At the time, Vermont’s economy was still in extraction mode, even as the state was beginning to invite tourism. Beginning with the rise of the potash export business in 1756, hillsides were systematically denuded. In 1885, Vermont’s first Forestry Commission reported that the state had lost 90% of its forest cover within two generations.
Voices of Conservation
Some observers foresaw impending calamity. For some time, Vermonters had remarked upon strange events: unusually violent flash floods, the disruption of watercourses, the fouling of streams, and the accelerated appearance of the annual crop of rocks. Vermonter George Perkins Marsh, now considered the founder of modern conservationism, theorized that ignorant practices, especially overtimbering and overgrazing, resulted in runaway erosion.
In 1864, Marsh published the first comprehensive analysis of the condition of the global environment in his exhaustively researched book and aptly titled Man and Nature: Physical Geography As Modified by Human Action. He called for incentives to encourage scientific forest management, recommended public ownership of forest lands, and opposed building in flood zones. He insisted that healthy watersheds are the key to a sustainable environment, and that stewardship is imperative.
Marsh was not alone in identifying the problem. A Vermont timber products manufacturer, Marshall Hapgood, likewise expressed concern for the state’s economic future, should its forestlands continue to disappear. The only way to halt the loss of the forests would be to place them under government supervision, preferably federal. Governor John Weeks agreed, as did the State Forester and the Vermont Forestry Association, but the U.S. Forest Service did not view Vermont’s forests as needing special attention.
The Flood Makes Its Point
The Flood of ‘27 changed minds as well as landscape. In the first days of November, following unseasonably warm weather and twice the normal rainfall, hard rains fell continuously for thirty-nine hours. The final tally showed that 7,056 acres of land valued at $1.3 million literally went down the river. Six hundred ninety farms and 137 cities and villages were affected; 1,258 bridges were lost, as well as eighty-four lives (R. E. Atwood, Stories and Pictures of The Vermont Flood, Burlington, Vt. 1927).
The following year, Weeks made an official appeal to the U.S. Forest Service, endorsed by the state Chamber of Commerce, the Vermont Commission of Conservation, and the New England chapter of the Society of American Foresters. A national forest in Vermont could be managed scientifically to protect watersheds, support timber communities, and promote recreation. After some haggling over the proclamation boundaries, in April 1932 President Hoover signed the Green Mountain National Forest into being.
The Green Mountain National Forest Today
Vermont’s total forest cover has now rebounded. Both public and private forests have never been in better shape. The National Forest is well established, with two separate geographical units, four district offices, and eight wilderness tracts making up 25 per cent of its total area. The Forest also partners with recreation groups, cross-country and downhill ski areas, guide services, landowners, and towns with lands contained inside the Forest boundary.
Though it represents a mere 0.2 per cent of the total acreage within the entire national forest system, the vibrant Green Mountain National Forest continues its mission as a living laboratory, a source of native wood for wood products manufacturers and artisans, and a rich and varied recreational setting.
Julia Purdy - My background includes an M.A. in English and a B.A. in Art History. I have a strong background in writing and teaching, and have ...
