La Sal Mountains Again

I think I've mentioned that my work takes me to the La Sal Mountains several times a year. These photos are from a trip this summer to inspect a couple of timber sales that are finishing up. We (SITLA) have an agreement with an excelsior mill in Colorado where we furnish them with at least a million board feet of aspen each year (they pay $10.50/ton). They use the aspen to make excelsior for use in erosion blankets. The harvesting of aspen is more important now because hundreds of acres of trees are dying due to the poplar beetle. If we can harvest it soon enough, the clones will sprout and in a couple of years, a beautiful replacement stand of aspen will be tall enough to escape the jaws of hungry cows, horses, elk, and deer. Click on a photo to get a better view.