Jasen Stock is the executive director of the NH Timberland Owners Association.
While I appreciate the passion and respect for Lake Tarleton expressed in a recent My Turn (Monitor, 8/21) the history of this land shows that timber management was always meant to be considered part of the multiple-use management.
In March 1998, Senator Judd Gregg announced he had secured federal funds for the U.S. Forest Service’s purchase of 1,250 acres of land adjacent to Lake Tarleton. This was part of a multi-year and multi-phase acquisition plan led by the senator. This was a big deal, and from the beginning land conservation, protection from development, wildlife habitat management and “logging” was contemplated.
In fact, in a July 28, 1996, article in the Concord Monitor about this emerging deal, written by Paul Tolme of the Associated Press, it states the organization acting as the intermediary in this transaction between the U.S. government and private landowner, the Trust for Public Lands, would purchase the best timberland and “sell the rights for the land to be logged responsibly.”
The addition of the Lake Tarleton lands to the White Mountain National Forest was a big deal for another reason. It extended the White Mountain National Forest outside the “Proclamation Boundary” established in 1929. Chapter 121 (RSA 121:6) of New Hampshire law defines and limits the acquisition of lands by the federal government for “public conservation, forestry, recreation, experimentation or demonstration” purposes. This law addresses White Mountain National Forest acquisitions inside and outside the Proclamation Boundary. It specifically excludes from the land acquisition limitations federally acquired land within the Proclamation Boundary or land acquired outside the boundary, where New Hampshire governor and council approval was granted.
On February 18, 1998, the New Hampshire governor and council approved the expansion of the Proclamation Boundary of White Mountain National Forest to include 2,242 acres around Lake Tarleton. In the N.H. Department of Resources, Recreation and Development Commissioner, Robb Thomson’s letter announcing this approval to the U.S. Forest supervisor he specifically acknowledges that the plan for these newly acquired lands will include public recreation and appropriate wildlife and timber management.
The third, more recent, affirmation of forestry, timber management, or logging contemplated for these lands was the adoption of the 2005 White Mountain National Forest Resource Management Plan. Think of this document as a zoning ordinance that defines what management activities can occur in which areas of the forest. The Lake Tarleton project area is plainly and clearly identified as “Management Area 2.1,” land to be managed for timber products, habitats for wildlife species, and recreational opportunities.
This plan was years in development and was adopted without a single appeal or legal challenge. This is unheard of and an affirmation that the scientists, land-use planners and land managers on the White Mountain National Forest got it right.