systems downstream are made in the field and in hydraulic laboratories. Records of thousands of flood events and associated precipitation are obtained from research watersheds across the country on a continuing basis and subjected to analysis and interpretation to identify the factors affecting floods and their control. An ongoing study on the Washita River in Oklahoma and Texas is of particular significance in respect to flood control. An 80-mile reach of the Washita River channel has been selected for careful study of flow regimes and channel stability in association with the application of land treatment measures and in construction of floodwater detention reservoirs in the river basin. This is the first and only research in the country specifically oriented toward determining the relationships between flow regimes downstream and various soil and water conservation activities in upstream agricultural watersheds.

2. Water supply prediction and management. ARS research is the primary source of information about the impacts of agricultural land use and management practices upon water resources. Information is derived from research watersheds in selected major land resource areas where studies are made of factors affecting water supply, such as: precipitation patterns; evapotranspiration; infiltration, storage and movement of water in soils; transmission characteristics of geologic formations; streamflow gains and losses in channels; and hydrodynamics of stream channel systems. Development of mathematical models of watershed hydrology useful in evaluating the impacts of alternative land use and management schemes upon the supply of surface and ground water is the prime objective of this research.

3. Erosion and sediment control. This research includes basic studies of erosion mechanics and the transportation and deposition of sediment; sediment sources and delivery in relation to erosion processes and watershed characteristics; rates and processes of reservoir sedimentation; movement and transportation of pesticides, plant nutrients, heavy metals, and nuclear fallout radiation adsorbed on sediment; potentials of sediment for scavenging chemicals in water; complicities of sediment in eutrophication of streams, ponds and lakes; and development and evaluation of land use practices and other measures for controlling land eroison and associated sedimentation.

4. Water control structures and stream channel stabilization. This research includes the hydraulic design of spillways and outlet works for farm ponds and flood detention and other water control reservoirs; hydraulics of grass waterways and stream channel systems; aggradation and degradation of stream channels; processes of streambank erosion; design of drop structures for channel gradient control; and field testing and evaluation of means and measures for streambank erosion control.

5. Water quality enhancement. Research is conducted on the pathways, fate and control of pesticides in soil, water and plants; pathways and disposition of plant nutrients occurring naturally in soils and added by chemical fertilizers, decaying organic matter and other sources to minimize nutrient enrichment of water; management and disposal of animal wastes without damaging water resources; reduction of salinity in irrigation return flow through improved irrigation and drainage practices for greater water use efficiency and development of crop plants and trees having greater salt tolerance; development of practices for soil erosion control and reduction of sediment delivery to streams, reservoirs, estuaries and harbors; land disposal of effluent from industrial processing of food and other agricultural products; and renovation and reclamation of effluent from sewage treatment plants by disposal on the land and in basins for ground water recharge.

6. Drainage. Research is conducted toward improvement of drainage systems for agricultural lands. Included in the research are considerations, such as: tolerance of various economic crops to time and duration of inundation and fluctuating water tables; drainage requirements for optimum crop growth; relation of soil moisture and trafficability of soils; patterns of water flow and nutrient movements in soil; spacing, depth and gradients of surface and subsurface drains; new materials and installation techniques to reduce the cost of subsurface drainage systems; pumping for drainage and water table control; and innovations for control or management of plant nutrients and salinity in drainage effluents. 7. Irrigation. This research is for the development of principles, methods, materials, and information needed to increase irrigation water use efficiency. The studies are carried out in both arid and humid regions under a wide range of agricultural and climatic conditions. Aspects of the subject under investigation include: water and fertility requirements of crops and grasses; effects of irrigation water quality and management upon crop quality; infiltration, storage and movement

of water in soils; scheduling of irrigations according to crop requirements and intervening climatic patterns; automation of irrigation systems, including gates, water measurement, and other devices to start and stop the application of irrigation water when and as needed by crops; subsurface materials and methods for applying irrigation water; use of effluent from agricultural processing plants, in municipalities and other sources of waste water for irrigation; and the movement of plant nutrients and salts through soils, ground water, and return flow from irrigated areas.

8. Salinity control. This research includes studies of the tolerance of principal economic crops to salts under different climatic and management conditions; development of salt-tolerant plants; effects of various irrigation waters on the chemical and physical properties of soils; water requirements and methods for leaching salts from soils for various crops; salinization of streams and ground waters by solution from natural deposits; and development of soil-water-plant management systems to minimize salinity levels of irrigation return flow.

9. Fish and wildlife preservation. The Agricultural Research Service carries on several lines of research contributing to enhancement of fish and wildlife habitat. Research in this area includes: prediction and control of reservoir silting; control of pesticides and plant nutrients in soil and water; stream channel stabilization and other erosion control; hydraulic design of spillways and water control structures; and technology for forecasting streamflow rates and amounts.

Mr. GUDE. On page 7, Mr. Bagley, you stated in the last paragraph that

It is the conviction of NACD that watershed projects contribute much to the enhancement of the environment. The projects reduce erosion and sedimentation; they prevent floods; they provide new recreation areas; they impound water for boating, fishing, and swimming; they create new fish and wildlife habitat; they improve agriculture and forest management; and they beautify the land

scape.

I can see the possible flood prevention effectiveness in certain areas, although there has been some evidence that where a flood has been prevented in one area the techniques have merely resulted in creating flood conditions in another area downstream. I can certainly understand that SCS impoundments would also reduce recreational facilities for boating, fishing, and swimming. But do you know of specific projects where new fish and wildlife habitat has been developed, or where forest management has been enhanced, by SCS projects outside of those created by impoundments?

Mr. BAGLEY. Yes; I can cite one, Cotile Reservior project, which is just north of Alexandria, La., where they have a beautiful project. They have park areas that have been established and camping areas. They have a traffic there of, oh, thousands upon thousands of people who come in with their trailers and campers and stay for weeks at a time in the planned area itself

Mr. GUDE. That is an impoundment area, where SCS created an artificial lake?

Mr. BAGLEY. Right. It is in the hill section of our State. The local people went between the hills and put in a water retarding structure there, and they did not clear all of the land back away from the general impoundment area. The uncleared tributaries that run up through the woods are some of the finest fishing in this comtry.

Mr. GUDE. I recognize that when you create an impoundment with the appropriate overflow, you are developing a recreation site for boating, fishing, and swimming. But what I would like to know is, in the other types of projects such as channelization or drainage projects, where can you demonstrate the specific creation or enhancement of fish and wildlife habitat or forest preserves?.

62-365-71-pt. 3-8

Mr. BAGLEY. Well, of course, if it is just direct channelization in the flat lands, we don't have an opportunity there to impound much water. But I would think that after the healing of the particular channelization and all of that, and after it gets its cover back and the brush or the growth on the banks becomes established, I would not think that it would deter or hamper the wildlife and fisheries aspect of the project at all. I think these aspects would be just as good as they were before, and in some instances where there is a little more water left in these channels than there was before where before they would dry up and all-it would be a better wildlife habitat.

Mr. GUDE. Well, I wonder if the other gentlemen on the panel who represent several of the States could comment on this question. In your judgment, considering your State, can you point to channelization and drainage projects where there has been enhancement or development of new fish and wildlife habitat or forest preserves as a result of SCS projects? Or conversely, has there been a net loss of fish and wildlife habitat and forest preserves as a result of SCS channelization and drainage projects?

Mr. FRYE. I can comment just briefly. I think there have been some situations where we in Florida have changed marshland habitats into terrestial habitats. Where you used to have ducks, now you have quail. But in very few of these do we think the overall value-if this is our point has been made greater. I just am not familiar with any where I feel like the gains have outweighed the losses.

Mr. GUDE. In other words, you put the balance on the side of the losses when you look at forest preserves and fish and wildlife habitat? Mr. FRYE. Generally. But there are certainly some specific areas-I know that some drainage, for example, in some of our wet pine lands, where if you get the water off of them they grow better pine trees. There is no question about this. Just like they grow better corn, or whatever it would be.

Mr. GUDE. Well, that would be an agricultural benefit in a sense.
Mr. FRYE. Yes.

Mr. GUDE. That is a forest management benefit.
Mr. FRYE. Yes, sir; this is true. Yes, sir.

Mr. FROST. I might cite a couple of examples in Ohio. On the matter of beautification and replanting, Soil Conservation Service recently purchased and planted some 30,000 shrubs and trees for one of the channel improvement projects in an effort to get a start at rehabilitation of the channel banks, et cetera. And this was in a very controversial project.

In another area, at the request of the State of Ohio's Department of Natural Resources itself, rather than to see a very beautiful valley here improved by channel modification, the Soil Conservation Service made, as a part of the work plan, the actual acquisition of the flood plain. The State of Ohio had agreed to put $1 million into this to purchase the flood plain in lieu of the channel improvement project and to let it flood, but to use it then for low risk recreation or just natural area benefits.

But we are running into quite a bit of opposition on that from the landowners who would like to see it improved. As a result, the department is not going to approve the project.

I think as far as fish life is concerned, experiences of our game and fish people show that there has not been any evidence of improvement

of fishing in channelized projects; and they are very much concerned that this creates a loss to fish resources.

Mr. GUDE. Generally there is a loss to fishery resources?

Mr. FROST. Yes, sir. They have indicated anywhere from 70 to 90 percent loss.

Mr. GUDE. And I believe one witness testified about the loss in waterfowl-was it Mr. Turcotte?

Mr. TURCOTTE. In general the fishery habitat has deteriorated up to 90 percent as a result of channelizing streams, and principal benefits as far as enhancements are concerned, have been agricultural due to the conversion of wetlands and removal of bottom hardwoods. And the only benefit that we have observed is that some of the wetlands planted to soybeans, if they do have occasion to be re-flooded, furnish some winter food for ducks. But the waterfowl hunting provided does not offset the value of deer, turkey, squirrel and other kinds of hunting associated with bottomland hardwoods that were removed. Mr. GUDE. So you would say, as in the case of fish habitat, that there has been a loss-an overall loss in wildlife?

Mr. TURCOTTE. In the streams that have been channelized. There is also a considerable amount of damage caused by channelization itself, and it comes from agriculture or farming directly up to the channel banks. It is probably going to cost a lot to go back and try to stabilize the channels that have already been built. In fact, the Corps of Engineers is presently developing a plan for the Yazoo Basin which they call bank stabilization. We are in the process of reviewing that plan and the environmental statement in connection. with it, and they are asking for about $43 million to stabilize the banks and channels of the streams that they have already channelized. Mr. GUDE. That is the Corps of Engineers?

Mr. TURCOTTE. Yes, and they point out in detail the problems associated with bank caving and sedimentation, and they are having to go back and plan to correct the problems associated with, or caused by, channelization due to increased velocity of flow and other things; and the more sedimentation they are getting in the channels, as a result of the increased amount of land leveling and completely mechanized farming where the delta country there, can almost be turned over completely a million and a half acres in about 2 weeks' time. The land is being leveled and runoff tied in with these SCS channels. A problem is being created that is going to have to be solved by riprapping or some kind of treatment to stabilize these channels; or if they build more, to add more water and more velocity, they will either have to enlarge the channels or stabilize the ones they have got.

Mr. GUDE. Didn't you mention the flood prevention activity in north Mississippi?

Mr. TURCOTTE. Yes, sir; it was one of, if not the first, Flood Prevention Act programs located in north-central Mississippi, there was in the Nation, I believe. And a lot of good was done by reforestation and erosion control.

Mr. GUDE. What techniques did they use there?

Mr. TURCOTTE. They started out with tree planting, erosion control of gullied out land, hill lands.

Mr. GUDE. You mean like grass, waterways?

Mr. TURCOTTE. Small impoundments similar to the watershed flood control impoundments. And a lot of this work was done, and more recently channelization was added to it.

Mr. GUDE. Thank you very much. I have no more questions.

Mr. INDRITZ. The chairman has been called to the floor and he has asked me to express his very sincere thanks to you all for your very helpful and informative statements, and to assure you that all of your statements will be very carefully considered by the subcommittee.

If any of you have any supplemental material to include in the record it will be welcome. The record will remain open for 10 days. The hearing will be recessed now, and will reconvene on Monday, June 14.

On behalf of the chairman of the committee, thank you all very, very much.

(Whereupon, at 12:30 p.m., the subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., Monday, June 14, 1971.)