IMPROVING WHITE MOUNTAIN 



FORESTS 



By Wm. L. Hall, Assistant Forester U. S. Forest Service 



[The first sale of Government timber on the White Mountain forests has been made and the 

 reason for it is of decided interest to the many millions living in New England and along the 

 Appalachians. Twenty-five per cent, of the money derived from this sale is returned to the towns 

 and counties in which the timber is located in lieu of taxes. The writer explains the situation 

 clearly and his article should attract much attention. Editor.] 



THE Federal Government having 

 acquired large tracts of forest 

 lands in the White Mountains 

 is now beginning the necessary 

 improvements to make the forest fully 

 useful to the Nation. Construction of 

 roads, trails and telephone lines neces- 

 sary to make the tracts accessible for 

 purposes of protection and use have 

 been under way during the past two 

 years. Uses of the lands for purpose 

 of summer cottages, camps and other 

 purposes in line with the objects of 

 the Government have begun. 



As a further step in the policy of 

 development the first sale of 500,000 

 feet of Government timber has just been 

 awarded. Very naturally the question 

 may arise as to why it is desirable to 

 cut any of the Government's timber. 

 Why not leave it just as it is? The 

 answer may best be given by stating the 

 purposes of the sale. This I will do 

 and then discuss some of the funda- 

 mental considerations which are in- 

 volved. 



Briefly the purposes of this sale are to 

 clear away a large amount of mature, 

 overmature and defective timber and 

 liberate a fine stand of young trees 

 which is already present, to test methods 

 of removing this material with minimal 

 damage to the young growth, to ascer- 

 tain the best means of disposing of the 

 resulting brush, and to get revenue. 

 The first object is the improvement of 

 the stand, the second to ascertain by 

 experiment the best methods to employ 

 and the third to secure financial returns. 



First let me discuss the third, and 

 as some will think the least important 

 object, the securing of financial returns. 

 It is important that the lands the 



Government buys yield a return on the 

 investment. It is absolutely necessary 

 in the long run that they do so. The 

 Nation will not regard the project as a 

 success unless they do. The ones 

 chiefly interested in having some returns 

 from these lands, however, are the towns 

 and counties in which they are situated. 

 When these lands were acquired by the 

 United States they were removed from 

 taxation and the tax burden on the 

 other lands was correspondingly in- 

 creased. Congress has met this situa- 

 tion by providing that 25 per cent, of 

 the gross returns from the sale of the 

 timber and from other sources be 

 returned to the States and counties 

 concerned in lieu of taxes. It would be 

 unfair to the towns and counties to 

 hold back on the cutting of extensive 

 bodies of timber and deprive them of 

 the revenues they need. 



But to come back to the main object, 

 which is the improvement of the forest. 

 Much of the cutting done in the White 

 Mountains in the past left the forest 

 in bad condition. The poor trees 

 should have been taken and some of the 

 good ones left. But the other thing 

 was done. Good ones were taken and 

 poor ones left. A great tangle of 

 brush was left, too, which has been 

 increased by the blowing down of 

 some of the defective trees left standing. 

 In its purchases the United States has 

 acquired a great deal of this class of 

 culled and cutover timber land. Now 

 the problem is how to get that forest, 

 back into good condition. This sale 

 is the first step taken in that direction 

 and it has been made on a representative 

 area and in a situation where the work 

 can be handled advantageously. It 



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