During the COVID lockdown millions of people sought relief
from being inside by visiting the White Mountains
National Forest in New Hampshire and Maine. Its proximity to major
urban areas like Boston made it an extremely popular place for day visitors. Usually, the White Mountains see about 6
million visitors annually. In the summer
of 2020, the visitation rates exceeded the rates of major national parks like Yellowstone
or Yosemite.
Even without COVID lockdown restrictions, people still seek
relief in nature. National parks and
National Forests are so popular, especially among foreign visitors, that there
are businesses and tours designed especially for tourists to take advantage of
their natural beauty. Parks nearer to
large population centers, like Acadia, Shenandoah, and the White Mountains see
even more visitors with day visits bringing up the numbers even higher. I know that when we need a nature break, we
often just drive up to the Kancamagus Highway for a few hours. When we were younger, an overnight in a tent fulfilled
the same purpose.
Humans have visited the White Mountains of New Hampshire and
Maine for over 10,000 years. These native hunting grounds became a tourist
attraction in the 19th century, along with logging and farming. But
70% of the land in New Hampshire south of the notches had been cleared of trees
by 1850. Needing a good source for wood, the loggers moved up to the White
Mountains and began to clear cut the forests.
The devastation to the White Mountains was not just to the
beauty of the scenery. There were major
forest fires that caused silting of the waterways. Erosion threatened the
slopes of the mountains. The towns that lived downstream suffered from ash in
the air and pollution of the waters. Businesses suffered. People suffered. Businesses in New England suffered.
Scenes of deforestation in New Hampshire
Congress had acted to protect forests out west, but in the east,
no one supported saving the forests.
According to the Appalachian Mountain Club, Congress rejected over 40
bills to establish eastern national forests.
“The House Speaker at the time, Joe Cannon, declared there would be “not
one cent for scenery.” They were
mistaken, because forests are so much more than scenery.
In 1905 Massachusetts Congressman John Weeks proposed a bill
that would allow the purchase of the White Mountains to protect the headwaters
of rivers. Together with the Appalachian
Mountain Club and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests they
built support for the Weeks Act. In 1907
massive floods in New England caused $100 million in damage, and there was
finally enough support to go ahead with the Weeks Act. It was signed into law on 1 March 1911.
The US government began to purchase land in New Hampshire
and Maine in 1914. During the Great Depression in the 1930s the White Mountain National Forest was established,
and the Civilian Conservation Corps (the CCC) built the roads, trails and many
of the campgrounds and visitor centers that you see today. It has over 750,000 acres used for logging, research,
and recreation. It is all managed by the US Forest Service, protecting the land
and waters from the devastation of deforestation seen more than 100 years ago. Nearly
20 million acres of forest have been protected by the Weeks Act. The Weeks Act was good for business with
hundreds of North Country hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, and more
benefiting from the National Forest, and hundreds of businesses south of the
Notches benefiting, too.
This historic marker to the Weeks Act
is located in Lancaster, New Hampshire
In early April 2026 the current administration ordered the US
Forest Service to be dismantled. Every regional office is being shuttered, and
their 57 research stations in 31 states are being shut down. The headquarters are being moved to
Utah, a state known for wanting Federal Lands sold into private hands with the anti-public-lands movement. We all
know what the history of privatizing public lands means, and what happened to
the White Mountains before 1914, when the land was in private hands that devastated
the region. The regional leadership will be replaced with 15 political appointees.
The AP new reported “Taylor McKinnon at the Arizona-based
Center for Biological Diversity described the move as “a costly bureaucratic
reshuffle that will put more power in the hands of corporations and states to
log, mine and drill public lands.” This is not a reorganization, it is a deliberate destruction of the Forest Service that has protected public lands for 121 years.
This is not a budget cut; it is gutting the careers of long-time
researchers and foresters with decades of experience in caring for OUR national
forests and national parks. They are destroying the science behind watersheds,
tree growth, and the eco systems of OUR forests. Without science the nay-sayers can argue
that there is no barrier to moving these public lands into private hands.
The history of New Hampshire includes the fascinating
history of the White Mountains. What a
loss it would be for wildfires, which have become so prevalent recently with climate
change, to return and destroy the White Mountain region! Imagine the watersheds polluted again with
silt and ash. How many communities
depend on these waters for healthy drinking water, energy, and recreation?
The US Forest Service was established in 1905 by President
Theodore Roosevelt, who also established the National Park Service. Both were massive conservation efforts that
by 1909 included 150 national forests.
Today there are 154 national forests, and 20 national grasslands in 43
states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
These are our forests. These are YOUR forests. The White
Mountains National Forest symbolizes New Hampshire, not just with the now gone
Old Man of the Mountain rock formation, but with every mountain peak, river
valley, campground and recreation area.
Please contact your senators and representatives before this forest, like
the Old Man, is gone forever.
How to contact your members of Congress:
Find your Representative:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Find your Senators: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
Contact New Hampshire Governor Ayotte: https://www.governor.nh.gov/contact-governor-ayotte
For the truly curious:
Save The U.S. Forest Service: https://saveusfs.org/
Appalachian Mountain Club “The Legislation that Saved the
White Mountain Region”, https://www.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/history/the-legislation-that-saved-the-white-mountain-region/
accessed 4 April 2026.
Crawford, Lucy (1883). The History of the White Mountains from the First Settlement of Upper Coos and Pequaker, published by Hoyt, Fogg and Donham.
Wikipedia “White Mountain National Forest” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Mountain_National_Forest
“Trump plans to move Forest Service headquarters to Utah and
shutter research sites” AP News, 31 March 2026, https://apnews.com/article/forest-service-relocation-dc-salt-lake-city-eca93fa055ffce3528f5e8c71160a135
“Trump Administration orders dismantling of the US Forest
Service”, 2 April, 2026, https://www.hatchmag.com/articles/trump-administration-orders-dismantling-us-forest-service/7716263
A blog post about Zealand, New Hampshire, a town destroyed
by wildfires caused by clear cutting in the 1800s. https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/where-heck-is-zealand-new-hampshire.html
Forest History Society, “The Weeks Act”, https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/policy-and-law/the-weeks-act/ accessed 5 April 2026
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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson
Rojo, “The History of The White Mountains National Forest”, Nutfield
Genealogy, posted April 9, 2026, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-history-of-white-mountains-national.html: accessed [access date]).
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