A WHITE MOUNTAIN FOREST 



RESERVE 



Its Immediate Need, and Its Relation 

 to the National Forest Reserve Policy 



BY 

 EDWIN A. START 



Secretary, The Massachusetts Forestry Association 



*~r HE question of a national forest 

 reserve in the White Mountains 

 is far broader than many who are not 

 fully acquainted with the facts and 

 conditions realize. It is not a ques- 

 tion of saving for the state of New 

 Hampshire some valuable property in 

 which short-sighted officials have 

 been squandering the state's birth- 

 right in past years. That this has been 

 done is true, but it is no concern of 

 ours. Other states have been short- 

 sighted, penny-wise and pound fool- 

 ish. The nation has been so more than 

 once, but this is no argument against 

 a policy that is good now, and that 

 means continuing good for future 

 years. The United States is fairly em- 

 barked on a forest reserve policy. 

 This policy has had its years of bitter 

 opposition in the west, and has em- 

 erged triumphant. We are organizing 

 a capable forest service which is des- 

 tined to put this country in the fore- 

 most place among the nations in forest 

 management and utilization. 



Now the question we of the north- 

 east, and of the southeast, ask is 

 whether or not all the bene^ts of this 

 wise policy are to be confined to the 

 country west of the Mississippi ? There 

 lie the great forests, but here in the 

 older and more thickly settled states 

 there still remain certain areas of im- 

 mense value to many of the states, 

 which should not be given over to 

 private control, because that means 

 wasteful lumbering that will put a few 

 hundred thousands in the pockets of 

 a few men to-day and result in a loss 

 of millions to the country at large in 



the next few years. Such a course is 

 too unenlightened, too uneconomic to 

 be considered by a powerful, practical 

 nation, with ample means to maintain 

 and defend its interests. We invest 

 $5,000,000 without the quiver of an 

 eyelash, in a battleship that will be a 

 continual charge upon the country and 

 will be obsolete in ten years, and then 

 we are met by the cry of poverty and 

 economy when we ask that a like sum 

 be expended to preserve under intelli- 

 gent forest management for all time 

 the forest region of the White Moun- 

 tains. Yet this latter expenditure, in- 

 stead of producing more expense, will 

 give to the nation a piece of property 

 that is worth the money to-day, the re- 

 servation of which will result in an 

 immediate conservation of a part of 

 the national wealth, and which will be 

 increasingly productive from decade 

 to decade. 



The United States has at present an 

 investment of $200,000,000 in forest 

 reserves west of the Mississippi. Is 

 it asking too much that $15,000,000 

 should be invested to save two valu- 

 able areas of the rapidly disappearing 

 forests of the eastern states and to 

 protect important inter-state water 

 supplies ? 



It is sometimes said that New Hamp- 

 shire should take care of the White 

 Mountains, that New York has done 

 so with much of the Adirondack 

 country ; but this plea is trivial. New 

 York is the most populous and 

 wealthy state in the Union, and the 

 Adirondacks are solely a state pos- 

 session. New Hampshire is a poor 





