The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-08-18
Member of the Associated Press.
TUESDAY, AUGUST IS, 1914.
NEW ENGLAND FORESTS.

The Weeks act for the purchase of
forest lands in the White mountains
and the Appalachians of the South,
and specifically for the protection of
the headwaters of streams, will expire
by limitation in less than a year. Of
the 100000 made available for land
purchases but 100000 remains unex-
pended. Thus far, at cost of $4,000
600, there have been acquired 1,104,00O
acres. only $4,000 acres of which are
located in the White mountains. This
is a result far different from that con
templated and rightly expected by the
many New Englanders whose persistent
efforts were the chief agency in securing
the passage of the act.
In the ten months that remain for
action all the seven members of the ma
tiOnal forest reservation commission in
the White mountains should make per
sonaI visits to the region and learn the
situation at first hand. Thus far but
two have been to New Hampshire, Mr..
Hawley of Oregon and Senator Calm
ger, whose. home is. IN the state Also,
the commission should not ignore the
opinions of its corps of trained forest
ers. In all recent negotiations in the
White mountains action has been based
not upon the result of foresters' in
vestigations, but upon the advice of its
lumberman, man not in sympathy
with the reservation project and not
conversant with the principles of mod
ern forestry, for he gained his expert
enee in the Adirondacks logging spruce
20 years ago.
The opinions of the forester of the
Society for the Protection of New
Hampshire Forests, Philip w. Ayers,
are entitled to respect, and they have
the endorsement of the Appalachian
Mountain club, the Massachusetts, For
estry association and the Boston Cham
Der of Commerce. Mr.. Ayers cites
chapter and verse to show thatfthe ma
tional commission is seemingly ignorant
of the situation. He declares that no
one knew the facts as to the one grant
that was a typical tract under the
purpose of the act to protect the
headwaters of streams; that the com
mission turned down, upon the advice
of the lumberman, who made a half
days investigation, a Franconia tract
that is important to 80 miles Of Con.
necticut river navigation; that the
| Franconia Notch purchase of 5000
acres has failed after two years of ne
| gotiations; and that the takings have
been almost entirely of cut-over lands
and only incidentally of virgin forests
The Boston Herald says the only
answers assayed to these statements
are that owners are asking for too higf
prices and that New England is making
a sectional complaint. Mr.. Ayers anc
his hackers charge the lumberman will
upsetting deals that had been amicably
agreed upon, and show that the owner
of the tract in the Franconia Motel
seems to find it more profitable to To-
his own forests than to accept the
government S offer. The whole question
it not one of sectional discrimination
but of truth. The friends of the Whit,
mountains who fought early and lat
to secure the passage of the Weeks ac
are not getting their share of results
and if a sound forest policy is yet t
be applied there agitation must b
started and action taken at once.