Shot, Shell and Soldiers Devastate Forests 



By Percival Sheldon Ridsdale 



WHAT has the war done to the forests of Europe? 

 What will be the condition of these forests 

 when the war is over? To what extent have 

 they been cut down for military purposes? How badly 

 have they been damaged by shot and shell? All these and 

 similar questions have been in the minds of foresters and 

 lovers of forests since the great war started, but com- 

 paratively little information has come from the fighting 

 front in either the east or west. Efforts of the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Association to secure statements from 

 Germany on the condition of the forests in territory 

 captured by the Germans, and on German soil, have so far 

 failed. The French government was asked for per- 

 mission to have a representative of the association en- 

 rolled in the ambulance corps with permission to make 

 inquiries regarding forest land in northern France and 

 to take photographs of forests which have been dam- 

 aged or destroyed, but this was refused with apologies 

 as a military necessity. 



Occasionally statements have come from Canadian 

 soldiers who are members of the Association, from 

 French, English or Belgian officers who are interested 



in forestry, and from newspaper and magazine corre- 

 spondents on different fronts and on the whole it has been 

 possible to thus obtain a fairly satisfactroy general idea 

 of what effect the war has on the forests in the area 

 of the fighting. 



BELGIUM DENUDED 



BELGIUM, the major portion of which is in posses- 

 sion of the Germans, had some forested land, 

 which was, as it might well be termed, more of 

 a scenic than a commercial nature. Advices indicate that 

 these forests have practically been destroyed. Much 

 of the timber was used by the Germans for military pur- 

 poses ; in the construction of trenches, in road building, 

 in the erection of shelters, barracks, etc. ; considerable 

 was used for fire wood, and it has been stated, with what 

 accuracy it is impossible to say, that timber not used in 

 this way or needed in the military zone has been shipped 

 to Germany for home consumption. Most probably this is 

 so. Before the war Germany imported large quantities 

 of timber from Russia and in the last few years preced- 

 ing the war these imports greatly increased. English 



iht by Underwood & Underwood. 



THE VALLEY OF DEATH NEAR VERDUN 



View of a small wooded valley on the heights of the Meuse River near Verdun. This wood was subjected by the Germans 

 bombardment, which killed every tree in it. Note the numerous small pools of water, each indicating where a shell struck. 

 trees were blown into splinters. 



to a terrific 

 Many of the 



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