THE FOREST OF THE NORTH SLOPE 



Salt Lake City 



UTAH 



Figure 1 



The North Slope is a strip of land 75 miles long by 20 miles wide. Most of its 677,000 

 acres are in National Forest ownership and lie within the Ashley and Wasatch National 

 Forests. The area is divided into three Ranger Districts: the Manila District on the 

 eastern end is in Ashley National Forest; the Mountain View and Evanston Districts are 

 in Wasatch National Forest. 



Although the first impression one gets of the North Slope is of an endless expanse of 

 trees, nearly one-fourth is meadows, rockslides, and other nonforest land. Seventeen per- 

 cent of the land area is classified as noncommercial; that is, it is either reserved in the 

 High Uinta Primitive Area or is nonproductive forest, or both. 



Sixty percent of the North Slope, or 404,000 acres, is classified as "commercial"; that 

 is, it is suitable and available for timber production.' 



Most of the commercial forest land area (70 percent) is lodgepole pine type. The re- 

 mainder are spruce, ponderosa pine, aspen, and Douglas-fir types. During the construction 

 of the Union Pacific Railroad, hundreds of thousands of railroad ties were logged on the 

 North Slope but timber harvest since that time has declined. The drain on the forest has 

 been minor in relation to the timber available, and as a result the area is relatively un- 



'Land classed as commercial forest must be producing or capable of producing crops of industrial 

 wood and not withdrawn from timber use. However, about 25,000 acres of land meeting this require- 

 ment is considered nonloggable, either because logging might damage watersheds, or because steep slopes 

 or rock outcrops make logging impractical. 



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