A writer, too, helped protect the wilderness
In this, the 100th anniversary year of the Weeks Act that protected the White Mountain National Forest, it's easy to assume that John Wingate Weeks was a solo environmentalist, single-handedly fighting off the excesses of industry to protect the state's natural resources.
Not true. Weeks's name is on the landmark legislation, of course, but the law was the culmination of the work of many, many environmentalists who labored for years to get the attention of Washington. There were scientists, political activists, hikers, artists and all manner of ecologists distraught about the turn-of-the-century state of New Hampshire's precious mountains and northern forests. Among them: a nearly forgotten writer named Winthrop Packard, who helped city dwellers to the south appreciate the White Mountains and agitate for their protection.
He, too, deserves commemoration this year.
Packard was born in 1862 and lived to 1943, a good long life that allowed him to see the devastation of the forests by 19th-century timber barons, the creation of the national forest and the early years of its return to good health.
Packard was part of a group of Boston-area nature writers who called themselves the "Not Verys" - because, by their own reckoning, they were not very scientific, not very anecdotal, not very sentimental.
Actually, they were too modest.
Packard wrote regularly for the Boston Evening Transcript about his forays into the White Mountains, or the "White Hills," as he sometimes called them. In 1912, he collected his essays in a volume called White Mountain Trails, in which he brings readers along for 19 hikes - up Tuckerman's Ravine, to the Lake of the Clouds, to Mount Lafayette and more.
He taught readers about North Country birds, plants and critters of all sorts. He could even make the pre-hike car trip sound glorious:
"The smooth highway over which thousands of automobiles skim in long summer processions from Massachusetts to the mountains, coquettes with Mount Chocorua as it winds through the Ossipees. Sometimes it tosses you over a ridge whence the blue bulk and gray pinnacle stand bewitchingly revealed for a second only to be eclipsed in another second by the lesser, nearby beauties of the hill country, and leave you wistful. Sometimes it gives you tantalizing flashes of it through trees or by the gable of a farm-house on a round, hayfield hill, but it is only as you glide down the long incline to the shores of Chocorua Lake that the miracle of revelation is complete. Then indeed you must set your foot hard on the brake and gaze long over the Scudder farm-house gate down a green slope of field to the little lake, and as the eye touches approvingly Mark Robertson's rustic bridge, set in just the right spot to give the human touch to the wild beauty of the landscape, and leaps beyond to the larger lake framed in its setting of dark growth, and on again to the noble lift of the great mountain with its bare pinnacle of gray granite, you realize the grandeur and beauty of this outpost sentinel of the white hills, It is hard to believe that Switzerland or Italy or any other country has anything finer than this to show the traveller.
Slope Landscape Timbers - News
Packard was born in 1862 and lived to 1943, a good long life that allowed him to see the devastation of the forests by 19th-century timber barons, the creation of the national forest and the early years of its return to good health.
Located on the lower slope of Monticello mountain the new Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center, a “green” building, shows a brief video detailing the additions and renovations Jefferson constructed to his home over the decades.
MTC's project Wild and Working Lands has focused on the balance between local economic needs such as timber harvesting and ranching. Allen said, “You may have heard about out PTEIR program, Program Timberland Environmental Impact Report.
She loved the book “Bringing Nature Home” (Timber Press, 2009) by entomology professor Douglas Tallamy, based on his research showing that native insects prefer native plants. An abundance of native insects will, in turn, attract birds,
The snow line is moving up-slope, and wolverines need to follow, for they need deep snow to raise their young. And important grizzly bear foods such as huckleberries are expected to migrate or disappear, which would mean that bears will need to move as
Meet your teddy at the eco-resort Southern Ocean Lodge | Vagablond
The third largest island of Australia, the Kangaroo Island nestles the Southern Ocean Lodge in the pristine natural bush land on the cliff of Hanson bay that offers the scenic beauty of the coastline of the wild Southern Ocean while pampering the guests with its organic luxury blended with sophistication. It is a fabulous eco-resort with 21 elegantly designed suites; all made of light weight materials and can be carried in with minimum site disturbance. The foundations are built from steel screw piles with timber frames and the facing is done in fibre cement and iron. The flooring is done with recycled stone and timber. Generation of electricity and waste water treatment are done on site. The roofs are designed following the slope of the landscape and it allows collecting rainwater in the galvanized iron tanks. These tanks are the iconic symbols of the dry rural areas of the country. The architecture of the eco friendly lodge resembles the dramatic site with its iconic accommodation. The koalas sleeping on the slender branches, the kangaroos and some other impressive wildlife are always ready to welcome the guests on the island.
Via www.southernoceanlodge.com.
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