New bathing development at Hampton Beach. Rectangle indicatej location of bat/ihouse i/ow completed Photo by Fairchild Aerial Surveys State of New Hampshire BIENNIAL REPORT of the I Forestry and Recreation Commission For the Two Fiscal Years Ending June 30, 193 5-36 CONCORD 1937 EVANS PRINTING CO. CONCORD. N. H. 52892 - ‘J, * ‘‘ I: CONTENTS REPORT 7 Statement to the Governor and Council 7 REVISION OF LAWS—1935 37 PUBLIC FORESTS 41 White Mountain National Forest 41 State Forests and Reservations 49 List of State Forests by Towns 59 RECREATION ADMINISTRATION 65 State Recreation Centers Supervised 67 Recreation on Unsupervised Areas 79 List of Ski Trails on State Lands 82 WORK RELIEF PROJECTS, CHAPTER 150 83 Expenditures, Chapter 150 90-91 FOREST FIRE CONTROL 92 Organization and Personnel 92 Lookout Stations 94 Civilian Conservation Corps 95 Fire Fighting Equipment 96 Water Hole Construction and Statistics 96-97 Review of Fire Conditions and Statistics 99-101 Portable Saw Mills 106 REFORESTATION AND NURSERY 107 Planting on State Lands 109 State Forest Nursery 110 Nursery Output 113 EMERGENCY CONSERVATION WORK IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 114 Establishment of Camps 114 Camps p Accomplishments of Camp Pillsbury, 5-51 115 r . Camp Pawtuckaway, S-52 120 Camp Hemenway, S-53 123 Camp Cardigan, S-54 125 Camp Monadnock, S-55 130 Warner Camp, S-56 133 Camp Claremont, S-57 135 Connecticut Lakes Camp, P-58 137 Moose Brook Camp, SP-1 138 Bear Brook Camp, SP-2 140 Camp Pawtuckaway, SP4 142 Summary of Construction Work 144 Summary of Forest Improvement Work 1:;45 WHITE PINE BLISTER RUST CONTROL 146 By Civilian Conservation Corps 146 In Co-operation with Towns 150 Federal Relief Funds 152 REGISTERED ARBORISTS 155 FOREST INDUSTRIES AND MARKETS 158 WOOD-LOT MANAGEMENT 163 GAME MANAGEMENT 168 FOREST RESEARCH 172 THE LUMBER CUT 184 If STATE APPROPRIATIONS 185 REPORT To His Excellency, the Governor and the Honorable Council. The Forestry and Recreation Commission submits herewith a review and summary of the forestry work of this Commission leading up to and including the various activities of the biennial period of 1935 and 1936. The detailed report of the past two rears will appear in publication with this review. The change in name of the Forestry Commission to the Forestry and Recreation Commission by the last Legislature gives recognition to the broader character of service along recreational lines which the public ex pects of the State and which the Forestry Commission has in previous years endeavored to furnish wherever places of particular interest within the State reservations could be made available to people with little or no ex penditure of public funds. The published records of the past fifty years indicate that recreational needs were ever a part of the ultimate plans and purposes of the work of our Commission. For the past four years the State bond issue provisions of Chapter 150, Laws of 1933 and Federal funds under CWA, ERA and par ticularly the CCC have given work to thousands of un employed, and made possible the development of a program of recreation as well as of forestry of far- reaching importance to the State. The report of the first special Commission of Forestry to the Legislature of 1885 was but a brief challenge to the people of New Hampshire to become concerned in the forest affairs of the State. Wild lands had then entirely passed out of State hands into private owner ship and the timber was being cut off at a prodigious rate with the resultant havoc caused by fires. This report pointed out the necessity of a code of laws, a 8 REPORT OF FORESTRY AND RECREATION COMMISSION forest policy, a State-wide system of fire protection and public reservations. Public sentiment siowiy responded. The Society for Protection of New Hampshire Forests was organized in 1900 and became an active force in favor of forest conservation. A permanent Forestry Commission carried forward the work of the special Commission but with few laws and no money with which to operate. The Federal Forest Service made its first contribution to State co-operation when it made possible the studies and reports of 1903, 1905, and 1907 on the forest resources of the State and the taxation of forest property. A State Department of Forestry and a code of laws were established under the Forestry Commission in 1909. Two years later the Weeks Law, afterwards known as the Clarke-McNary Act, passed Congress, providing for (1) purchase of national forest lands in the East; (2) financial aid to the states in maintaining adequate systems of forest fire protection; (3) forest tree pro duction and distribution. The Extension Service soon followed with its latent opportunity to include farm forestry among its beneficial activities. As in other Federal bureaus such as Public Roads and Education, the Government was aiding with talent and money these forward looking programs, which have become so far-reaching and indispensable today. It is worth point ing out that progress in developing these various Fed eral-aid programs has not been rapid or spectacular and always it has gone forward only as the states were ready to accept and support them. There was time for planning and the perfection of organizations by the states. Progress by the fundamental principle of co operation and oint participation of governmental agen cies, Federal, State and Towns, has been and is likely to continue to be the best policy in the future. The goal of forestry toward which to strive has long been defined; namely, to restore the deteriorated forests REPORT OF FORESTRY AND RECREATION COMMISSION 9 of the State to highest productiveness that they may render maximum service as sources of raw material for the industries, for watershed protection and for rec reation. Methods to achieve this goal, as applicable today as in the past, are: (1) To provide public forests, National, State, and Town, as a foundation for and as examples of properly managed forests; (2) To create conditions enabling and encouraging private owners to improve their forests—systematic fire prevention and suppression until the average area burned over annually becomes negligible and forest property becomes an insurable risk at reasonable rates; continued protective measures against forest insects and diseases; modification of taxing systems to insure equality of tax burdens on forest land owners as compared with other owners; investigation of problems of growing and marketing timber; distribution of forest planting stock to land owners at the cost of production; other measures to control stream-flow and thereby to help prevent floods; (3) To protect public health, promote happiness and increase the general attractiveness of the State through public development and supervision of small areas of high scenic and recreational value; embracing sea and lake shores, waterfalls, mountain scenery, roadside areas, remnants of primeval forests and sites of historic in terest; (4) An organized effort to educate and interest all elements of business, professional, civic and social life to a true recognition of the overwhelming importance of forests in all plans for future prosperity and develop ment. These objectives are generally understood by those who have followed the progress of forestry and rec - IJ L I. 10 REPORT OF FORESTRY AND RECREATION COMMISSION reation from the beginning. Efforts have been made to bring about a change in the general property tax as applying to forest growth but have so far failed. Larger programs and funds might well have been advanced by the Government and State during earlier years for land acquisition, recreation and to perfect policies in volving forest taxation and sub-marginal land use.. There has been substantial progress in developing a State-wide forest fire organization, in controlling the white pine blister rust, in bringing into State owner ship by gifts and purchases 112 widely scattered dem onstration forests and reservations, in forest tree plant ing, in helping towns to improve their town owned forests, and in studies of forest resources, the forest in dustries of the State and markets for their products. Not until emergency relief work started with special State and Federal funds and CCC labor has it been possible to prove that the long time policy of State forest ownership could bear fruit in public enjoyment of so many of the areas in State ownership for bathing, camping, picnicking, skiing and other winter sports. Roads and bridges to reach the more important places, parking spaces to accommodate the cars and a number of scenic roads have been built for public recreation. It has been possible also to provide needed bathhouses, caretaker cabins, shelters, sanitary provisions, drinking water, electric lights, picnic tables and fireplaces. There are now 1 5 State recreational centers under supervision for bathing or camping and day picnic use; of which Franconia and Crawford Notches, the Poole Memorial on Mount Monadnock and Wellington Beach on New found Lake are earlier developments. Six of the newer centers were acquired by the State and partially de veloped by other agencies using emergency funds before they were transferred to the Forestry and Recreation Commission by the Governor and Council to complete and administer. REPORT OF FORESTRY AND RECREATION COMMISSION 11 Forestry as well as recreation has had an important place in the emergency work programs. The State Forests outside the recreational areas have produced thousands of cords of low grade wood to improve their future value, the wood not needed for CCC Camps and recreation areas being given to towns for relief pur poses. The chief contribution to fire protection has been in making our reservations accessible through road building, in improving our system of telephone lines to fire lookout stations and in the construction of many hundreds of water holes to supply water for pumping equipment now largely in use for fire suppression.