The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1901-04-24
The Grandest OF All Monuments.

- ---~
The recent action of the State of |
California in appropriating S250,000 to |
purchase and preserve the grove OF red |
woods near Santa Cruz has aroused in |
terest throughout the country. The |
chief agency in accomplishing this ex-
cellent work is said to have been the |
Sempervirens Society, body of Cali |
fornians specially organized for such a
purpose. 1T is q matter of natural re-
joicing," says Prof. Charles S. Sargent |
of Brookliue, but, satisfactory as it is
in itself, it is "inadequate."
The area purchased is entirely too |
small. Indeed, the finest redwoods
are further north. Really to preserve
q redwood forest, so that all future
generations of men may see it and
know it, several thousand acres or land
should be acquired in the neighbor-
hood of Humboldt Bay, "running from
the ocean back across the summit of
the Coast Range, and, if possible,
bounded on the north and south by
streams flowing into the sea" Two or
three million dollars would buy suffi-
cient ground, and another million would
insure the preservation of the park for
all time.
"Here," says Professor Sargent, sis
an opportunity for a rich man to i'm
mortalize himself by a monument which
will be beautiful and interesting for
centuries, and more splendid and en-
during than what any man has secured
to himself already"
Where is the man large enough in
PURGE and imagination to seize the OPP
DOrtunitv2-New York SIM
Let us have Sempervirens Society
in Vermont. Perpetual verdancy
seems likely to attach to the law makers
as body, but it is not the kind of
green that allures. The State needs
society devoted to the work of keeping
its hills evergreen by the preservation
of their forest growth, by rescuing the
wooded areas from the devastating
hand of the pulp and timber COM
psnies. The inquiry the Sun makes
may be raised in behalf of Vermont:
"Where is the man large enough in
purse and imagination to seize the op-
portunity?" New Hampshire has been
blest in this matter, and her Governor
is alive to the importance of forest
preservation.
Experience in Vermont seems to
point conclusively to the fact that any,
thing done along similar lines in Ver-
mont must be by individuals, through
individual interest, enterprise and Or
ganization. The State, in its organ
lied capacity, cannot be awakened to
an adequate solicitude in a matter
which, it may be said without success
full contradiction, is its one material
interest OF primary Importance.
BY preserving his existing wood
lands, by harvesting their resources
without destroying the woods or impair
ing their productiveness, by replanting
from year to year, acre by acre, his
rocky, worthless, brake and briar in
tested areas, the farmer may maintain
or add to the value of his possessions.
His natural instincts ought tc impel
him to pursue in respect of his lands
the same policy The follows in main.
tanning and strengthening his focks
and herds. The State might with great
advantage to itself encourage the far
mer in this work by paying him a good
ly premium on every acre of such land
restored to forest growth, in the sue
cessive steps Of the restoration. 1t
will be hopeful day for Vermont
when, under the administration of a
judiciously framed forestry law, ad-
ministered by wisely selected COM
mission, the State adopts this policy.
But this would not provide for the
"wild lands" the tree-clad slopes, the
hills, spurs and the mountains of the
main range. Year by year the wood
mans axe, raised by the pulp and tim
Der men, is decreasing these wild
lands, fire and washing storms will
complete the work of destruction, and
render them permanently barren and
an offence to the eye. To aid in ar
resting this devastation there is work in
Vermont for Sempervirens Society
OF the sturdiest sort.