Floods and What They Mean

FLOODS AND WHAT THEY MEAN By George Stewart, Agronomist, Utah Agricultural Experiment Station Everybody who has passed through Farmington or Willard since mid-August knows that a flood is a disaster. There are three pain- ful results from this sort of happening: (1) destruction of life, (2) destruction of property, and (3) destruction of personal or com- munity pride and ambition. All three aspects were clearly visible in the recent flood. Most appalling of all was the destruction of life. Newspapers have covered so completely this horrible aspect of the recent catastrophe that practically everybody knows the details. A general statement that a dozen persons were killed by flood, by fire, or by coal damp moves us, but it does not stir us to actual realization until calamity visits our own friends or relatives. Probably half the people who shall read this article were acquainted with the families of at least one of those whose life was lost. In the end, however, we are most deeply touched by the troubles near at hand. Thus, the recent flood has a new and personal meaning to the people of Utah. The second result of floods, the destruction of property, is by no means insignificant. Governor Mabey called for subscriptions amounting to $75,000 and recommended that this money be dis- tributed in the proportion of two-thirds for Willard and one-third for Farmington. I visited the damaged district at Farmington five days after the flood and felt convinced that $25,000 would not cover more than 40 per cent, possibly not more than 30 per cent, of the property damage alone. In Farmington there were six homes badly damaged of which the Ford home is probably fairly typical. The house faced squarely against the flood front as it poured out of a ravine. The fences were carried down the field, the lawn buried under six or eight feet of debris, and the porch filled with gravel and mud. I saw a wrecking crew salvaging a phonograph, upholstered couch and chairs. They also carried out book cases and bed springs through a hole in the front wall. The piano was to come next. It had been completely immersed, save about six inches of the upright top, for 120 hours. Now, water loosens glue and rusts fine wire to such an extent that the piano must have been a discouraging sight when it was finally lifted to dry air. Another house on the north edge of town was undermined on one side and half of it carried away. The other half was left with the lean-to part of the roof extending as if to embrace the absent member. A woman of the most dejected appearance sat near a

24 IMPROVEMENT ERA Upper: Ford Home, Farmington, Five Days After the Flood Lower: On the Ford Property, Fence Moved 40 Rods Down the Field. A Hay Rack, Farm Wagon, and an Automobile, Were Washed Down and Nearly Buried. Note that the Hay Stack Has Been Split into Three Parts.

FLOODS AND WHAT THEY MEAN 25 corner of the remnant. It was indeed a pitiful sight; but the worst was over. Just in front of the lot on the main Salt Lake-Ogden highway had been previously found the body of Mrs. Wright, who with her husband had been camping in Farmington canyon. Right here had passed one of the great currents. The debris deposit was not great for rock had been dropped above at the mouth of the canyon and the mud had been carried down to lower land. Alto- gether, about 170 acres of farming land was covered, of which 65 acres was so heavily strewn with immense boulders and buried so deeply as to be irreclaimable. Considerable of these 65 acres was high-priced truck and orchard land, and varied in value from $200 to $500 an acre, besides the growing crop. In two or three cases, bearing orchards were almost completely destroyed, one on the Rice homestead being half buried, that is, many of the lower branches as well as the tree trunks were covered. Besides the boulder-strewn area, 105 acres were spread over with mud varying in depth from 3 feet to a few inches. When I walked across these fields, the mud was just beginning to dry. It was then apparent that it consisted of gravel, sand and clay mixed in all sorts of proportions but so entirely lacking in organic matter as to be of very low crop-producing value. The most optimistic agriculturist could not possibly anticipate, where this debris was deep, that less than from four to five years would restore it to anything like its pre- vious yielding power. Much of this land will not in this generation grow the crops it once did. The farmers who are in the trucking business will find an immense difference between the black loam ot last summer and the inert gravel, sand, and clay of next. Of course, on many acres, the flood blanket is so shallow that it can all be turned under at the first plowing. Here the damage to land, is much less than where the fertile previous surface cannot be reached with the plow. At Willard, twenty homes were injured and probably twice as much land as in Farmington. Certainly the boulder-strewn area of farming land is more than twice as large, though the total outwash of Farmington creek was considerably greater. It merely happened that most of the boulders were deposited before the flood reached the pro- ductive land and the town. Then there is the loss of this year's crop. Orchards partly de- stroyed and corn half buried are common. What about the onions, head lettuce, and celery that were promising to relieve in part the financial stringency that all farm operators are experiencing? With even hope gone, is it any wonder that discouragement prevails? Here is a problem that a man cannot solve for himself. Torrents Have Great Carrying Power Often the landscape itself is scarred beyond repair. A great tract of boulders such as spread across Willard cannot be moved. They

26 IMPROVEMENT ERA *■» "Sraijjrgin ""' Upper: Acres of Good Farming Land Were Covered With Sand and Clay Mud, Six Inches to Four Feet Deep. Cracks Were Developing Before it Was Dry, Indicating the Poor Character of the Soil. Lower: One-Half of This House Was Carried Away. No Wonder the Owners are Discouraged. Note That Sightseers Are Frequent.

FLOODS AND WHAT THEY MEAN 2 7 will remain naked and unlovely for years and years. In a short time the fences will be replaced, the houses and barns repaired or removed, but gigantic boulders weighing tons will remain. A rock six feet long and four feet through will contain approximately 60 to 70 cubic feet, each of which weighs about 150 pounds, making a total weight of about 10,000 pounds or 5 tons. Many of the boulders around Willard and east of Farmington are much larger than this. There are thousands and thousands of smaller rock, to remove, which would cost at least twenty times the agricultural value of the land. In an acre there are 4,840 square yards. Assuming the debris to be sand and dirt and only 3 feet deep, it would cost about $4,000 to $5,000 to clear an acre, even if there were any place to pile it. Heavy rock would cost several times as much to move as sand and dirt; moreover, considerable areas are covered four to six or more feet. Many times persons not acquainted with such things wonder how boulders get far out into the valley. I have heard men contend that there must have been a great eruption or that a tremendous river once filled the region. It is now clear to all who have seen the deluged areas, that a comparatively small amount of water can move objects weighing many tons if it merely happens to collect under the right circumstances, — a heavy shower, too rapid to be absorbed by the soil; a gully with a steep slope; and a storm duration of an hour or so, sometimes of only a few minutes. Water collects in mass and moves down hill with great velocity. When a stream of water doubles its rate of flow, it increases its carrying capacity sixty-four times; let the velocity be increased by three times and its carrying power is increased by 729 times. The carrying power of a stream varies with the sixth power of its velocity. With the velocity at 5 feet a second water can carry gravel weighing 15,625 times as much as the silt particles it can move when flowing at the rate of one foot a second. When a flood rushes down a slope at 20 feet a second, rocks half as large as a load of hay can be scooted along, sometimes a mile or two from the mouth of the can- yon— as far, in fact, as the velocity and depth are maintained. Out beyond the boulders comes the coarse gravel, sand, and silt. Usually these are mixed and not only reach far out beyond the rock debris but fill in among the coarser material, as the subsiding storm permits the water volume to decrease. Cause of Floods The cause of floods and the likelihood of their recurrence are interesting problems just now and they will continue to be interest- ing, for the flood menace remains with us. In order to understand the problems, floods must be grouped into two classes: (1) those that are the malady itself, and (2) those that are a mere symptom of another malady, deep-seated and pernicious. There have always been floods of the first class and there al-

28 IMPROVEMENT ERA Upper: Orchard Half Buried, Farmington (the Rice Property) Lower: A Boulder-Strewn Area at Willard

FLOODS AND WHAT THEY MEAN 29 ways will be. On a steep mountain front, such for example as that which faces westward along the Wasatch range from Salt Lake City to beyond Brigham, it is only the larger streams that have developed water courses which are longer and deeper than mere ravines. When heavy electric storms converge in a single locality and strike the mountain front, there frequently occurs a terrific downpour, popularly known as a "cloudburst." Except in the well developed stream val- leys, the slope is too steep, the soil too shallow and the plant cover- ing too sparse to hold the raindrops long enough to permit their sink- ing into the ground. As a consequence, the accumulating water runs first as tiny rills, and then as streams into the main gully where a torrent forms. A flood is merely such a body of water as this that is greater in size than ordinary. As long as the volume does not exceed that occasionally reached, the water remains in its former track and does no harm. When it gathers strength enough "to fly the track" then land used for other purposes is appropriated for a stream bed. Every boulder-lined ridge from North Salt Lake to Brigham was thrown out in this manner and is in reality an alluvial fan. More will be added as time goes on; they are inevitable. While they cannot be prevented, they may be mitigated as will be seen in the discussion of those floods that are a symptom of broken-down watersheds. Throughout all geological ages high lands have been eroded; throughout all ages yet to come they will continue to move downward. When this movement is rapid, settlement is difficult and precarious. Fortunately, however, habitable lands usually have watersheds that wear away at a rate sufficiently slow to permit the streams to dis- pose of the debris and to permit grasses, shrubs, and trees to maintain their footing, or "plant cover" as it is called. In such a region, streams flow muddy from surface run-off at "high water" season but are supplied entirely from springs during the remainder of the year. On the mountains east of Sanpete valley, there has been con- ducted a set of careful long-time experiments on flood control. Manti, Ephraim and Mt. Pleasant have all had floods nearly as bad as the recent one. In 1918, I visited the U. S. Forest Service Experiment Station in Ephraim canyon, where among other investigations, soil erosion and water run-off received attention. Near the top of the mountain was a station known as Alpine, on account of its elevation. At this station was a cement-lined, two-roomed cellar-like structure covered with a wooden roof. Into the upper end of this led a small gully that caught all the drainage water from a ten-acre tract of range pasture land. During a storm the surface run-off poured into the first cellar compartment. This, when filled, overflowed into the next and was there retained. The sediment settled and was sluiced out after being computed carefully in cubic feet. There is another plat of similar location, vegetation, and drainage. Its settling tank was placed so as to catch the drainage from exactly ten acres. The two areas, designated as A and B were similar in all respects except that

30 IMPROVEMENT ERA ,*te&& Upper: Edge of the Mud. Grain Shocks Not Touched and Others Nearly Buried Are Visible. Lower: A Damaged Barn at Willard. This Land Cannot be Cleaned Again for Fanning; it is Almost a Total Loss.

FLOODS AND WHAT THEY MEAN 31 Mt. Pleasant, July, 1918. Damaged by Flood the Month Before. Over-grazing Was the Cause of this Trouble. B had a better plant cover than A which had begun to erode, and had consequently developed a V-shaped gully. Plat A also lacked in sod which has been broken through by heavy grazing, and also in leaf- mold which had been scooted off by the torrential rains as soon as the gullies developed as a result of injury in the plant cover due to heavy grazing. Plat B had retained most of its plant cover and decayed vegetable matter. A cabin located midway between the two areas served as a physical station and as headquarters for an employee who looked after the rain gauges (two on each area), measured the eroded soil, and cleaned the settling tanks after storms. Although both plats had the same exposure, the rainfall on A and B differed considerably for any given storm but not for the year. During the summer months of 1915 for example, only one storm produced run-off. On July 21, the plat that had begun to erode received 0.70 and 0.71 inches in its two gauges whereas the other plat which still bore its sod cover received 1.48 and 1.3 8 inches in its two respective gauges. In spite of the fact that the over-grazed plat received only one half as much rainfall as did the other during the 65 minutes of storm, its run-off was 3,019 cubic feet of water which carried 717 cubic feet of sediment as compared to 335 cubic feet of water and 94 cubic feet of sediment from the plat that was only slightly eroded. Two days later, when Mr. Veach, a soil specialist, gave a demon- stration to the visiting rangers, I saw him dig through five inches of beautiful black leaf-mold and about a foot of friable soil to a heavy, impervious hard-pan. This was on the non-eroded area, whereas on the eroded plat only the impervious clay remained, the black mold and the friable soil having been previously carried away. In the first

3 2 IMPROVEMENT ERA spot, grass roots held the mold and soil firmly in place. This porous surface readily absorbed the rain and allowed it to percolate into the soil where it could come in contact with the plant roots. Once the sod was broken through, rills developed and the surface mold was washed down the canyon. But even an eroding range will gradually recover if grazing is discontinued or properly controlled. Manti canyon, a few miles to the southward, may be taken as an example. Floods had occurred in 1888, 1889, 1893, 1896, 1901, 1906, 1908, 1909 and 1910. No serious flood is reported previous to 1889. Sheep grazing had begun in the section five or six years before and had gradually reduced the vegetative cover until the flood of 1888 broke through and developed gullies. Thereafter, deluges were frequent until all stock was excluded for the five-year period from 1904 to 1909 during which time the plants recovered sufficiently to absorb most of the water that caused the flood of August, 1909. Manti canyon was barely flooded whereas Ephraim and Six-mile canyons in the path of the same storm and receiving the same amount of rainfall were seriously eroded. Great quantities of soil and rock were thrown out into the valley, completely ruining some farms. Mt. Pleasant had the same experience in June, 1918. Canyons under protection, that is, where grazing was controlled, were not flooded but the con- tinuously grazed canyon of Mt. Pleasant poured a river of water, mud, and stone right into the town and across apple orchards and fields of alfalfa, grain, and blue grass. A gully from three to twenty feet deep was ripped right through town and across some of the best land of the section and stones or mud piled on it until it had to be abandoned for crop growing. Though grazing control and timber management can not prevent all floods, they might eliminate most of them and materially decrease the power of those they cannot prevent. In conclusion, it is only fair to say that most of our floods are the result of short-sighted management of water sheds. We have "mined" the logging timber; sheep and cattle have been allowed to graze in a manner destructive of the plant cover; fires have swept bare whole sections; and well-meaning citizens have cut away the aspens, maple and oak for firewood without knowing how to insure another crop. We are now being punished by our sins, and repentance is not individual. One of the greatest problems, if not the very greatest, that every state in the West is called on to solve is the proper management of its water sheds. We must use the forage produced but we ought not endanger our foothill towns and farming land, and even the grazing industry itself, by continued unwisdom. This calls for intelligent group action. Let us hope that a leader, when he appears, will not cry as a voice in the wilderness. Logan, Utah

AUTUMN IN THE WASATCH A million times hath Autumn trod these hills, Comes now once more and brings its mellow light, Resplendent dwells in canyon and on height Each hollow wild and glen with glory fills. The wooded clefts to streams of splendor turn, On slopes and ledges, on the grim rocks cold, The distant aspens shine like clouds of gold, In transient crimsons now the maples burn. Beside the waters gleam the transformed leaves, Like gorgeous tapestry the mountains glow, The Autumn sun looks on the splendid show, Its garb of beauty now October weaves. A solemn whisper in the wind one hears, The cheek is touched as with a passing breath; In this wide rapture still one learns of death, The vanished splendor of the countless years. Yea, thus the hills hath glowed a million times, The birch and oak been steeped in richest dyes, The mountain wind hath sighed as now it sighs, And dying leaves been touched with Autumn rimes. Ah, clouds of gray will soon these bright skies throng, The drifting leaves be all this beauty's sum; Yet, life to death, as death to life shall come, O, let the soul seek life to find its song! — Alfred Lambourne.