Ellsworth American., 1908-12-16
THE DANGER POINT.



xox Epsland's Interest in Forest
Conservation.
a, ,mb,ring has always been and still il
one Of the leading industries Of New Eng
,.nd.u said Clifford Pinchot, chief OF the
Irnited states forest service, in letter read
At the recent dedication OF the Myrirk
Farm and Home Building in Springfield,
Mass aWhen our forefathers, after rough
voyages in wooden ships, first landed on
the coast of New England, nothing i'm
,ressed them more in their new home
than the great stores OF wood in the New
England forests. They saw their ,alue at
once; they wrote home about them; they
would not allow them TO be wasted or
burned. For they had come from coun-
try in which the forests had dwindled and
wood was dear enough to be protected ana
carefully used.
"But as they explored the forests farther
and farther and found no end, they felt
that here they had more wood than they
could ever hope to use. So their care for
the forest relaxed. Instead OF protecting
it, they began to attack it and to cut it
down.
$50 the forests receded and the fields
spread; and this was we'll, for the farmers
needed TO bring - much Land as they
growth Of the farms 10 . good thing, in
difference to the forest can never be any
thing but harmful. 1t 10 possible to have
too much forest; Il 10 only too possible,
also, to have too little. Az long a. the
pioneers took the timber from true farm
land, all was we'll, but when they began
to carry the AZ up the mountain side and
clear the slopes whore only thin soil COW
cred the rock, II soon became plain that
nothing wss gained and that great deal
was lost BY taking away the forests and
leaving nothing in their place.
"Thus, without meaning IL and really
without doing anything wrong, the
danger point was reached In forest use in
New England, and that Il where We are
now. There azs few parts OF the country
which more greatly need to take new
point Of view In handling the forests
point Of view Of conservation.
s.If the lumber industry 10 to 60 ON It
must, Of course, get the logs, and for this
reason It sounds plausible TO argue that il
you save the forests you viii stop the
lumber industry. Yet this would be one
OF the greatest mistakes any one could
possibly make. 1t 10 true there il an old
saying that you can't eat your cake and
have 1t, too; but the important thing
about this saying is thst it applies to cakes
and other things whsch do not grow, and
which once gone are gone forever.
Forests grow all the time, and the
longer they are kept the more wood can
be got out Of them in the long run. Spar
ing the ripe, merchsntable forest trees
does nobody any good, not even the trees.
They are made to use, and the most that
scientific forest management can do is to
use them best for the longest time. There
fore, the best thing that can happen for
the lumber industry is to use forestry to
keep the forests going. In q word, forest
conservation Is the life insurance OF the
lumber industry.
'sBut to say that the New England for
ests should be conserved because the wood
is needed, is to give only one reason. The
forests should be kept to maintain the
water powers ofthe streams and the cham
nels OF the navigable rivers. The princi-
pal wealth Of New England is her manu-
factures, and her centers OF manufacture
are ON the rivers which rise in the noun
tain forests.
'sThese mountain forests, which are nat
ursl reservoirs, are more valuable for the
protection they give to the streams than
for anything else. To lumber them in the
usual way, which leaves no hope Of future
forest growth, is not only to exhaust the
wood; it is to make the water in the
streams and rivers irregular in flow and
unreliable for use, and, for part OF the
year, either entirely useless or exceedingly
destructive. In q hilly country without
forests you have first too much water,
then too little. There ia no reason why
the forests OF the White Mountains and
OF the Green Mountains should not be
made to yield up their lumber in the pro-
per way.
1.-THE trouble is that you can not depend
upon ordinary numbering to go the proper
way about it. These forests grow in situ-
ations where only the utmost care, Joined
with the skill OF trained forester, can
take the wood which is ripe at present
without leaving the steep slopes barren
for many years, perhaps forever. II you
can not have skilled numbering, with pro-
vision for the future, it would be far bet
ter to leave the forests untouched, rather
than risk forfeiting what control you now
have over the streams without which
manufacturing would be crippled. The
only way to keep up the wood supply and
to retain control over the streams is to
place the White Mountain forests in the
hands OF the people, and to manage them,
as the national forests in the West are
managed, for the combined use and per-
petuation OF all their resources.
"if the New England forests need to be
protected against the careless use OF the