The Republican journal., 1908-04-02
NAMES FORESTRY PLANS.

Maine is beginning to appreciate that
her great forests of pine and spruce,
once popularity believed to be mex
haustible, have already reached state
of deple ton where the vanishing point
is calculable. All sorts of plans are be-
ing hurriedly suggested to save what is
left from predatory axe and destroying
flame, before the lumber companies and
the pulp mills have swept away all that
is marketable of the woods. The reck-
less way in which the forest wealth of
the once "Pine Tree State has been
squandered is perfectly apparent to
even the railroad car traveller. On the
Bangor & Aroostook road, for example,
after the settled communities have
been left behind, a melancholy expanSe
of burned and blackened stumps or
sparse growth of shrubbery extends for
miles and miles. Nothing more dreary
or depressing can be conceived. 1t con-
tinues until the monotony grows mad.
dening. Many miles of woodland of
steadily. The lumber railroads are
pushed deeper into the interior in
search of freight, while the portable
saw mills, operated by gasolene engines,
leave only huge heaps of sawdust and
edgings where the giant trees but lately
stood.
One Maine project which meets with
favor is to establish a forest reserve of
the region around Katahdin. Another
suggestion is to keep the Moosehead
Lake territory intact. The latest, which
is being urged with earnestness, is to
protect the headwaters of the Aroos-
took River, now seriously threatened.
A writer in the Bangor Commercial
says, after quoting the steady rise i'll the
price of lumber of all kinds:
"When spruce became of value the for
ests were attacked and decimated as
though scourge had swept over them.
Over hills and mountain where was
| once an impenetrable cover and barrier
| to the entrance of either sunshine or
| warm, melting winds is now open
growth that affords no shade before the
| beginning of June.
| "Where once existed stratum of cold
| storage of air below the treetops that
effectually retarded the melting of the
| snow and in large measure prevented
| evaporation of rain water that was nat
urally slowly filtered to the small
brooks far into the summer, the snow
now disappears nearly DIS 1dSt DIS AIQIll
| the open fields.
"The spring freshet has become sud
den and excessive ard of short dura-
ton. Fifty years ago April 10 was the
| date when men and teams left the
lumber woods; now they come out any
time after the middle of February"
Reforesting. by the State, is then sug-
! gested as the only means of saving this
Important stream. A good beginning
can be made, this writer argues, by puI-
chasing the two townships in which lie
Squa Pan Lake. No clearing exists in
either town, and the region is otherwise
well situated for practical object les
son. A strong sentiment is today grow
ing in Maine for the creation of State
forest reserve. In the fire protection
of wild lands the State holds a fore
most position. This has been largely
accomplished by the good work of the
State Forest Commissioner. The State
Federation of Woman's clubs, under
the direction of their chairman of for
estry, Miss Elizabeth K. Hobbs, is max
ing itself power, and the various
| oranges are also devoting their atten-
tion to the subject. Far-seeing men be-
lieve that the time has come when the
State should own and control those por-
lions of its forests which are so located
as to justify their protection.
| TRANSCRIPT,