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Show Forest Notes Veteran Aspen Topples The large aspen tree in Twelve Mile Canyon, which for many years has been undisputedly the largest Aspen tree in the United States died sometime last fall and fell over. Because of its unusual si?2 (l etter than 41 feet C. B. H.) we had planned on salvaging a section of this tree for advertising advertis-ing here in the office. The tree, however, was hollow up to approximately ap-proximately 10 feet above the ground so the specimen we have is only 38 inches (plus) across. It is, however, 41 inches across the long way. For several years Ranger Edward Ed-ward P. Cox pointed with pride to this old veteran on the Twelve Mile District. A number of times we have sent out challanges to any forest to report a larger Aspen As-pen tree. Ranger Byron Howard found a tree that was considerable consider-able taller than this one in Huntington Hunt-ington Canyon, the height of this tree to the first limbs being 87 feet. Game Notes The elk celebration which was planned for the Manti Forest for the middle of August failed to materialize. At one time a herd of more than 200 elk were seen in the Litte North Fork of Manti Canyon. We had planned on having hav-ing riders drive this herd across the top of the mountain in full view of as many visitors as cared to take the day off to see this done. The public, however, learned of the location of this herd of elk and so many visitors rode down into where they were seen that the elk were driven to a more scheduled area from where it would be impractical to drive them. We will still have the matter in mind, however, and may yet arrange for an elk drive this month. The Board of Big Game Control authorized the removei of 275 elk from the Manti Forest during the i coming open season. Twenty five ! bulls are to be taken from the range north of the Fairview- Huntington road and 250 elk on the elk ranges south of the Fairview-Huntington road. The I elk have been so widely scattered scatter-ed this season that the sportsmen , have felt that the total numbers were being depleted. However, the hunt this coming November should demonstrate just how plentiful these animals are. A total of 1,200 hornless deer are to be taken from the Manti Forest on the west side of the i range from Ephraim south, while i 2G0 hornless deer are to be removed remov-ed from the Huntington Canyon area. Stockmen and sportsmen asked for a reduction of 300 hornless horn-less deer on the Huntingon Canyon Can-yon area due to the fact that there j is no public Domain in the j canyon and the deer are forced to ; winter entirely on privately own-ed own-ed lands. The Board of Big Game i Control, however, limited the kill ' to 200 hornless deer. Angus Thursby reports four bull elk glazing on the Thursby holdings on the West mountain. iThis range is a little further south than elk usually graze, i Personal Mention j Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Chapline ! from Washington have spent a few days during the past month at the Great Basin Experiment j Station. Mrs. Chapline showed isome excellent moving pictures I that she had taken on the Manti Forest to a group of approximately approximate-ly 35 people on the evening of i August 23. President Nuttall and Doctor Reed Christensen of Snow College were among those present. Orange Olsen, in charge of Wildlife Management for Region 4 and Randall Turpin of the State Fish and Game Department were visitors at the Supervisor's Office on September 3 where I they were arranging for checking stations during the coming season on deer. j Weather I In cht.ing the weather records re-cords here at Ephraim for the period May to August inclusive, Mr. Van Boskirk reports that .51 inch is the total amount of moisture mois-ture falling at Ephraim during May, June, July and August. For j the first time in many years we ;had no storm to speak of during j the month of May. In the past we I have generally had two to four inches of moisture during that 'month. Our forest ranges, which j were more promising in early June than ever before, have suf fered more from drought than in any year in the past three decades. de-cades. Notwithstanding the drough, a light crop of native grass seed has been produced. Seedlings from last years planting it is feared, may be completely killed out because of the long dry spell, It might be interesting to note that 1934, considered one of the driest years on record, showed show-ed a total precipitation for the four months, may to August inclusive in-clusive of 1.94 inches of moisture. Temperatures The warmest night recorded here at Ephraim during the present summer was 66 degrees. C. C. C. Notes Superintendent George Allred of the Seely Creek CCC Camp reports that the road to the Fer-ron Fer-ron Reservoir will be completed by the end of the week. However How-ever the gravelling of the un-gravelled un-gravelled section between Willow Lake and the reservoir will not be attempted this season. Another two weeks should finish the Twelve Mile Canyon road as far up as the Pine dugway just under Twelve Mile Flats. The Ferron Reservoir Recreational Recrea-tional Unit is being developed as fast as can be expected, but the CCC side Camp will be working for sometime yet before this project pro-ject can be completed. The terracing and reseeding work has been completed on the Ephraim watershed and reseeding work is now being carried on in the head of Reeder Canyon. Due to the extremely dry weather our electric fence has been practically practical-ly useless this summer. The Reeder Canyon dugway will will be completed in about ten days, after which we hope to gravel this road from the dugway over the head of Canal Canyon Ridge. Seed Collecting During the past week the seed stripper has been used to good advantage on the Stipa grass areas near the CCC Camp. |