild- life are transplanting these to vacant ranges. The World Wildlife Fund

New Patterns on Land and Water 83 purchased 3,400 acres in the heart of the important prairie chicken range in Colorado County in 1965. In 1967, by a gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Tatton of Corpus Christi, 7,000 acres were added to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. With technical guidance available, some land- owners are willing to manage these birds at their own expense. To this end, renewed research efforts are now under way The Attwater prairie chicken program illustrates the kind of or- ganized effort that will be necessary if other endangered habitats and wildlife are to be salvaged on at least a token basis. Tal I B rush of the R lo G rande In the valley of the Rio Grande River a subtropical ecosystem unique in the United States has been reduced through clearing and cultivation to less than a thousand acres. This semiarid type, characterized by a mixture of tall shrubs, harbors no species of wildlife threatened with extinction, but it supports within our borders a peripheral community of Mexican species that is well on the way to being lost. Included among these are the northern chachalaca, northern white-fronted dove, northern groove-billed and, Merrill's pauraque, northeastern elegant trogon, northeastern rose-throated becard, northern green jay, northern white-collared seedeater, and perhaps a dozen other birds. Mammals ranging northward from Mexico into this part of Texas include the jaguar, jaguarundi, coatimundi, ocelot, and margay. It may be said of most such remnant ecosystems that relatively few people see them and they will contribute little in the way of mass public benefits. This usually is true also of alternative uses for the land they occupy-in this case, more fields of vegetables and citrus groves. It probably is public business if a sample of primitive biota anywhere is to be preserved for longterm casual use. Such historic and biological landmarks help to maintain the character of a locality. More broadly, their service to science and intellectually curious minorities probably helps to assure the integrity of our heterogeneous society. In a degree these are abstract and sophisticated viewpoints, but such terms of ref- erence must be considered admissible if our resource management context is not to be completely utilitarian. Florida Everglades The everglades are a tropical wetland extending over southern Florida from Lake Okeechobee to the tip of the peninsula. Congress recog

84 Land Use and Wildlife Resources nized the unique character of this biologically rich combination of ecosystems in 1947 by establishing Everglades National Park. It is our third largest ( 1.4 million acres) national park and is visited by more than a million people a year. This vast and variable wilderness of estuaries, lagoons and sloughs, coastal prairies, sawgrass glades, hammocks, cypress islands, mangrove swamps, and pine forests harbors many rare and vanishing species of birds and other wildlife. Nearly extinct birds include the everglades kite, Cape Sable sparrow, great white heron, roseate spoonbill, reddish egret, wood ibis, pink ibis, and southern bald eagle. Rare mammals in- clude the manatee, Florida water rat, and everglades mink. A few American crocodiles still are found there, and the glades are one of the principal remaining habitats of the alligator. As a major and irreplaceable wilderness, the Florida everglades prob- ably present the most serious and urgent preservation problem facing the nation. The prime question is one of water supply and progressive changes in the hydrology of central and southern Florida over the past century. If it is to survive in approximately the natural state that justi- fied its establishment as a national park, the conditions that brought about this finely adjusted ecosystem must be maintained. A National Park Service research plan (Robertson et al., 1966) describes the situation well: For centuries the sheet of fresh water moving southward over the Everglades from Lake Okeechobee, flowed through sawgrass areas of the Park and entered the Gulf of Mexico through a labyrinth of mangrove-lined rivers and creeks. Where fresh water flowing out of the Everglades merged with salt water of the Gulf, a shifting zone of brackish water up to 12 miles wide has developed. The width of the brackish zone is dependent on the quantity of fresh water flowing seaward from the land, and hence is greatest in wet years and very restricted during drouth. The estuarine zone referred to is well known as a rich nursery ground for many important marine fishes, including the menhaden, black mullet, spotted sea trout, snook, tarpon, and pompano. The same is true of the pink shrimp, the most important commercial fishery of the state. The Institute of Marine Science has carried out studies showing that great reductions of fish, mollusks, and other aquatic organisms oc- cur with the reduction of freshwater flow and the buildup of salinity. Such changes have occurred with increasing frequency and in greater degree in recent years. Longterm flood control and agricultural recla- mation operations, including diversion canals to carry water directly to the sea. have steadily changed the character of the region north of the

New Patterns on Land and Water 85 park and altered natural water relationships. A 5-year drought from 1961 to 1965 brought desiccation and near destruction to the glades. In 1966 it was estimated that the surviving alligator population was not more than 5 percent of that present before 1960. Bird rookeries failed; freshwater fish survived only in deep holes; cypress domes and bayheads were destroyed; and other plant types were jeopardized. The fact that the park received no water through the gates in the Tamiami Trail accentuated the natural shortage and produced the greatest emer- gency of this kind in history (Craighead, 19661. The drought was broken by rains in May and June 1965, and in 1966 a June hurricane brought water levels up to capacity. The recov- ery of aquatic food organisms and the creatures dependent on them was slow, with signs of permanent changes in evidence. With the buildup of human populations and the competing uses for water, the biota of the park has become critically vulnerable to drought, and it may likewise suffer damage through the rapid release of water in times of flood. Problems have multiplied since the creation by Congress of the Central and South Florida Flood Control District in 1948. This agency, the Corps of Engineers, and the National Park Service are now coordinating studies of water control and allocation problems in the hope that adequate provision can be made for the everglades, in which a nationwide public interest has become manifest. Except for this interest, the march of "progress" in southern Florida would quickly overwhelm and obliterate an area that easily qualifies as one of the bio- logical wonders of the New World. Preservation of Natural Areas Although many values may be claimed for setting aside undisturbed areas, a single overriding purpose probably would be sufficient justifi- cation for establishing a carefully guarded national system of this kind. The study of biotic communities is being steadily refined. Natural re- lationships of living things represent the most elaborate and orderly systems of the universe, and for the foreseeable future much is to be learned from them. It would be poor resource and science strategy to destroy the remaining check areas and controls against which our land- use enterprises can be measured and judged. In conformity with this concept, and also to help implement the participation of the United States in the International Biological Pro- gram, a Committee on Research Natural Areas has been established in the federal government. It includes representation from the Forest Ser

86 Land Use and Wildlife Resources vice, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. The committee will prepare a directory to protected research reserves on federal lands and will encourage the establishment of new areas needed for research and education. Among the lands and waters administered by the agencies mentioned, a wide variety of natural or near-natural ecosystems occur and can be pre- served. It is recognized that these have value as pools of genetic ma- terial in its primitive forms. It is encouraging that the American public is becoming increasingly aware of the need to identify, establish, and protect natural areas wher- ever they may still be found. Contributions to this end are being made by public agencies, private organizations, and informed individuals. In March 1966, Assistant Secretary Stanley A. Cain of the Depart- ment of the Interior established an ad hoc Natural Areas Committee in that department. Agencies of other departments administering federally owned land were invited to attend the committee meetings. One of the results was publication in 1967 by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture of a federal directory of natural areas. If of national significance, such areas qualify for registration under the Natural Landmarks Program of the National Park Service. The most important step in this field was made in 1964 with passage by the Congress of the Wilderness Act. This act established a national system for protecting the primitive features of qualifying areas of the national forests, parks, and wildlife refuges. Under other legislation, parts of the public domain may be considered for wilderness classifi- cation. With certain exceptions, units of the wilderness system are 5,000 acres or more in size. The Wilderness Act provided for a lengthy and somewhat unwieldy review process for adding new units. It also sanctioned the continuation of grazing and other established noncon- forming uses on wilderness areas. Improvements in the system may well be in order as a result of the work of the Public Land Law Review Commission. In 1967, the various states purchased 201,000 acres of land and water with assistance from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. They acquired an estimated 153,000 acres under the federal aid to wildlife and fisheries acts, the Open Space Program of the Depart- ment of Housing and Urban Development, and the Greenspan Program of the Department of Agriculture. Most of these tracts would not qual- ify as natural areas in the primitive sense, but some are of high quality and will steadily improve through natural processes if left undisturbed. Their preservation for public conservation and recreation purposes

New Patterns on Land and Water 87 helps to protect them from the encroachment of urban development, highways, airports, and similar uses. Private organizations such as the Nature Conservancy, the National Audubon Society, the Natural Area Council, and World Wildlife Fund are playing a highly significant role in saving endangered remnants of our primitive ecosystems. They are able to take options and make other moves quickly as may be required by circumstances in which government action is often too little and too late. Areas privately ac- quired often are conveyed in due course to units of local, state, or fed- eral government for longterm administration. As an outstanding ex- ample of the cooperative effort being made in this field, the Nature Conservancy has a $6-million line of credit from the Ford Foundation for immediate use in making critical land purchases for the executive branch of the federal government. This is one answer to the problem of escalating land prices in public projects. PUBLIC LANDS FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES A great ideal of the first settlers of North America was to build homes on land that was their own. They knew well the conditions in Europe where the Crown and a privileged nobility held great tracts and com- moners little or nothing. The right of the individual to own land was, from the first, one of the primary reasons for risking one's future in the New World. As a natural consequence of this viewpoint, soon after the colonies were united as a nation, the government embarked on a program to give away or sell all of its public lands. It was an unprecedented pro- gram. Between 1781 and 1963, the United States Government disposed of 1,143,800,000 acres (Orell, 19651. Small wonder that the expression "doing a land office business" was coined to describe booming activity. Mass disposal of land in the public domain to private citizens, cor- porations, and states resulted in rapid settlement and development across the nation. Sale of public land brought some financial support to the young federal government but less than had been anticipated by the Congress. Rushes of land-hungry settlers onto tracts ceded by tribes of Indians, and range wars over possession and use of vast areas of grazing lands in the West, made colorful pages in our history. Notwithstanding the general policy of public land disposal, it be- came clear early in our history that certain areas of land and water would sometimes need to be kept in public ownership to serve com

88 Land Use and W ildlife Resources mon needs of the citizens. By 1 81 7, Congress had empowered the President to withdraw areas from entry for ad hoc purposes, such as roads, military posts, and lighthouses. An act of 1832 authorized res- ervations having extraordinary natural features, and later the authority was broadened to include other objectives (Orell, 19651. Following the rise of the conservation movement led by Theodore Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot, the Congress was encouraged to permit the reacquisition of lands by purchase or gift from private and corpo- rate owners. Since 1900 numerous acts have resulted in extensive land acquisition by the federal government and by state and local govern- ments for many uses. By 1964 some 916 million acres were owned as public property or held in trust-about 39 percent of the total land area in the 50 states. The federal government owned 770 million acres (34 percent of the total land area) and held 50 million acres (2 percent) in trust for Indians; state governments owned 78 million acres (3 per- cent); and local governments owned 18 million acres (less than l per- cent). Undoubtedly, some land will continue to be acquired by public agencies both for new projects and to block out areas now owned. However, compared with existing acreage, the additions will not be substantial. Many of the lands now administered by federal agencies have been transfers from the public domain. For the future, it is likely that most acquisitions will be in the East, and those in the West will be more than offset by the transfer of lands now under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management to state and private ownership. The extent to which the 480 million acres of the public domain will remain in federal ownership or be transferred to the states or other in- terests may depend upon recommendations to the Congress by the Public Land Law Review Commission This commission studied ex- isting statutes and regulations as well as policies and practices of ad- ministrative agencies relative to the retention, management, and dis- position of federal lands. In addition, data were compiled as necessary to determine and understand the present and future demands on areas in public ownership. Wildlife as a public resource is likely to be most intensively managed and made most easily available on public lands of various categories: federal, state, county, and city. The largest area of public land is the remainder of the public domain administered by the Bureau of Land Management. For the most part, this is low-value grazing land that can, in many areas, be made more useful to the public by managing it for recreation. All land-holding

New Patterns on Land and Water 89 agencies of the federal government are giving recognition to this kind of public demand, and a similar trend is growing in state and local gov ernments. As a basic recreational resource, wildlife is featured as a by product of forestry and grazing, and it is a primary objective in certain lands set aside as parks or managed refuges. The developing technology by which uses are integrated for maximum benefits is examined in the next chapter. REFERENCES Beltz, R. C., and J. F. Christopher. 1967. Land clearing in the delta region of Mississippi, 1957-67 (research note S0-69~. U.S. Forest Service, Washington, D.C. Bue, C. D. 1963. Principal lakes of the United States. U.S. Geol. Surv. Circ. 476. 22 p. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. 1967. Estuarine programs-interim report. U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 29 p. Bureau of the Census. 1962b. Graphic summary of land utilization (oh. 1, part 64. In U.S. census of agriculture, 1959: Special reports. Vol. 5. U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. Bureau of the Census, 1966. Farms and land in farms (ch. 1~. In U.S. census of agriculture, 1964. Vol. 2. U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C. Cameron, W. M., and D. W. Pritchard. 1963. Estuaries, p. 306-324, Vol. 2. In M. N. Hill fed.), The sea. John Wiley ~ Sons, New York. Clawson, M. 1959. Changing patterns of land use in the West, p. 217-228. In F. S. Pollak (ed.), Resources development: frontiers for research. University of Colo- rado Press, Boulder. Craighead, F. C. 1966. Further observations on the effects of the closure of the culverts along the Flamingo Highway on plants and wildlife. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. Cronin, L. E.1967. The role of man in estuarine processes, p. 667-689. In G. H. Lauff ted.), Estuaries (AAAS Publ. 83~. American Association for the Advance- ment of Science, Washington, D.C. Dahlen, J. H., and D. R. Thompson. 1955. Wisconsin wetlands and their impor- tance. Wis. Conserv. Bull. 20(1): 9- 12. Darling, F. F. 1956. Man's ecological dominance through domesticated animals on wild lands, p. 778-787. In W. L. Thomas (ed.), Man's role in changing the face of the earth. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Economic Research Service. 1966. The balance sheet of agriculture, 1966. Agr. Inf. Bull. 314. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. Economic Research Service. 1968a. Farm costs and returns, commercial farms, by type, size, and location. Agr. Inf. Bull. 230. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. Economic Research Service. 1968b. Major uses of land and water in United States with special reference to agriculture, summary for 1964. Agr. Econ. Rep. 149.

so Land Use and Wildlife Resources U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washing- ton, D.C. Edminster, F. C.1964. Farms, ponds and waterfowl, p. 399-407. In Waterfowl tomorrow. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1936. The western range. Senate Doc. 199,74th Cong.,2d Sess. U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington, D.C. Freeman, O. L., and I. L.13ennett, Jr. 1969. Control of agriculture-related pollu- tion. Report to the President by the Secretary of Agriculture and Director, Office of Science and Technology. 102 p. Gambell, E. L. 1966. Two million farm ponds backstop America's streams, p. 48- 55. In Soil Conserv. Soc. Amer., Proc. 21st Annul Meeting. Greenshields, E. L. 1964. Water has a key role, p. 72-96. In Farmer's world. The yearbook of agriculture 1964. U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. Govern- ment Printing Office, Washington, D.C. Haik, R. A. 1957. Water, habitat, and wildlife. Conserv. Volunteer 20: 1-5. Hart, C. M., B. Glading, and H. T. Harper. 1956. The pheasant in California. In D. L. Allen (ed.), Pheasants in North America. Wildlife Management Institute, Washington, D.C. Holmes, R. C. 1961. Composition and size of flood losses, p. 7-20. In G. F. White (ed.), Papers on flood problems. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Krutilla, J. V. 1966. Is public intervention in water resources development con- ducive to economic efficiency? Reprint 56, Jan. Nat. Resour. J. 6: 60-75. Resources for the Future, Inc., Washington, D.C. Lehmann, V. W.1941. Attwater's prairie chicken, its life history and management. U.S. Fish and Wildl. Serv., N. -Amer. Fauna 57. 65 p. Lehmann, V. W.1968. The Attwater prairie chicken, current status and restoration opportunities, p. 398-407. In 33d N. Amer. Wildl. and Natur. Resour. Conf. Trans. Leopold, L. B. 1962. Rivers. Amer. Sci. 50~4~:511-537. McGee, G. W.1960. Water resources developments: key to tomorrow. Western Re- sources Conf. paper. University of Colorado Press, Boulder. Martin, R. O. R., and R. L. Hanson. 1966. Reservoirs in the United States. U.S. Geol. Surv. Water-Supply Paper 1838. 115 p. Murphy, F. C. 1958. Regulating flood-plain development. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 204 p. Nelson, D. 1961; Resource and metropolitan sprawl, p. 77-89. In H. L. Amoss and R. K. McNickle (ed.), Land and water: planning for economic growth. Univer- sity of Colorado Press, Boulder. 219 p. Orell, B. L. 1965. Government land acquisition. American Forest Products Industry, Washington, D.C. Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission. 1962. Shoreline recreation resources of the United States. ORRRC Study, Rep. 4. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. President's Science Advisory Committee, Environmental Pollution Panel. 1965. Restoring the quality of our environment. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 317 p.

New Patterns on Land and Water 91 Regan, M. M., and H. M. Wooten. 1963. Land use trends and urbanization, p. 59- 63. In A place to live. The yearbook of agriculture 1963. U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. Robertson, W. B., Jr., G. Sprugel, Jr., and L. Sumner. 1966. Everglades National Park natural sciences research plan. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. Shaw, S. P., and C. G. Fredine. 1956. Wetlands of the United States. U.S. Fish and Wildl. Circ. 39. 67 p. U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1 962a. Basic statistics of the national inventory of soil and water conservation needs. Statist. Bull. 3 17. Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1 962b. Land and water resources, a policy guide. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 73 p. U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1965. Soil and water conservation needs, a na- tional inventory. Misc. Publ. 971. Washington, D.C. 94 p. Vlasin, R. D. 1963. Highways and adjustments in farms, p. 479-488. Ir' A place to live. The yearbook of agriculture 1963. U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. White, G. F., W. C. Calef, J. W. Hudson, H. M. Mayer, J. R. Sheaffer, and D. J. yolk. 1958. Changes in urban occupance of flood plains in the United States. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 235 p. Wingard, R. G., and M. R. Heddleson. (n.d.) Conservation-living in harmony with land. Pennsylvania State University, University Park. Wooten, H. H., K. Gertel, and W. C. Pendleton. 1962. Major uses of land and water in the United States, summary for 1959. Agr. Econ. Rep. 13. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. Yeager, L. E., J. B. Low, and H. J. Figge. 1956. Pheasants in the arid Southwest, p. 159-203. In D. L. Allen (ed.), Pheasants in North America. Wildlife Manage- ment Institute, Washington, D.C.

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