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This story makes me furious!
The State Wants to Log Pisgah State Park
For those of you unfamiliar with Pisgah State Park, it is the largest state park in NH at 13,300 acres. The state wants to log 82 acres of it to help fund the state park system and "encourage prefered species" to habitate in that section of the park. While I realize that 82 acres is only a little over half a percent, I still find the thought of the State clear-cutting 82 acres of this park to be absolutely infuriating. Not only will they be stripping a section bare but they will also cause incredible amounts of damage to the existing plantlife and wildlife in this section and for who knows how far around it.
Pisgah State Park is absolutely gorgeous, but it is also remarkable because it has perhaps one of the largest concentrations of old-growth forest in the state of New Hampshire. And when I say old growth I mean trees that have been around longer than many of our families have lived on this continent. That kind of old growth. These are trees that survived the devastating clear-cutting practices that lead to NH trees becoming masts and planks on old wooden ships in colonial and Revolutionary-era times. These trees are historical and deserve our respect and protection.
The park is breathtaking and enormous. It's bigger than the city of Portsmouth (which is just shy of 11,000 acres). It includes sections with long-abandoned fruit orchards, historic cellar holes and remains of Native American villages. Of all the state parks in New Hampshire this is by far my favorite. I cringe at the thought of returning to find a portion of it clear-cut to fund the parks (not necessarily Pisgah, mind you) when the State could simply fund them better to begin. It makes no sense to me to devastate sections of our treasured parks to fund them. If the parks aren't properly funded in the first place, how long will it be before the State does this again and how often will they do this?
Pisgah holds so many amazing stories to be read in its old-growth, orchards, cellar holes, Native American remnants, signs of weather and human influence and interference on its development and so much more. How many of these stories will be lost with this clearing of even one-half percent of the forest? Even in taking "so little" we stand to lose so much. All for the sake of money. All so New Hampshire can be "tax-free." I'd rather pay an income tax or a sales tax than see such a horrific "solution."
The State Wants to Log Pisgah State Park
For those of you unfamiliar with Pisgah State Park, it is the largest state park in NH at 13,300 acres. The state wants to log 82 acres of it to help fund the state park system and "encourage prefered species" to habitate in that section of the park. While I realize that 82 acres is only a little over half a percent, I still find the thought of the State clear-cutting 82 acres of this park to be absolutely infuriating. Not only will they be stripping a section bare but they will also cause incredible amounts of damage to the existing plantlife and wildlife in this section and for who knows how far around it.
Pisgah State Park is absolutely gorgeous, but it is also remarkable because it has perhaps one of the largest concentrations of old-growth forest in the state of New Hampshire. And when I say old growth I mean trees that have been around longer than many of our families have lived on this continent. That kind of old growth. These are trees that survived the devastating clear-cutting practices that lead to NH trees becoming masts and planks on old wooden ships in colonial and Revolutionary-era times. These trees are historical and deserve our respect and protection.
The park is breathtaking and enormous. It's bigger than the city of Portsmouth (which is just shy of 11,000 acres). It includes sections with long-abandoned fruit orchards, historic cellar holes and remains of Native American villages. Of all the state parks in New Hampshire this is by far my favorite. I cringe at the thought of returning to find a portion of it clear-cut to fund the parks (not necessarily Pisgah, mind you) when the State could simply fund them better to begin. It makes no sense to me to devastate sections of our treasured parks to fund them. If the parks aren't properly funded in the first place, how long will it be before the State does this again and how often will they do this?
Pisgah holds so many amazing stories to be read in its old-growth, orchards, cellar holes, Native American remnants, signs of weather and human influence and interference on its development and so much more. How many of these stories will be lost with this clearing of even one-half percent of the forest? Even in taking "so little" we stand to lose so much. All for the sake of money. All so New Hampshire can be "tax-free." I'd rather pay an income tax or a sales tax than see such a horrific "solution."
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-02 05:34 am (UTC)From:That's no small feat for a forest its size.
Unfortunatly it seems it may not keep that reccord for long.
A little piece here, a little piece there, who needs that much old growth?
And I hate to break it to the State of N.H. but we are far from "tax free". The only tax we don't yet have is an income tax. The one tax that actually makes some sense for us to have.
Slippery Slopes ..
Date: 2007-06-03 09:47 pm (UTC)From:This item with the Pisgah State Park is a symptom of the cancer that pervades our representatives (note I do not mean our system - just the people in the system). If you have any method or means, any group or organization standing against this "just a little now" lie, join them, fund them, support them. Do not let the state take these eighty-two acres or they will be back next year for one hundred and sixty four more.