S. A. L. Pilgrim and N. K. Peterson, 

 using information from soil surveys 

 covering a 40 year period, grouped 

 New^ Hampshire soils into 22 general 

 soils areas and identified those quali- 

 fying as prime farm land. 



The Mclntire-Stennis Act of 1962 

 was designed to encourage forestry 

 research in the Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Stations, the first appropriation 

 coming in fiscal year 1964. "Forestry 

 research" included investigations re- 

 lating to improvement of "conditions 

 of w^ater flow and to protect resources 

 against floods and erosions." G. L. 

 Byers, water resources specialist, was 

 named chairman of the University of 

 New Hampshire Water Resources Re- 

 search Center in 1964. One of his re- 

 sponsibilities in the Experiment Sta- 

 tion was collection of weather data 

 which was made available to foresters, 

 hydrologists and others requesting the 

 information, a service which the Uni- 

 versity has performed for some 75 

 years, 50 of those being continuous. 

 Byers and D. L. Goodrich in 1977 

 authored a Station Research Report 

 "Selected Climates in New England." 

 The publication summarized weather 

 data, mainly temperature and precipi- 

 tation, recorded at 14 official weather 

 stations located in eight of New 

 Hampshire's 10 counties. 



Solid household rubbish, formerly 

 disposed of in dumps by burning, a 

 procedure now prohibited in some 

 communities because of concern for 

 air quality, is being deposited in sani- 

 tary landfills. This changes the prob- 

 lem from contamination of air to pol- 

 lution of water. F. R. Hall, Station 

 hydrologist, and L. Cushman at Ply- 

 mouth State College, established an 

 experimental sanitary landfill at 

 Ashland, N.H. which receives both 



household and commercial waste. 

 Leachate from garbage was observed 

 three months after the project began, 

 and although early emphasis was on 

 the landfill site per se, more recently 

 they assessed the environmental im- 

 pact at greater distances. Hall has also 

 investigated the effect of road deicing 

 salt on certain plant species; and on 

 accumulation of the more toxic heavy 

 metals in large rivers and ground wa- 

 ter reservoirs from commercial wastes. 



Hydrologist S. L. Dingman is con- 

 cerned about the impact that addi- 

 tional housing developments along 

 the Merrimack River in New Hamp- 

 shire will have on water quality in the 

 waterway already known to be highly 

 polluted. Ultimately, data gathered 

 will be organized into maps to give a 

 picture of the system useful for future 

 planners. Dingman is also investigat- 

 ing the relationships among eleva- 

 tion, climate, hydrology and forest 

 vegetation in New Hampshire and 

 Vermont with emphasis on the prop- 

 erties of streams important for water 

 resource management. He has deter- 

 mined that the effect of elevation is 

 such a dominant factor that it can be 

 extremely useful for predicting many 

 parameters of stream flow. 



Forest managers count on help 

 from scientists to determine when ei- 

 ther planned or unplanned forest fires 

 are appropriate and useful. Over a 

 period of 12 years D. P. Olson, wild- 

 life ecologist, and R. R. Weyrick, 

 forest management, have conducted 

 approximately 40 prescribed or con- 

 trolled burns, small well-contained 

 surface fires, in white pine and mixed 

 hardwood stands. They have devel- 

 oped a model 80-year white pine 

 rotation using prescribed burning. 

 Controlled fires can be an efficient 

 procedure in the management of 



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