COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



METROPOLITAN PARK COMMISSION, 



CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, 14 BEACON STREET, 



Boston, May nth, 1905. 



Mr. Benjamin L. Robinson, 



Curator of the Gray Herbarium, 



3 Clement Circle, Cambridge* Mass. 



Bear Sir: 



The Metropolitan Fark Commission has received a communication 

 signed by you and many others. As you are the first signer reply is made 

 to you. The text of the communication is as follows: — 



"To the Metropolitan Park Commission: - 



fe, the undersigned, believing that the general wish is to carry 

 out the original purpose of preserving the Middlesex Fells in their 

 natural wild state, protest against the extensive cutting of trees, 

 and the systematic policy of imparting the character of a landscape 

 park to a forest reservation, the beauty and value of which depends 

 upon its wildness. 



The radical thinning of trees and the creating of open spaces 

 will inevitably result in the destruction of a large part of the 

 rarer native flora, and will drive away many varieties of birds. 



We further protest against the claim that any part of such tree- 

 cutting is necessary as a means of suppressing the gypsy and brown- 

 tail moth. Evidence can be produced to show that other methods are 

 more efficacious." 



This communication seems to indicate a misunderstanding of the pur- 

 pose, character and extent of the work done in the Middlesex Pells during 

 the past winter, but as a description of the work contemplated by this 

 Board and the reasons therefor is to be found in the report of the Com- 

 missioners and the accompanying reports to the legislature of 1905, it is 



WILLIAM B. DE LAS CASAS, 



EDWIN B. HASKELL. 

 EDWIN U. CURTIS. 

 DAVID N. SKILLINGS. 

 ELLERTON P. WHITNEY. 



JOHN WOODBURY, 



(G.0.-Gn) 



