The land appeared to be dying and washing away. Clear-cut logging and subsistence farming had felled 85 percent of the region's trees. Every rainstorm caused streams to swell and choke with mud and debris that ran off the denuded slopes.
The scene was not the rainforests of South America or the ravaged plains of Africa. It was Vermont in the mid-19th century. It is hard to picture today, but at that time the once Green Mountain State was facing a stark environmental nightmare. Some would suggest it was a precursor to what the world faces today where forests are disappearing, global fishing stocks are collapsing, and climate change threatens alterations that some fear could last for centuries.
After 200 years of settlement, Vermont had few remaining forest stands and its logging industry was collapsing. Its farming economy, primarily based on sheep, was in serious danger as far more fertile and desirable lands opened up out West.
One of the first to issue a warning was George Perkins Marsh.
The Vermont resident became one of America's first environmentalists and philosophers in 1848 when he wrote "Man and Nature," warning that civilizations collapsed when land was ruined and forests were destroyed. The book had a powerful impact on another native son, Frederick S. Billings. A lawyer, he had made a fortune during the California Gold Rush and the rise of the railroads in the West.
He returned to Vermont in 1869 and quickly realized something had to be done to save the environment. Billings was inspired by Marsh to begin buying land to regenerate Vermont's forests. The property he chose included Marsh's old farm at the base of Mount Tom in Woodstock, Vt.
During a recent visit to the area with journalists who write about the environment, I saw the results of what Billings began nearly 150 years ago. Near the former Marsh/Billings house rise tall, mature Norway spruce. In the hills behind there are more spruce mixed with hemlock, beech and maple. Bubbling creeks splash through the 550 acres of dense, mature woodlands and open meadows.
Billings supervised the planting of these trees in what became one of the first programs of forest management in the nation. Then he invited his neighbors to drive the 12 miles of carriage roads he built through the property.
After his death in 1890, his work was carried on by his daughters and later a granddaughter named Mary French. In 1934, Mary French married Laurance S. Rockefeller. The role of the Rockefeller family, especially Laurance and his father, John D. Rockefeller Jr., is sometimes forgotten, but they were instrumental in the creation of such national parks as Acadia in Maine and Grand Teton in Wyoming.
Before their deaths, Laurance and Mary French Rockefeller created a trust fund that today helps finance and manage what has become the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Vermont. A group of us, all environmental journalists, walked the trails of the park with Christina Marts, a park resource manager, and Ben Machin, a consulting forester.
Marts told us that the parks service is committed to telling the story of one of the first managed forests in America. In one clearing, rough boards harvested from the land were seasoning. Billings always envisioned that both his forest and Vermont's would be used for timber as well as recreation. The parks service will use this lumber for construction of a new building on the property.
It was near another clearing that we received our biggest surprise. Despite the praise heaped on Billings and his heirs, they had little to do with the regeneration of the forests that now cover more than 80 percent of the state.
Pine seedlings were growing near the edge of a pasture, thriving because livestock has not been brought in the last few years to control the growth. Billings had worried that the trees would not return without a great effort by man, but nature turned out to be far more forgiving. The seedlings showed exactly how a forest regenerated. In fact, Billings' introduction of such foreign species as the Norway Spruce today would be frowned upon.
Machin, the forester, said forestry has often been wrong in the last century. Far too often the research and planning undertaken by foresters would be shown to be wrong by time and nature.
Finally we reached a high point on the property. On our right a dark green stand of Norway spruce towered over us. Below were the steeples, cupolas and slate roofs of historic Woodstock. In the distance the forest stretched to Mount Ascutney.
It would be easy to conclude from this visit that the environment is so adaptable, it can overcome the damage we are inflicting on the air, the oceans and the land.
But that is not the lesson, I believe, that Billings would want us to reach. Rather, it is that the environment is far more complex than we believe. To not take steps now to overcome such dangers as climate change would be folly. What mattered for Billings was that he tried to solve a problem before it overwhelmed his world.
It is a good legacy, even greater than this magnificent view.Hartford Courant
