The Fight to Save Washington’s Timber
Edmond S. Meany urges the federal government to secure forest reserves around Mount Rainier and the Olympic Peninsula to protect the state’s massive natural heritage.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On June 24, Mr. Edmond S. Meany, of this city, press agent of the state World's Fair commission, delivered an address on 'The Preservation of Forests,' in the forestry section of the World's Colombian exposition. Mr. Meany argued that few natural possessions are as essential to public welfare as forests. He lamented that while laws exist to regulate common carriers, irrigation, and mills, little had been done to protect the forests from destruction. He praised the Act of March 3, 1891, which empowers the President to set aside forest lands, highlighting that the Pacific reserve—proclaimed February 20—includes 906,000 acres around Mount Rainier. Meany urged further action to protect the Olympic mountain range, noting it contains 'magnificent and untouched forests' and is home to rapidly disappearing elk. He warned that without protection, the dense timber of the Northwest, estimated at over 410 billion feet, would be quickly consumed by ambitious squatters.
“Is it not surprising that at this day of legislative advancement... that scarcely any laws are made to save lives and property and to preserve the public comfort and health by protecting from entire destruction the forests of the land?”
Edmond Meany’s 1893 speech marks an early chapter in the long, contentious history of land use in Washington. His plea for federal reserves preceded decades of battles between conservationists, logging interests, and Indigenous land rights—tensions that still define the state's relationship with its old-growth forests today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.