The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1908-01-17

Uncle Sans National Park system
is coming to be quite an elaborate
scheme. In the west and in the east
one after another there are being set
apart sections of country for whose
preservation, because of peculiar
scenic charms or other reason, Uncle
Sam should become special sponsor
and guardian, and Notwithstanding his
multitudinous cares he always cheer
fully assumes the new obligation
which promises to give to the genera
lions yet to be rich landed heritage.
The latest proposition which has
come before his consideration is that
from the White mountain district,
where it is felt that the forest in
terests can best be conserved by ma
king the region national park, to be
guarded and developed by the wardens
of Uncle Sans domains. New Hamp-
shire is waking up at last to the de-
molition of her forests For she has
been hit in a very sensitive spot-her
pocket. The summer tourist traffic
means $S,000000 a year to the hotels
and retreats in the White mountains.
And the disappearance of the forests
means the disappearance of this traf
fic.
When the governor of the state
signed the bill disposing of the White
mountains for $4,000 he apologized
for charging so much for them, and he
meant it, but such apology sounds like
a variety stage joke to-day, but it
wasn't so then. For all that immense
tract was considered worthless land
In those early days only cleared land
had value. Lumber was not consid-
cred, and doubtless the conscientious
governor who apologized felt as if he
was taking money from child.
For large number of the 43 years
that have elapsed since then, the policy
of the people of the state in regard to
its forests has been along the same
unappreciative lines. The White
mountains are being ruined as a re-
soiS, and the forests as a future source
Of timber and pulp. In places, even
the land is being ruined. Going to de-
struction, too, is the water power of
all the large rivers in New England.
L. D. Sherman of Andover, Mass,
visited the head waters of every large
river last summer and walked through
all that remains of the virgin forests
of New England.
From the top of Mt. Lafayette, in
the Franconia range, he saw five
nf
leaping from tree top to tree top and
high toward the heavens. That great
confagration had been burning
month.
Nothing had been done to check it.
New Hampshire has no fire patrol sys-
tenn, such as Maine possesses. And
New Hampshire's reason for this lack
is: 1T isn't doing any damage, only
burning over land that has already
been logged"
The direct loss is small perhaps. But
the indirect loss! The country that
was burned was high land The sum-
mers are cool and short, and timber
grows so slowly that it takes 125 years
in this region for spruce to make six
inches diameter. The first growth
after fire is the worthless bird
cherry" In Is or 20 years the spruce
gets start. In 800 or 400 years-it
depends on how badly the soil is
burned or washed anywhere is a
forest of marketable timber.
Away up the east branch of the
Pemigewasset river, he saw logging
railroad being pushed, as fast as men
could work, into the heart of the un-
touched forest. The owners of this |
tract are logging summer and winter.
and they take out 100000 feet a |
year.
When the loggers get through with |
a tract it is stripped as bare as the |
back OF ones hand. All the big trees
are cut for saw logs; all the small |
STUFF for pulp, and the hard wood goes
for clothes pins.
The lumber kings expect immediate
results from their investments: and
they get them. But as the lumber crop
Is longer IL maturing than the span of