St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-03-19
Saving New Hampshire's Woods.

The First biennial report of the New
Hampshire Forestry commission has just
been submitted to the legislature of that
state, and it is safe to call it the most i'm
portant document that has come before
that body the present year. The work
of the commission has been largely educa-
tional and as a result of its missionary
labors among the principal lumber oper-
ators, they have begun to adopt such
methods of harvesting the tree crop as
will insure the perpetuation of the valu-
able species now most in demand. The
dangers threatened by the rapid denuda-
ton going on in New Hampshire forests
have been from time to time brought to
public notice. If the indiscriminate cut
ting of wood and timber should be con-
tinued for the next fifteen years as it has
been for the last fifteen, the spruce forests
would be exhausted, and the flow Of the
rivers so important to agricultural and
manufacturing interests would become
intermittent, that is, almost drying up
at times and again swelling into disas-
trous ireshets, as was shown along the
Merrimack and other streams last spring.
The commission, to check this fatal pol
icy, recommend the adoption of statute
making it unlawful to cut or remove
any spruce, pine or hemlock tree unless
the same shall be twelve inches in diane
ter three feet above the ground, or any
poplar or birch tree under ten inches in
diameter at the same point, exceptions
to be made of fallen, burned or blighted
timber, or timber cut for the exclusive
domestic use OF the farmers. This would
insure a perpetual series of forest crops
and give the generations ahead of us
some chance, while we should still have
preserved these equalizers of the water
supply. This matter is almost of as much
interest to Massachusetts as to New
Hampshire, for the Merrimack and the
Connecticut, the principal streams to be
benefited by the protection of the forests,
perform their largest service, perhaps, in
this state.
What the commission considers the
most gratifying result OF its labors, is the
the prospect OF the acquisition of two
areas OF forest property to be set apart
as public parks in accordance with the
forestry reserve law OF 1898 The more
important of these will be in the White
Mountain forest, readily accessible to the
general public. 1t is triangular in shape
and lies along the northeast boundary Of
the town Of Bethlehem. THIS is an ex-
cellent central point from which to ex-
tend it so as to protect the forests along
the Connecticut Merrimack, and Saco
river basins. Another reserve will be es-
tablished during the year upon Mount
Monadnock in Dublin.
The people in number of states, in
fact more than ever before all over the
country, seem to be awaking to their
danger and the necessity OF taking
prompt action to meet it. In New York
Governor Black is putting more honest
enthusiasm into his efforts to save the
Adirondack forests than into anything
else, and we have it on excellent author
ity that the attempt of Spectators and
other selfish combinations to nullify the
authority OF the reservations made in the
far West by Presidents Harrison and
Cleveland will receive no consideration
worth mentioning by congress. Ger
tainly it would be a great public mis-.
fortune that would be plainly apparent