Report of the Committee on Land Erosion, 1950–1951

Abstract

Activities of the Committee on Land Erosion, since the present Committee was appointed in September, 1950, have been confined mainly to correspondence among members as a means of becoming better acquainted and of deciding on a suitable program for consideration of the Committee Erosion being such a far-flung and complex phenomenon defies any small group to consider all of its many facets. It is obvious, therefore, that greatest practical results would be obtained if Committee activities were confined in the main to those investigations in which members are currently engaged. Colman and Sinclair state that one of their chief current interests is the study of possibilities for decreasing creep on steep mountain slopes in Southern California. They have reason to believe that a considerable part (the precise amount being unknown) of the debris issuing from the canyons starts its way to channels as dry sliding or other type of soil movement that takes place during the dry seasons although the actual damage occurs during wet periods. Initially they hope to obtain more information on channel accumulations and to learn more about where the material comes from and how and when it moves to the channel. With this information they expect to be in a better position to study means of decreasing debris movement. The importance of debris movement into the densely populated valleys of Southern California is of such an order that additional planning along these lines can be well justified.