30 



GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 



in the massiveness of their ruins some of their former grandeur. 

 To the geologist these buttes and plateaus are also the ruins of a 

 former age, but instead of being carved by man and representing 

 cities that have passed away they were carved by water and wind 

 from an older and higher land surface that carried its own par- 

 ticular types of plants and animals and that had a climate which may 

 have been very different from the climate of to-day. Compared with 

 these remnants of this old land surface the most ancient ruined 

 cities are as the works of yesterday. 



Larkspur Butte on the east and Raspberry Butte on the west are 

 small remnants of this old surface. Beyond them the upland has 

 been cut away, leaving a rather broad valley in which stands the 



The present stand of timber in the 

 forest is estimated to be 1,100,000,000 

 feet b. m., of which 620,000,000 feet 

 b. m. is considered to be in commercial 

 stands and 480,000,000 feet b. m, in 

 protection stands. 



The following list gives the species 

 in the order of their abundance in the 

 present merchantable stands, the 

 names in parentheses being those often 

 used by local timbermen: Engelmaun 

 spruce (white spruce), yellow pine 

 (immature timber is called blackjack). 

 Douglas fir (red spruce), lodgepole 

 pine, white pine, limber pine (white 

 pine or pinon). bristlecone pine (sugar 

 pine or pinon), alpine fir (white fir), 

 white fir (balsam or black balsam), 

 Colorado blue spruce (water spruce), 

 and aspen (quaking asp). Of these, 

 Douglas fir is the most valuable for 

 railroad ties and lumber for other pur- 

 poses, and yellow pine second. 



When an application for a timber 

 sale is received by the Forest Service 

 it is fii-st necessary to determine 

 whether the timber applied for should 

 be sold. Where dead timber is avail- 

 able and will answer the pui-pose its 

 use is encouraged. The object of cut- 

 ting green timber is to improve the 

 stand by the removal of the mature 

 and defective trees, which are grow- 

 ing very slowly, and to thin crowded 

 groups of trees, leaving a stand of 

 younger thrifty saplings and poles 

 with plenty of growing space and per- 

 mitting young trees to come in wher- 



ever there is not already a sufficient 

 stand. In order to improve the stand 

 and keep it in the best of condition 

 for future growth it is necessary to 

 base the time and method of cutting 

 on the needs of the forest rather than 

 on the desire of the operators. In 

 the slow-growing stands of this forest 

 it will generally be from 30 to 50 years 

 or more after the first cutting before 

 the area should be cut over again. 



In a Forest Service timber sale 

 each green tree to be cut is desig- 

 nated by blazing and stamping it with 

 a " U. S." stamp. This marking is 

 necessary in order that the trees which 

 are to form the basis of the future 

 stand will not be destroyed. (See PI. 

 XIII, A.) After the marked trees 

 are cut and skidded or hauled to a 

 central point, the material is scaled 

 or measured by a forest ranger and 

 there sawed into lumber by a small 

 mill. Contracts for the sale of green 

 timber provide for the disposal of the 

 brush and debris resulting from the 

 cutting. Where there is a serious 

 menace of fire the purchaser is re- 

 quired to pile the brush and burn it 

 when there is no danger of the fire 

 .spreading. Where the danger from 

 fire is not so great, or where some 

 protection of the soil is needed to in- 

 duce reproduction, the purchaser is 

 required to trim the tops and scatter 

 the brush so that it will lie close to 

 the ground, where it will absorb mois- 

 ture and decay rapidly. The proper 



