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SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS 
 
 VI 
 
 Wild Life and Nature Conservation in the 
 Eastern States 
 
 C 
 
 ,-r C ti 
 
 ISSUED BY 
 
 THE WILD GARDENS OF ACADIA 
 BAR HARBOR, MAINE 
 
 Monoerraph 
 
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 First glimpse of the ocean on the path to Huguenot Head in the Sieur de ^lonts national 
 
 park upon the coast of Maine 
 
 . 3 1921 
 
SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS 
 
 VI 
 
 James Bryce 
 
 Kerner von 
 ]\Iarilaun 
 Univ. of 
 Vienna 
 
 A. F. Schimper 
 Univ. of 
 Bonn 
 
 C. S. Sargent 
 
 U. S. Forestry 
 Report 
 
 A. R. Wallace 
 
 WILD LIFE AND NATURE CONSERVATION 
 IN THE EASTERN STATES. 
 
 The .\])pala(']iiaii region of America eoiitainecl 
 until lately the finest temperate-zone forest, and 
 the richest in species, in the world. It ranged 
 nnbrokenly from the northern bonndary of the 
 L^nited States to Alabama and the Red River 
 region of Lonisiana, and it stretched from the 
 Atlantic lowlands to the prairies. Now, compara- 
 tively little of this forest is left in an nnaltered 
 state ; its area has shrnnk to a fraction of what it 
 was, and is still shrinking rapidly. 
 
 It is a forest of immense antiquity. The earliest 
 fossil record of the In-oad-leaved, deeidnoiis-leaved 
 type of tree fonnd in the world is fonnd in deep- 
 placed rock-strata of the southern Appalachians, 
 and the evidence is strong that never since that 
 immeasurably far-off time has the long succession 
 of its trees l)een broken, south of the limit of ice- 
 .sheet invasion. It is unique today in species 
 no longer to be found elsewhere, such as the 
 Tulip Tree, of which a dozen other species once 
 dwelt within it; the Magnolias — now elsewhere 
 found in eastern Asia only; the Tupelo, the 
 Liquidamber, Sassafras, and others. Anciently 
 as rich as it in these and other forms, the whole 
 continent of Euroi)e at the present time can 
 scarcely show one-half its wealth in genera and 
 species. 
 
Giant INlapk-lrcc in reunsylvaiiia 
 
L. Fernald 
 
 S. Shaler 
 C. Russell 
 P. Lesley 
 
 haiies Eliot 
 
 R. Wallace 
 
 P. Sell impel 
 
 utch and 
 English Colo- 
 nial Reports 
 
 These species, forever irreplaceable if lost, 
 are — like many of our native wild-flowers, birds 
 and animals whose home the forest was — seriously 
 endangered under existing conditions ; and eastern 
 America stands in the way today of losing swiftly, 
 in a single human lifetime, its long inlieritance 
 of wealth and beauty in the natural world, in trees, 
 in flowering shrul)s and plants, in birds and other 
 forms of animal life. 
 
 Again, the Atlantic coast lands on the one liand 
 and the Mississippi Valley, with its branches, on 
 the other, are regions destined to be permanent 
 and crowded homes of industry and trade — homes 
 of men, that is, on a vast scale. Between them, 
 and everywhere within easy reach from them, lie 
 the Appalachian mountain ranges, of great 
 natural beauty and refreshing quality in extensive 
 tracts, the ancient home of these magnificent for- 
 ests, the source of streams, rich in delightful un- 
 dergrowth and faunal life. This region of woods 
 and mountains, terminating in a magnificently 
 watered region in the nortli, presents possibilities 
 of incalculable importance to the crowded city 
 ]iopulations of the East, the Soutli, and the great 
 Central Plains. To save it to the utmost in beauty 
 and refreshing quality is imperative, in view of 
 the great coming need, and it is yet more impera- 
 tive to save to those who will come after us the 
 forest's wealth of tree and plant species, of bird 
 and other animal life. For these are things, 
 ]irecious in every sense, that once lost are lost for- 
 ever, and not a few are lost already. 
 
 "What is now proposed is this— founded partly 
 on a scheme urged years ago by Dutch and Eng- 
 lish naturalists for the preservation of the native 
 forest and its associated life in their eastern col- 
 
A. R. Wallace 
 
 Cliaiies Eliot 
 
 National Assn. 
 Audubon 
 Societies 
 
 James Bryce 
 
 onies and partly on the knowledge that biologists 
 have gained in recent years concerning bird and 
 other wild life conservation: To establish a 
 systematic cliain of reserves, large or small as 
 opportunity serves but selected always with well- 
 stncliecl reference to the preservation and favor- 
 able exhibit of the native forest and other floras, 
 the bird and other faunas of their region ; and to 
 choose these areas, also, so as to make of each, so 
 for as possible, a scenic reservation and a park, 
 contributing to health and pleasure and the de- 
 velopment of a love for nature. 
 
 Each such reserve would tlius contribute — 
 variously, according to its character — toward 
 these general ends: (1) the preservation of the 
 native forest flora, its trees and underplants; (2) 
 the preservation of bird and other forms of ani- 
 mal life, natively inhabiting the forest; (3) op- 
 portunity for scientific observation and study of 
 these both, existing naturally under their original 
 conditions; (4) conservation, in the public inter- 
 est, of beautiful and inspiring landscapes; (5) 
 the establishment of a means of study for plant- 
 ers, landscape architects and foresters who have 
 work to plan and carry out in the surrounding 
 region. 
 
 In certain places, one or the other of these 
 ol)jects would be dominant — as bird sanctuaries 
 along the shore from Cape Cod southward, or 
 scenic reservations in tracts of exce])tionally 
 striking scenery, sucli as mountain heights and 
 river gorges or beautiful coast landscapes. 
 
 To the development of landscape work along 
 broad and natural lines— work soundly based on 
 ji-iture— nothing that could else be done, no train- 
 
 7 
 
c3 
 
 y. 
 
 o 
 
American In- 
 stitute of 
 Architects 
 
 S. Minot 
 
 M. L. Fernald 
 
 J. S. Biologi- 
 cal Survey 
 
 ing in schools or sindj of foreign examples im- 
 possible of reproduction here, would contribute 
 so liberally as this. In exhibiting to architects 
 and landscape architects, or men charged with 
 the development of public parks, the whole range 
 of native material within their reach, a work of 
 widest influence would be accomplished, and one 
 that would aid greatly in the creation of a national 
 landscape art. 
 
 For the botanist and entomologist such reserves, 
 grouped in a linked series readily and quickly 
 traversed, would not only provide living collec- 
 tions of the rare plant and insect species of each 
 region, difficult to study otherwise, but would 
 also save from destruction many an interesting 
 life form else certain to become extinct as the 
 woods are cut away, the lands denuded and burnt 
 over. 
 
 For the preservation of the bird and other wild 
 life of the Continent, migratory as the former 
 largely is, absolute sanctuaries, well grouped and 
 not too far apart, have already proved themselves 
 beyond dispute essential, in the presence of a 
 time where human forethought and prompt ac- 
 tion only can avert the swift destructiveness of 
 human agencies more ruinous biologically and 
 wider spread than the destructive agencies of any 
 previous age, glacial or other, the rocks or later 
 
 clays reveal. 
 
 George B. Dorr. 
 

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 ^\^\ 
 
 Ancient sea-cliff on Mount Desert Island, raised by coastal elevation and deeply 
 
 sunk in woods 
 
8 ^1/ 
 

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