THE NATIONAL FOKESTS OF COLORADO 27 



fields. More than 101,000 acres of farm land are watered from the 

 lakes and streams on the Grand Mesa, and more than 193,000 are 

 susceptible of irrigation. 



Timber cutting is limited here by lack of market. As the demand 

 increases, however, larger quantities can be cut, to the extent of the 

 annual growth, or about 5,000,000 board feet, without any detri- 

 mental effect on the water supply. 



The Grand Mesa is an exceedingly important grazing forest. It 

 supplies summer range to 43,500 cattle and horses and 14,000 sheep 

 owned by 650 ranchers in the valleys, thus serving a greater number 

 of stock owners than any other national forest in the State. The 

 character of the range and the demand for its use for cattle make 

 this primarily a cattle range. 



Main automobile highways surround the Grand Mesa National 

 Forest on all sides except the east, where the Grand Mesa joins the 

 Holy Cross and Gunnison National Forests along a mountainous 

 border. A forest highway serves the Plateau Valley from the main 

 Colorado River, branching at the head of the valley and connecting 

 on the north with the Colorado River again at Silt, via Divide 

 Creek, and on the south with Gunnison River, via Muddy Creek, 

 both roads crossing the forest. The Grand Mesa has been made very 

 accessible to automobile travel. A State highway connects Collbran 

 Valley with Cedaredge on the North Fork of the Gunnison, and the 

 Grand Mesa " skyway," recently completed by the Forest Service, 

 renders accessible the important lakes on the mesa and makes a direct 

 connection between the Ocean to Ocean Highway and the Rainbow 

 Route via the towns of Mesa and Delta. 



THE UNCOMPAHGRE NATIONAL FOREST 



The Uncompahgre National Forest is made up of two divisions: 

 The Uncompahgre Plateau and the Ouray. The Uncompahgre 

 Plateau is long, narrow, and well defined, and lies southwest of the 

 Grand Mesa National Forest. Its broad stands of Engelmann 

 spruce, western yellow pine, and aspen make it conspicuous in the 

 semiarid lowlands which surround it completely. The forest is de- 

 voted chiefly to grazing and watershed protection at present, al- 

 though timber sales are also an important activity. One road on the 

 State highway system from Montrose to Naturita crosses this di- 

 vision, but it is in poor repair and not used for regular travel. 



Southeast of the Grand Mesa are the headwaters of the Uncom- 

 pahgre River, which drains the valley along the east and around the 

 north side of the Uncompahgre Plateau. The Uncompahgre water- 

 shed descends very rapidly from the precipitous divide which rises 

 to a sharp ridge between the mining towns of Ouray on the north, 

 Telluride on the west, Silver ton on the south, and Lake City to the 

 east. This upper portion of the Uncompahgre watershed, once 

 known as the Ouray National Forest, although separated entirely 

 from the Plateau, is now administered as the Ouray division of the 

 Uncompahgre. It extends from the main Uncompahgre River Val- 

 ley up to the crest of the San Juan Mountains, south of which are, 

 in order from west to east, the Montezuma, the San Juan, and the 

 Rio Grande National Forests. 



