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Show i ! I MANTI NATIONAL I FOREST NOTES r The Natioonal Forests of the In-termountain In-termountain Region as capable of producing all the lumber and other ioitst pioucts used within the region according to a study of forest growth recently completed by the Forest Service in this region, states District Forester R. H. Rutledge. Statistics show that the Intermoun tr.in Region uses aloout 235 million board feet of timber a year at the present time. The National Forests in this Region are capable of producing produc-ing about 460 million feet Unfortunately, Unfortu-nately, only about half of this production pro-duction is upon lands which can be considered accessible at the present time. The remainder is in the back woods far from towns, railroads and others means of communication. It is worthy of careful protection, however. how-ever. Ultimately it is estimated that these Forests of the Intermountain Region, when put upon a good productive pro-ductive basis through intensive forestry, for-estry, will be able to produce 700 million feet a year, about 400 million feet of which will be produced by the Forests which are even now considered consider-ed fairly accessible. The amount of timber actually cut on the national Forests is only a fraction of this amount. This is due to the fact that the timber is of rath er low quality than that which is imported im-ported largely from the Northwest, to which we are accustomed. Furthermore, Further-more, local timber exists in relatively relative-ly small bodies, often distant from the market, all America is drawing upon the Northwest for timber and 'the exhaustion of these timber lands is bound to ultimately make our local timber of much greater importance than it is at present. Looking forward for-ward to that time, the Forest Service is endeavoring to so manage the Forests For-ests that the present production may be vastly increased, so that ultimately ultimate-ly nearby Forests can supply pract-cally pract-cally all local demands. |