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Show i ' i j MANTI NATIONAL FOREST NOTES -! !-: Horses Used for Bait. In cooperation with the Biological Survey, the Manti National Forest Woolgrowers' Association has put out one hundred and eleven horses on the Manti Forest since October loth. These horses have been killed and '. distributed over all sheep allotments and thousands of small poison baits ( have also been ddistributed. In ad-1 . dition to the above numbers addition- al horses have been furnished by sheep owners for distribution on : ranges- outside the National Forest. The officers of the Biological Survey j have furnished the strychnine and put j out the baits. The woolgrowers have : . cooperated by employing men to as-1 sist with this work. Poison wasj' placed on upper ranges from the j middle of October to the 1st of December. . ' A year .ago some of. the cattle as- ; sociations cooperated with the Bio- logical Survey in the distribution of poison on ranges grazed by cattle. It is possible that this has again been done this season, but no reports to this efect have reached the Supervisor's Super-visor's office. Weather Report. On December 31st Supervisor Humphrey measured the snow at the Great Basin Experiment Station. 28 inches of loose, snow was the average aver-age depth at this station. This snow had a water content of 5 inches. The minimum temperature recorded was 20 below. This is the coldest weather recorded at the Experiment Station in many years, and since the weather has been fairly good in he valley we rather question the unusual temperature temper-ature shown. Since t December 31st the warm weather has settled the snow considerable and crusted it, in fact the warm weather has just about ruined the sleigh roads in Manti canyon can-yon where timber operators ,.are cutting cut-ting aspen excelsior material. , - '. Game and Predatory Animals. The rangers of the Manti Forest estimate that there are approximately 700 head of elk, 5000 deer, and 60 bear on the Manti Forest. During the past season 371 deer, 6 bear, and 4 elk have been killed by men. It was estimated that there were nearly 2500 hunters on the Manti Forest during the open season ori deer. ' The rangers reports show that 78 deer and 4 elk have been killed by predatory animals on the forest during the past season. A majority of the'se have been killed it is believed, by mountain lion. It is estimated that there are between 40 and 50. of these animals ranging within the confines of the Manti Foi'est. From the rangers reports it would seem that on the North' end of the Forest coyotes have been, perhaps more numerous than usual, while for the rest of the Forest their number have been considerably fewer than heretofore. Losses ; of1 sheep and lambs due to the activities of mountain moun-tain Hons have been unusually .heavy and a campaign against these animals will have to be waged. ; 421 coyotes, 11 mountain, lions, 97 bob cats and more than 1000 porcupines porcu-pines have been. killed by officers of the Biological Survey, hunters, cattle and sheep herders, arid Forest officers. Ranger Cox led in the number of porcupines killed with' approximately 200 to his credit. |