The People’s Forest: The Story of the White Mountain National Forest

The People’s Forest is about one of the greatest environmental comeback stories in American history. In the late 1800s, the White Mountains were ground zero for a vast environmental disaster caused by intensive logging and the massive forest fires, erosion and flooding that followed. The destruction of New Hampshire’s forests sparked one of the nation’s first grassroots conservation movements and a decades-long national battle over the fate of eastern forestlands. Leading the way was a unique partnership of citizens, business and civic groups that believed conservation could benefit both the environment and economy. This is the dramatic story of how those unlikely allies helped create the first National Forests east of the Mississippi and save the White Mountains.