UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 179 
policy of President Roosevelt. It is thus that the forest 
conservation movement came to Utah en masse. 
Let us consider for a moment the forests of Utah 
in relation to the economic development of the State. The 
mountains of Utah form the foundation of the wealth 
of the State, and its continued prosperity will depend 
to a large extent upon the manner in which these moun- 
tain lands are managed. Since the National Forests of 
Utah are confined almost wholly to the mountainous 
areas or high plateaus, the management of the National 
Forests for all time on a permanent sustained yield basis 
is of the utmost importance in the economic and socio- 
logical welfare of the State. The National Forests fur- 
nish irrigation water, timber products and summer range 
for live stock, all three of which have a most direct 
bearing upon its economic development. 
The National Forests of Utah provide summer range 
for the grazing of nearly 190,000 cattle and horses and 
more than 800,000 sheep and goats. Other uses having 
both a sociological and economic bearing on the pros- 
perity of the State include the development of forest 
roads and trails, the reservation of forest areas for rec- 
reational activities and the preservation of fish and game. 
The National Forests of the State comprise approxi- 
mately seven million acres, the greater part of which is 
potential forest land, which is estimated to bear a stand 
of about ten billion board feet, composed of pine, spruce, 
fir, aspen and cedar. There is now manufactured annu- 
ally! in Utah approximately twenty-six’ million board 
feet of lumber besides minor forest products. This mater- 
ial is mainly rough lumber, being cut by small portable 
sawmills from areas already culled over and from those 
of virgin timber remote from industrial centers. The 
consumption of lumber ‘and allied products in Utah 
amounts to over two-hundred million board feet per an- 
num, or approximately eight times as much as is manufac- 
tured locally. It requires about eighty years to grow a 
crop of aspen and in the neighborhood of 200 years to 
grow western yellow pine sawtimber. It is of course true 
that pulpwood, excelsior material, match stock, railroad 
ties and mine props can be grown in a much shorter time, 
but for the purpose of the present discussion let us con- 
