WHITE MOUNTAIN

SIGNIFICANCE:
The White Mountain National Forest, spanning New Hampshire and Maine, is the largest tract of public land in New England. It includes the headwaters of five major rivers, extensive forests, and Mount Washington—the Northeast’s highest peak. Located just 130 miles from Boston, the region draws more than three million visitors annually and supports wildlife such as moose, black bears, and beaver, along with imperiled species including the Canada lynx, northern long-eared bat, and Bicknell’s thrush—and potentially eastern wolves and cougars.

PROPOSAL:
The proposed 810,000-acre White Mountain National Park and Preserve would permanently protect these lands under National Park Service stewardship. Mature and old-growth forests would be allowed to recover, wildlife habitat would be secured, and watersheds would be safeguarded. Preserve areas would support a wide range of recreation, including hunting, downhill skiing, and the region’s iconic backcountry hut system.

OPPORTUNITY:
Intensive logging, including in roadless areas, and poorly planned recreational development increasingly fragment habitats and degrade the visitor experience. National park designation offers a powerful opportunity to protect New England’s most iconic mountain landscape, strengthen climate resilience, and ensure that the White Mountains remain a place of wild beauty, recreation, and renewal for generations to come.

Header photo: Forest and high peaks, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire / © Chris Matera

More Information:

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.