Erosion and related land use conditions on the lake Crook watershed, Lamar County, Texas

Soil erosion, brought about largely as a result of improper land use, threatens the permanence of virtually all sloping cultivated land in the United States.

A soil conservation survey was made of the Lake Crook watershed early in 1937. The immediate purpose of the survey was to furnish data regarding the character of the watershed to be correlated with studies of sedimentation in Lake Crook and Lake Gibbons, reservoirs owned by the city of Paris. Sedimentation has reduced the capacity of Lake Crook 6.37 percent in 13 years and that of smaller Lake Gibbons only 5.52 percent in 36 years. This difference in rates of sedimentation must be largely the result of differences in the character of the two reservoirs and their watersheds.