By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Anyone have a photo of Bear Canyon or Ponderosa
Campground they would like to share with the Juab County
Commission?
"We would like photos of what it used to look like in the
past," said Neil Cook, Juab County Commission chairman.
Commissioners are trying to put together a photo album of
the way the forest looked like in the 1970s and prior to
that, back in the days when the forest was well kept and
tidy.
"We rode up into the canyon, Glenn Greenhalgh (rural
economic development director), and the commission," said
Robert Steele, commissioner.
"It's a pretty sad and terrible mess," he said.
The visit, made as a commission, was to objectively
consider the condition of the campgrounds.
"They are an embarrassment to our county," said Cook.
The commission intends to use the photos of the forest in
the past and contrast the past with the present by taking a
new photo from the same angle so that the deterioration of
the forest can be seen.
"We intend to make a copy for the forest service and for
the members of Utah's Washington delegation," said Cook.
Wilderness policies are making it so that the forest is
not so much a place that is cared for as one that is
ignored, agreed commissioners.
Environmental groups claim that dead trees make good
habitat for animals and harvesting them or removing them
disturbs the ground, hastening erosion.
Commissioners are still not happy with the residual
effect of the Clinton years. The Clinton-Dombeck policies
contributed to a forest fuels buildup of rotting wood
culminating in big burns.
In fairness, the forest service must deal with
environmentalists who object to clearing land of rotting
wood. Those attitudes have further affected policy and dead
and downed trees are left to rot and return to soil.
In Ponderosa, the forest service built a new fence
between the road and the camp and then cut some of the
timber (mostly dead Cottonwood trees) which had died. The
dead trees were considered an overhead hazard but, after
cutting, the logs were left on the ground at the various
camping sites.
"The campgrounds are in sad condition," said Steele.
Forest Service policy leans toward the best thing to do
with a forest is to declare it Wilderness and lock it up
forever, said Steele.
One of the problems, in addition to letting downed logs
lay in place and rot, is the cattle.
"The forest service used to take care of the fence so
that cattle could not roam in the campgrounds," said Steele.
"They don't take care of the fence anymore."
"They need to keep it fenced off," he said.
The cattle need to be kept out of the campgrounds for
several reasons. In addition to stepping in manure, campers
should not be camping with domestic animals because of
zoonotic disease.
"The cattle need to be kept out and the fences need to be
maintained like they used to be," said Cook.
In addition to the noise of cattle, their smell and the
manure laying about, several animal diseases can be
transmitted to humans by these domestic animals.
"The forest service used to manage the forest and take
care of the campgrounds so we could be proud of them," said
Steele.
Forests without foresters to keep them pretty tend to
fill up with dying trees that can easily burn starting a
forest fire or that can fall on campers. They can also fill
up with fast burning weeds.Those weeds catch fire easily and
burn quickly.
Old-growth forests are, in reality, forests that aren't
far off death and decay, which isn't quite so
calendar-pretty.
And with so many forests now shut away to age and rot,
citizens will have twice as much old-growth forest in 2100
than there is at present.
Not only is there increased fire danger, but dying trees
give off carbon dioxide as they decay and that gas is blamed
for causing greenhouse warming.
"We are going to appeal to the forest service to clean up
the campgrounds in Salt Creek Canyon," said Cook. "We would
appreciate any residents who have photos they will share to
get them to one of us."
The photos will be copied and, if the owner desires,
returned to the owner.
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