Western South Dakota River Basins

Excerpts from the report: The Western South Dakota River Basins study area, 41,657 square miles (26,660,000 acres) in 23 counties, includes the entire area in South Dakota west of the Missouri River. Five major river basins, the Grand, Moreau, Cheyenne, Bad, and White, drain almost the entire area in an easterly direction into the Missouri River. Except for the Black Hills, the topography varies from gently rolling to rolling with occasional high buttes dotting the landscape. Streams are well defined throughout most of the area. Major land uses are cropland, rangeland, pastureland, and forest land. Rangeland and pastureland, totaling 18.8 million acres, or 70 percent of the total area, are used principally for livestock grazing. Five million acres of cropland are used primarily for wheat and domestic hay. Sixty-four percent of the 2.1 million acres of forest land is in, or near, the Black Hills. The remaining 760,000 acres in the study area are agricultural land, water areas, urban areas, and transportation. The purpose of the study is to evaluate alternatives for the development of water and related land resources that will: (1) increase economic development through increased agricultural production, and (2) enhance environmental quality through conservation and improvement of the natural resources.