NH PUBLIC RADIO • July 26, 2024
The Liberty Trail on Mt. Chocorua is one of the most popular hiking paths in the White Mountain National Forest. The trail, flanked by thick woods, laces through the Sandwich Range, a swath of public land along the forest’s southeastern ridge that’s beloved by hikers for its acres of undisturbed wilderness. “This forest,” said Zack Porter, a local conservation advocate, “is unique regionally for having much older and healthier forests than we have on private lands around New England.” But the recent approval of a 600-acre logging project in late June in the Sandwich Range has animated long simmering tensions over the best way to manage the national forest. In some stands, clear cuts are planned. Many see the White Mountain National Forest as similar to a national park — a place of nature protected from development and extraction. But national forests are managed with economic considerations front of mind.