https://indepthnh.org/2024/05/20/gr...ge-logging-in-white-mountain-national-forest/
A new variation on the same old theme of turning the entire WMNF into effectively a National Park. I have not spent any time at the Lake Tarleton project as its on the extreme opposite end of the WMNF from my "backyard" and required a vote on by congress to move the declaration boundary of the WMNF to allow the purchase. The Peabody West Project is in my "backyard". Lots of nice buzzwords in the announcement, including making claims including that the AT runs through it. file:///C:/Users/denni/Downloads/Figure%202%20Project%20Area%20Map.pdf Having hiked the AT in the area, the biggest impact to the AT might be long range viewshed impact from a couple of miles away from the AT along the Carter Moriah ridge. The reality is that the AT from where it drops off the treeline from Madison is oriented with view due south with only limited views restricted by dense growth on either side of the trail, the Peabody west cutting closest to the AT is on the East face of Madison at the base and lower elevations of Madison. Most of the Peabody west cuts are on the slopes of Pine Mountain with its biggest visual impact to the town of Gorham. This corner of the WMNF is rarely visited with only the Pine Mountain Trail and the Hayes Cop ski trail crossing it. This area and much of the land along RT 16 south of Gorham were purchased by the WMNF at one point in the mid 1980s from the Libby Corporation based in Gorham, a former large timberland owner that ran a sawmill complex in Gorham as well as owner of the Glen House properties and Auto Road.
As the above linked map shows there are a lot of recreational enhancements in the project. WIth the loss of major manufacturing base in the Berlin Gorham area, the area has shifted to a tourist based economy as well as lower cost housing for working class folks who cannot afford the Mt Washington area to the south. The most obvious shift has been to embrace ATVs but a bit less obvious is the major expansion of the Coo Cycling club's mountain biking trails
https://static1.squarespace.com/sta.../1611683468904/Coos_Trails_2020.0910_2-01.jpg and attempts at developing ski glades.
There is a lot of national money out there from many groups that are willing to fund these legal efforts to oppose the project. GIven that the project has been planned for several years and effectively approved by the WMNF it will be interesting to see how this go around works. One of the big issues out there from a forest management perspective in northern NH is the lack of early stage succession habitat that forms after a major natural disturbance or manmade patch cut. A large host of birds and animals need edge habitat around openings in the forest and given the rare tendency for natural fires to occur in the area logging cuts create edge habitat. The WMNF does have a few managed areas but they are costly to maintain and in the years I have lived in the area many have been abandoned to grow back into forest.
