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Show Spring thaw exposes winter litter John Padden, Cedar City acting act-ing district forest ranger, reports re-ports melting snow on Cedar1 Mountain is exposing some of the activities that have taken place earlier in the season. Although nearly all of us are glad to see spring arrive, tfhe absence of snow cover often of-ten reveals more than green meadows and a variety of wildflowers. Paper, bottles and cans, hidden throughout the winter in the snowbank of a plowed highway are slowly beginning to emerge. The actions ac-tions of every littering winter motorist will soon be evident to all of us. Tubers left their mark too. At every popular tubing area on the National Forest a variety var-iety of beer and pop cans, paper and other trash can now be seen. There is never any doubt as to where these wtinter sports e nthusiasts gathered around a fire to warm themselves, either. Old fire circles and half-burned logs and tires are still laying right where the fires burned themselves out. Receding snowlines also re-Veal re-Veal the high stumps of many stolen Christmas trees along highways throughout the Forest. For-est. Attractive, vigirous young saplings, appreciated by thousands thou-sands of passing motorists last year, will now become deformed, deform-ed, crippled, and disease-prone disease-prone trees because of the manner in which they were cut. Some people climb the taller more attractive trees and cut the tops right off of them, Padden reported. This type of behavior spoils the T'orest scenery for all of us, and for many years to come. Christmas tree sales are located lo-cated away from the main roads, and In areas heavily stocked with young trees, where thinning is necessary. We also have a man on duty at the site to be- sure the trees are cut properly. fary Forest Service inform-ationai inform-ationai highway signs have also been stolen and vandalized vandal-ized throughout the wintet sraon. Replacement and installation in-stallation costs for thosp sins alrmdy fminrt missln? will easily reach $.100. noted Padden. Pad-den. Re5.ignins and clesTurp costs "come from funds that could pwxibly have bt-en spent prtviding other facilities facilit-ies and improvements for visitors vis-itors to the National Forest. |