As Ted Williams discovered (in "Thoreau's Dream"), the Maine Woods has
everything: tall white pines, mossy spruces, and delicate orchids; free-flowing
rivers and clear lakes; rugged mountains and canyons. Conservationists have
proposed a park and preserve that would protect 3.2 million acres of this
diversity, an area the size of Connecticut.
Wildlife
Such species as moose, deer, black bear, beaver, loon, broad-winged hawk,
blue-spotted salamander, and brook trout are common in
the proposed park and preserve, which also shelters rarer creatures such as the
bald eagle, Canada lynx, pine marten, northern bog lemming, blueback trout, and
Atlantic salmon.
Enjoying the Park
Maine Woods National Park visitors would enjoy camping, hiking, fishing,
canoeing, kayaking, and motor boating. Hunting and snowmobiling would be allowed
on adjacent National Preserve areas. Private charter companies would provide fly-in
access to designated lakes.
Making It Happen
Currently most of the Maine Woods is privately owned and unprotected. To build
support for establishing a park please contact Mark Bettinger, Sierra Club, 85 Washington St.,
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 or
maine.chapter@sierraclub.org.
White Mountain National Park
White Mountain National Park would cover more than 3,000 square miles in central
New Hampshire-what is now White Mountain National Forest. The area's rugged
granite peaks would include Mt. Washington, the tallest mountain in the
Northeast. Bold, daunting, and yet inviting, these peaks already attract over 7
million visitors each year.
Wildlife
The proposed park shelters moose, peregrine falcons, spruce grouse, loons,
northern bog lemmings, and pine martens now, and the area once provided habitat
for wolves, lynx, and catamounts.
Enjoying the Park
Visitors to the new park would enjoy skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, camping,
fishing, swimming, climbing, and a regional pastime known as leaf-watching.
Making It Happen
In 1902, author and reformer Reverend Edward Everett Hale asked Congress to make
the White Mountains a national park. The timber barons hung on to the area
instead, and today it is managed for logging and recreation by the U.S. Forest
Service. The timber program is subsidized by more than $1 million a year from
U.S. taxpayers. To learn more about the national-park
proposal, contact the Sierra Club's New Hampshire Chapter, 3 Bicentennial Square,
Concord, NH 03301; (603) 224-8222;
david.ellenberger@sierraclub.org.
Sequoia Ecosystem & Recreation Preserve
Half of all the sequoia groves on Earth would lie within
the boundaries of the proposed 340,000-acre Sequoia Ecosystem and Recreation
Preserve. A national forest now, the area would still be managed by the U.S.
Forest Service. But the agency's emphasis would shift from timber cutting to
protecting and restoring these magnificent groves and the conifer forests around
them. Livestock grazing would continue, but logging would be
prohibited.
Wildlife
The last wild condor chick was hatched in a sequoia here, and condors released
from captive breeding are beginning to return. Black bear, mountain lions, and
bobcats are still plentiful. Rarer sightings include the California spotted owl,
California wolverine, American marten, Pacific fisher, and Sierra Nevada red fox.
Enjoying the Preserve
The primary attraction would be the sequoias, but visitors would also be able to
camp, hike, ride horses, fish, hunt, and cross-country ski.
Making It Happen
To help make this preserve a reality contact Joe Fontaine at P.O. Box 307, Tehachapi, CA 93581;
joe.fontaine@sierraclub.org.
