NATIONAL FOREST WORK 



Boundary Changes in National Forests 



Further revisions of the boundaries of na- 

 tional forests were made during July. The 

 President has signed a proclamation eliminat- 

 ing approximately 54,590 acres in Idaho and 

 5,480 acres in Wyoming from the Targhee 

 National Forest, and dividing the remaining 

 area into two forests. The eliminations are 

 the results of a careful examination made by 

 the Secretary of Agriculture last summer, 

 which showed that the lands now excluded 

 are mainly non-timbered areas of more or 

 less value for grazing or agriculture and not 

 needed for forest or for watershed protec- 

 tion. 



By the division, the northern section of 

 the forest remains as the Targhee and the 

 southern section becomes the Palisade. 



By other Presidential proclamations, an 

 area of approximately 239,360 acres has been 

 transferred from the Wenatchee to the 

 Chelan National Forest, Washington. The 

 land thus transferred from the eastern bor- 

 der of the one to the western border of the 

 other is a timbered mountain area forming 

 the Entiat watershed. It is believed that the 

 territory can be more satisfactorily admin- 

 istered as a part of the Chelan Forest from 

 the headquarters at Chelan than as a part 

 ■of the Wenatchee from the headquarters at 

 Leavenworth. 



For better administration, the new Chelan 

 Forest was divided on July i into two parts. 



On July I the Black Hills National Forest, 

 the largest national forest in the country, 

 was divided into two units, the new forest 

 consisting of the southern portions of the 

 previous one. 



The plan has been under consideration for 

 some time. Besides being the largest forest 

 in the United States, the Black Hills National 

 Forest is ranked as the most important in 

 the matter of business transactions and con- 

 tains 1,190,040 acres. 



The forest had become unwieldy, and a 

 new forest was established by drawing a line 

 east and west through the existing forest, 

 just south of Redfern in Pennington county, 

 making the two forests almost equal in size. 



Restocking National Forests 



More than ten tons of tree seeds will be 

 used this year on the national forests, in 

 extensive experiments in broadcast sowing 

 and machine planting designed to supplement 

 the more expensive methods of planting 

 nursery stock. Most of this seed has already 

 been planted. The rest will be used later in 

 the season when the right conditions are pres- 

 ent. Altogether, the ten tons of seed are 

 equivalent to perhaps 300,000,000 single seeds. 



Most of the seed will be sown, either broad- 

 cast or in seed spots, or planted with a corn 

 planter, directly in the place where the trees 

 are to stand. Broadcasting has already been 

 found to give good results in some regions. 

 It was first tried in the Black Hills of South 

 Dakota, with an encouraging outcome. 



J^ «^ J^ 



Planting Work 



Forest planting work on the Fishlake, 

 Manti, and Nebo national forests was very 

 successful during the past year. In the re- 

 gion where these forests are located, approxi- 

 mately 4,000,000 acres of land need to be re- 

 forested. Sooner or later, this big task must 

 be accomplished. During the past few years 

 a great deal of knowledge of conditions was 

 obtained and much has been learned about 

 how best to meet them. Already a good 

 beginning has been made. Three large tree 

 nurseries have been established, one on the 

 Wasatch Forest near Salt Lake City, one on 

 the Uinta, and one near Pocatello. Ten mil- 

 lion plants are growing in these nurseries 

 this summer. A great deal of planting will 

 be done in the fall. 



Damage from Porcupines 



Porcupines have been giving so much 

 trouble by girdling seedlings in certain na- 

 tional forests that the work of exterminating 

 them has been undertaken by the Forest 

 Service in cooperation with the Biological 

 Survey. The porcupine feeds to a large ex- 

 tent in winter upon the inner bark of young 

 pines. Methods of poisoning are being in- 

 vestigated in both the Colorado and Cali- 

 fornia national forests, where the most trouble 

 is experienced. Dr. N. Dearborn and Prof. 

 D. E. Lantz, of the Survey, have recently 

 visited the Routt and the Pike forests, in 

 Colorado. 



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