Forests in the War Zone 



DISPATCHES and special reports from various 

 points in Europe differ as to the damage done 

 to forests within the war zone and to the effect 

 which the cutting, destruction by artillery fire, forest 

 fires, and by the logging and marketing of timber from 

 the forests in enemy's territory 

 which has been captured, will 

 have on forest conditions in the 

 future. 



Some of these reports are 

 here given for what they are 

 worth and because they are in- 

 teresting. 



A special newspaper dispatch 

 from Bar-le-Duc, France, says: 

 "The splendid forests of the 

 Argonne, as well as those of the 

 Alsatian slope of the Vosges 

 Mountains and of the Woevre, 

 are being gradually razed b\- 

 shell and shrapnel fire. Of the 

 majestic pines that covered these 

 heights there remain only hacked 

 and blackened stumps and a 

 wild tangle of fallen trunks. 



"Germans and French have 

 cooperated in this devastation, 

 but the greater destruction is 

 credited to the intense, concen- 

 trated fire of the 3-inchers and 

 6-inchers that alone could dis- 

 lodge underground German 

 fortresses. There is said to be 

 abundant evidence that all the 

 ground had been carefully plot- 

 ted and the ranges taken by the 

 Germans before the battles. On 

 many occasions French detach- 

 ments following obscure paths 

 unknown to any but the wood- 

 men of the region, fell a prey to 

 the fire of German gunners, for 



whom there seemed to be no secrets in the thickets of 

 ithe Argonne. Against the advantages of preparation, 

 ihe French had but one resource a complete upheaval 

 jf the entire ground by concentrated artillery fire. If 

 the French succeed in driving the Germans finally into 

 the open, the priceless forests of the entire region of 

 le Argonne from Itar-le-Duc north will exist no more." 



"Paul Descombes, discussing the progressive depopu- 

 lation of France, gives some statistics to show that the 

 thinning of the woods and forests is largely responsible. 

 There are thirty-one French departments that are 

 more or less mountainous. These now have 8,094,940 



Another dispatch, this time from Paris, quotes a well- 

 3wn Frenchman as saying that forest preservation is 

 ecessary to maintain population. It says : 



Photo by Underwood & Underwood, New York. 



FRENCH FOREST DESTROYED BY GERMAN SHELLS 



This forest land in the northwestern part of France sheltered several British regiments until the tier- 

 mans discovered them, and, concentrating a terriHc artillery tire on the woods, drove the British out 

 and destroyed the trees, as the photograi>h so well illustrates. 



inhabitants. If the old rate of increase had been main- 

 tained, their population now would be 11,896,360. Mon- 

 sieur Descombes points out that the mountainous regions 

 of Switzerland, which should not be any less favorable to 

 repopulation than the mountainous regions of France, 

 show an increase of more than 50 per cent in popula- 

 tion during the last sixty years, and he attributes it to 

 the fact that forest protection in Switzerland is far more 

 rigorous than in France." 



A cablegram from Amsterdam says : "Tremendous 

 forest and moor fires are raging in various parts of 



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