Showing the Regional Setting of the Bridger-Teton National Forest
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sites and road numbers. Includes “Key Map” showing the regional setting of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and “Source Diagram.” “Forest Service Map Class C.” “Sixth Principal Meridian.” Holdings: Colorado School of Mines; Univ. of Connecticut; Florida State Univ.; Northern Illinois Univ.; Univ. of Kansas; Univ. of Central Oklahoma; Univ. of Wisconsin, Green Bay; Univ. of Wyoming; LC OCLC: 7952655 CACHE NATIONAL FOREST, UTAH – IDAHO 1908-Present The Cache National Forest derives its name from the Cache Valley an agricultural valley in northern Utah and extending into southern Idaho, bounded by the Bear River Mountains on the east, the Bannock and Wellsville Ranges on the west, and the Wasatch Mountains on the south. This valley was first known as Willow Valley, but as mountain men began to cache their furs and trapping gear in the valley, the name was changed by common usage to Cache Valley (Van Cott, p. 61) & (Boone, p. 60). The central portion of the Cache National Forest, the Bear Range, was reserved by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 at the request of the residents of Cache and Rich Counties in Utah. The forest reserve was needed for the purpose of controlling grazing by sheep and cattle. Watersheds in the Bear River Range had been so heavily grazed that summer floods and mud-rock flows endangered the water supplies and threatened irrigation works with silting. President Roosevelt first established the Logan Forest Reserve on May 29, 1903 on 182,080 acres. The Logan Forest Reserve later merged with over 500,000 acres of public land to create the new Bear River Forest Reserve in 1906 on 683,280 acres. The Cache National Forest began as a part of the general reorganization of Forest Service lands in 1908 and at establishment, measured 533,840 acres, of which 182,000 acres originated from the Logan Forest Reserve (1903-1906). The Cache National Forest was created from the eastern portion of the former Bear River National Forest, or the upland area of the Bear River Range between Ogden, Utah in the south and the Bear River (Soda Point Reservoir) on the north, with land in both Utah and Idaho. In 1915 all units of the Pocatello National Forest were added to the Cache National Forest. At that time, the Pocatello National Forest included the original Pocatello Forest Reserve directly south of the city of Pocatello in the northern Bannock Range, the former Port Neuf Forest Reserve in the Portneuf Range, and two units formerly part of the Bear River Forest Reserve, located in the southern Bannock Range (see Figure 26). The addition of the Pocatello National forest in 1915 greatly enlarged the geographic spread of the Cache National Forest, but in 1939 the northern two units of the former Pocatello National Forest (northern Bannock and the Portneuf Ranges) were transferred to the Caribou National Forest. Later, in 1942, the southern two units in Idaho (southern Bannock and Malad Ranges) were likewise transferred to the Caribou where they remain today. By 1942 all lands of the former Pocatello National Forest had been transferred from the Cache to the Caribou National Forest. The transfer of the four non-contiguous units of the former Pocatello National Forest in two Executive Orders of 1939 and 1942 did not reduce the gross acreage as President Franklin Roosevelt added more land to the Cache National Forest than was subtracted. By 1925 the Cache National Forest’s area increased to 833,837 gross acres from its original 1908 acreage of 533,840. Once the transfer of the former Pocatello National Forest lands in Idaho was complete and after the several large additions of land to the Cache National Forest to the south in Cache, Weber, Morgan and Box Elder County, including the entire Wellsville Mountains had been made, the Cache National Forest’s gross acreage increased to 1,342,943. However, by expanding the Cache to the south and west, very little public land had been enclosed within the new boundaries. Some 45% of the Cache National Forest at this time privately held. This number has dropped somewhat since the 1940s to the present day 42%. Today the boundaries of the Cache National Forest enclose 1,218,006 acres: 700,528 acres in federal management and 517,478 acres in other ownership In 1973 the Cache National Forest was split on the Utah/Idaho state line. The Idaho Division was adopted by the Caribou National Forest as the western part of its Montpelier Ranger District with headquarters in Pocatello. The administration of the Utah portion of the Cache National Forest was then turned over to the Wasatch National Forest headquartered in Salt Lake City, forming the present-day Logan and Ogden Ranger Districts. This information was found on the jacket of the 1976 forest visitor’s map of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest (see below under the Wasatch National Forest). Essentially the Utah portion of the Cache National Forest merged administratively with the Wasatch National Forest creating the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in 1973, however each forest remains a separately proclaimed national forest. In contrast, the Caribou National Forest did not add “–Cache” to its name when the Cache National Forest lands in Idaho were given to the Caribou National Forest to administer. In a legal sense, the Cache National Forest has not changed boundaries, only administratively it has been broken up into a Utah portion and an Idaho portion administered by other national forests. These 1973 events were not recorded in the Federal Register because technically no land was actually transferred. In March of 2009 the Uinta National Forest merged its administrative responsibilities with the Wasatch-Cache National Forest to become the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. With the administrative merger in 2009 with the Uinta National Forest, the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest has two Supervisor’s Offices, one in Salt Lake City for the Wasatch and Cache National Forests and the other in Provo for the Uinta. 95.