NATIONAL FORESTS AND THE INTERMOUNTAIN REGION 



15 



SO subject to dijficulties of this kind as are the small streams running 

 in short, steep canyons, where a single fire or local overgrazing may 

 so destroy water-shed values that economical hydroelectric power 

 production becomes problematical. 



In a single storm in 1923, which brought floods down both Willard 

 and Farmington Canyons, the two small power plants at these points 

 were put out of commission by the rush of bowlders and rocks borne 

 along on the face of the floods. 



Devastation of the mountains would check the hydroelectric de- 

 velopment of the intermountain region. Even moderate devastation, 

 entirely within the bounds of possibility, would mean difficult and 

 costly operation for a vast number of small plants scattered through- 

 out the region and serving a multitude of small, isolated communities. 

 Small electric plants, while they do a business which may appear 



Figure 6. — Municipal power plant in Logan Canyon, Cache National Forest, Utah 



insignificant in comparison with the great power plants on the large 

 rivers, play an important part in the life of the intermountain region, 

 supplying electric current to remote towns and villages and giving 

 them such modern conveniences as electric lights, washing machines, 

 irons, vacuum cleaners, and motion pictures. 



RECREATIONAL USE OF THE INTERMOUNTAIN NATIONAL 



FORESTS 



WILD-LIFE RESOURCES OF THE FORESTS 



^Yh-0 can state the value in dollars and cents of the fish to the 

 fisherman, or the wild game to the hunter? Scattered through the 

 national forests in this intermountain region are some 125,000 deer, 

 about 30,000 of them in the Kaibab Forest in northern Arizona. The 

 Teton is famous for its elk, and it is estimated that close to 17,000 

 of these splendid animals range upon the forest. (Fig. 7.) Many 

 have been transplanted and at the present time elk are scattered over 

 the greater part of the national-forest area of the region. One herd 



