The White Mountain National Forest is the largest tract of public land in New England, encompassing vast forests, the headwaters of five major rivers, and the highest peak in the northeastern U.S., 6,288-foot Mount Washington. This is home to black bear, moose, and beaver, the imperiled Canada lynx, and potentially the extirpated eastern wolf, cougar, and Atlantic salmon. Only 130 miles from Boston, the forest attracts more than 6 million visitors each year. Yet, on more than 80% of the forest, the U.S. Forest Service is allowing intensive logging — including in mature and old-growth stands and roadless areas — and proposing a major ski area expansion. In response, citizens are reviving an idea first proposed in 1902 — White Mountain National Park. The 800,000-acre park would prohibit logging and allow the recovery of old-growth forests, prevent the fragmentation of wildlife habitats, and upgrade now-inadequate public education and recreation programs.

Threats to the White Mountain National Forest

Intensive Logging

The Forest Service is planning several large-scale logging projects that would violate roadless areas, devastate mature and old-growth forests, fragment habitats for sensitive wildlife, worsen climate change, and degrade air and water quality.

• The Forest Service has approved the logging of more than 600 acres in the Sandwich Range. This project — which includes clearcutting — will be near the Sandwich Range Wilderness and bring logging trucks to spots popular for hiking and nature study. The project was approved despite strong public opposition.

• Two other logging projects — euphemistically called the Tarleton and Peabody West “Integrated Resource Projects” — include nearly 3,000 acres of commercial logging and more than 11 miles of permanent road construction in two irreplaceable landscapes traversed by the Appalachian Trail and enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year. Conservationists have filed a lawsuit challenging these harmful projects.

• An executive order by President Trump calls for a dramatic increase in public lands logging and weakening of environmental regulations — including most of the White Mountain National Forest. This threatens even greater logging pressure across the forest.

Ski area expansion

In the 1980-90s, developers applied to the U.S. Forest Service for a permit to allow the Loon Mountain Ski Area in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire to expand by nearly 1,000 acres. RESTORE challenged the project on substantive and procedural grounds. In 1997, the courts said we were correct. We reached a settlement the next year, which allowed for some expansion of the ski area, but provided for better environmental protections.

Now, the Forest Service is considering another large ski area expansion — this time at Waterville Valley Resort. However, the agency has started off on the wrong foot by failing to provide the public with the application and project proposal. Based on what we do know, RESTORE and our colleagues have filed extensive “scoping” comments which emphasize that the economic justification for the project has not been substantiated, that the impacts of climate change, carbon emissions and other variables need to be thoroughly analyzed, that endangered species need to be protected, and that lower-impact alternatives should be assessed. You can read our comments here.