Canadian Forestry Journal, August, 1918 



182" 



England's Forests Sacrificed to War 



Nature Wears Another Aspect in the 

 Once Splendidly Wooded Sections. 



Although the Germans have not 

 set foot in Kngland and the horrors 

 of invasion have been spared the 

 country, nevertheless its natural 

 aspect is undergoing a great change 

 due to the war. The beautiful wood- 

 lands, forests, woods and groves that 

 for centuries have made its landscape 

 of unrivalled beauty are fast disap- 

 pearing under the axes of the Govern- 

 ment's lumbermen. It is only a 

 question of time, according to the 

 report of the forestry sub-committee 

 of the Reconstruction Committee, 

 before the whole of the country's 

 growing timber which is fit for com- 

 mercial use must disappear. Even 

 if every acre felled is replanted, it 

 will be many years before the present 

 output can be repeated. 



It is estimated that by the summer 

 of this year the Government and the 

 lumber trade will probably be con- 

 verting trees into timber at the rate 

 of 6,000,000 tons per annum, or more 

 than half of our total imports of 

 timber on the last year before the war. 

 Indeed, the need of timber is so 

 great and imperative that it is feared 

 by the end of next year the Govern- 

 ment will have to cut all the remain- 

 ing substantial blocks of mature 

 coniferous timber in the country. 

 And by substantial blocks is meant 

 any patches of any size whatever 

 suitable for cutting. It is only too 

 probable that this destruction of the 

 iDeautiful w^oods of England will have 

 to go on to the bitter end, as the 

 demand for timber is a continuous 

 and compulsory one so long as the 

 war lasts. 



A Picture of Destruction 



What it means in a given district 

 is illustrated quite close to London, at 

 Farnham in Surrey, less than forty 

 miles from the capital. 



This district has been bled almost 

 as much as any in the south, and 

 what has been done is but a foretaste 

 of what must follow. For miles it is 



hardly i)Ossible to be out of sight of 

 areas which have been completely 

 cleared or are littered with freshly 

 gashed and trimmed trees or of 

 woodlands in which the standing 

 timber is already marked for des- 

 truction. From Crooksbury to Til- 

 ford, to Churt by Frensham and back 

 to Farnham, everywhere is the same 

 picture of destruction; forests cleared 

 except for a shelter belt to protect 

 new saplings, entire woodlands gone 

 save for a few marked trees, trunks, 

 and logs in thousands lying where 

 they fell and awaiting removal. 



At Blacklake a new camp is being 

 erected for Canadian lumbermen who 

 will cut down the tall red tufted pines 

 and lay bare a great swath of coun- 

 try from the Farnham road across 

 the woods of Waverley and Moor 

 Park to Crooksbury Hill itself. This 

 is just one example of what is going 

 on all over Great Britain, Welsh, 

 Scotch and the Lake country vales, 

 that is, the Vale of Conway and the 

 Vale of Llangollen and certain parts 

 of Cumbria, show the forest loss most 

 because whole mountains have been 

 cleared and the destruction is most 

 apparent on high colmtry. In Devon- 

 shire great areas have been cut 

 down to the north of Exmoor and 

 many other localities, and several 

 companies of the Canadian Forestry 

 Corps are working in the country. 



In the New Forest there has been a 

 very heaVy cut of the fine old timber. 

 In Bedfordshire, the woodlands of 

 the Duke of Bedford and of Viscount 

 Peel have suffered, tremendously. 

 Virginia Water, Windsor Forest and 

 the Sunningdale region have been 

 cut over by Canadian lumbermen, 

 who are also cutting near \\'el]ington 

 College and Sandhurst, as well as on 

 the South Downs in Eartham Woods. 

 In Suffolk and Norfolk the forests are 

 falling rapidly. Historic seats are 

 not spared. The woods of Beaulieu 

 have been well cut out and the mag. 



