THE NATIONAL FORESTS OF COLORADO 



Page. 



National forests 1 



Fire protection 1 



Forest management 3 



Research 5 



Reforestation 5 



Grazing 6 



Game 6 



Recreation 7 



The national forests of Colorado 8 



Organization 10 



The Pike National Forest 10 



The Colorado National Forest 12 



The Arapaho National Forest 14 



The Routt National Forest 17 



CONTENTS 



Page. 



The national forests of Colorado — 

 Continued. 



The White River National Forest. 18 



The Leadville National Forest 20 



The Cochetopa National Forest 21 



The Holy Cross National Forest.. 23 



The Gunnison National Forest 23 



The Grand Mesa National Forest-. 25 



The Uncompahgre National Forest- 27 



The San Juan National Forest 28 



The Montezuma National Forest. 30 



The Rio Grande National Forest.. 30 



The San Isabel National Forest.. 32 



The forest trees of Colorado 34 



NATIONAL FORESTS 



The chief purpose of the national forests is the conservation of 

 wood and water. In this respect all national forests are alike. 

 They are also alike in that all resources — forage, wild life, recrea- 

 tion, and other resources as well as wood and water — are managed 

 with the object of deriving from them the greatest possible contribu- 

 tion to the general public welfare. On the other hand, details of 

 management are different on different forests because of local con- 

 ditions. On some forests timber growing is all important and takes 

 first place ; on some, watershed protection is the big thing ; on others, 

 forage is for the time being the resource most necessary to the pros- 

 perity of the communities in the region. There is bound to be a 

 great variety of local conditions in 156 national forests scattered in 

 31 States and 2 Territories. 



One of the outstanding features of national-forest administra- 

 tion is decentralization; that is, the placing of responsibility as 

 largely as possible upon the local forest officers. On every forest 

 the local officers plan the administration of their individual units 

 and deal directly with the local problems. Each forest is studied 

 with particular reference to the relation which it bears to the de- 

 velopment and maintenance of the industries of the surrounding 

 country, and the aim of administration is to make the resources of 

 the forest serve these industries to the fullest extent. 



FIRE PROTECTION 



The first requisite for the conservation of forest resources is fire 

 protection. The susceptibility of forests to destruction by fire is a 

 matter of common knowledge. Not a year passes without some loss, 

 and in occasional years, such as 1910, 1919, and 1926, there have 

 been memorable disasters. Without protection little is to be gained 



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