Philip Wheelock Ayres
Cornelius Amory Pugsley Bronze Medal Award, 1934

Philip Wheelock Ayres (1861-1945) received the Pugsley Bronze Medal in 1936 "for his services as Forester of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, in preserving notable scenic features in that state." Without his vision and leadership, New Hampshire's scenery would look quite different. His work is the reason that the sweeping summits of New Hampshire were brought under the protection of public ownership and their beauty preserved for ever.

Ayres was born in Winterset, Iowa, and spent his boyhood on his father's fruit farm near Cairo, Illinois. It was during these early childhood years that Ayres developed a strong love of the land; late in life, he could still recall the types of trees and their uses that surrounded his childhood home.

Ayres attended Cornell University and earned money for college by educating children of local sharecroppers. In 1888, he went on to  receive his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in history and worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun to pay for his education. He became a pioneer in the field of social work, practicing it in both Cincinnati and Chicago and subsequently establishing the School for Social Work in New York City, which became a department of Columbia University in 1892. Ayres spent sixteen years working with "the unfortunate poor" in New York City, a time that he later recalled affected him deeply.

At the age of 40, Ayres' health began to deteriorate and his wife suggested he cash in his life insurance policies and return to Cornell to study forestry, which had been a life-long passion. In 1901, Ayres earned one of the first forestry degrees granted by Cornell University. Soon after, New Hampshire Governor Frank West Rollins telegraphed Ayres, complaining that "six great lumber companies were stripping the White Mountains with the most scientific efficiency that Yankee ingenuity could invent." The Governor wanted to save as much of the forests as he could, and needed a forester to lead this effort. Hence, Philip Ayres became the Forester of the fledgling Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Ayres took the job on one condition: that the Society would support the creation of a National Forest Reserve in the White Mountains of New England. The Society enthusiastically pledged its support. So Ayres became the prime mover in establishing a national forest system in the east. He maintained that forests could not be properly managed without federal ownership and lobbied vigorously for that to occur.

Ayres brought to his new position passion and zeal. His past job experience served him well in raising public sympathy for the national forest campaign. In 1867 the state had sold 172,000 acres of "wild lands" in the White Mountains including Mount Washington for $25,000-less than 15 cents an acre. Ayres was one of the first in New Hampshire to realize the social, spiritual, and inspiration values that the White Mountain summits and the surrounding forests provided and was determined to save the beauty of the White Mountains from devastation by logging companies and to reclaim them for the state. Ayres' campaign was vocal and strong. His ten-year crusade to save this mountain area entailed numerous trips to Washington D.C., organizing delegations of school teachers to lobby Congress, and producing brochures informing citizens of the destruction of the White Mountains that was occurring. The campaign of the Society for the White Mountain National Forest, backed by the Appalachian Mountain Club, finally resulted in the passage of the Weeks Act in 1911 which brought millions of acres of forests into the federal government.

The Weeks Act allowed for creation of an eastern national forest system. It authorized the federal government to buy forest lands and to protect streams and other watersheds of navigable streams. With this enabling legislation in hand, Ayres lobbied for the funding to buy the White Mountain National Forest land. By 1914, 106,000 acres had been purchased, and an additional 150,000 acres had been approved for purchase. A New York Times editorial that year declared, "To the New Hampshire Society and its Forester, Mr. Philip Ayres, who fought weary years for the plan of a National Forest Preserve, New England and the country are in debt." Ayres was successful in bringing the summits of New Hampshire's great mountains under public ownership. Lost River and Kinsman Notch, Mount Monadnock, and Crawford Notch were all acquired largely thanks to his efforts.

All of these were challenging tasks which took many years of persistent effort to being to fruition. For example, part of the Mount Monadnock area was comprised of tracts that had never been sold by the original colonial grantees, Ayres tracked down the heirs who now often unknowingly owned the tracts, and obtained signatures on quit claim deeds from 77 different people spread across the U.S. and Europe.

In the 1920s Franconia Notch was for sale and logging companies wanted to acquire it. This embraced The Old Man of the Mountain, The Great Stone Face which was the hallmark of New Hampshire and the presiding spirit of New England. The "little Yosemite" was drawing more than 100,000 visitors a year to see The Old Man, the deep gorge and waterfalls of the Flume, Echo and Profile Lakes, and the dramatic mountain pass. Ayres led the campaign to raise the $400,000 needed to acquire the 6,000-acre area. He circulated a composite photo that showed how the landscape would be denuded if it was logged. The photo was widely reprinted sometimes creating the mistaken notion that the notch had already been logged.

Ayres persuaded the governor to request $200,000 from the legislature which was unanimously approved. This was a huge amount, representing 50 cents for every person in the state. A philanthropist who had been the Society's treasurer committed another $100,000. This left $100,000 to be raised in a few short months. While some urged the society to raise it by approaching a small circle of wealthy donors, Ayres crusaded to save the Notch by popular subscription, "selling" trees for a dollar each. Donors would receive a "Certificate of Purchase" that read "This certifies that (bearer) has purchased ____ tree(s) at one dollar each, in Franconia Notch, to help save the Notch from destructive lumbering. These trees may be identified and cared for by the owners but may not be cut or mutilated in any way."

The tactic proved to be brilliant, especially when Ayres added a final touch. The notch, he proposed, would be a memorial to the "men and women who have served the nation in times of war" and the profile "the sentinel eternally on duty to watch over them." The high visibility grass roots campaign was backed by newspaper editorials, magazines, conservation groups, service organizations, colleges and schools. With massive publicity and an outpouring of public support the funds were raised.

Ayres wrote for national publications and carried his lantern slides and lecture notes to Grange Halls and women's clubs. He was tireless not only as an advocate for change, but also as a practitioner who drew up management plans for dozens of landowners. His guiding principle was that good forestry and land preservation were two sides of the same coin; that all conservation begins with good forestry. In 1911 he wrote:

It is possible to believe that the time may not be far distant when the annual harvest of timber in New Hampshire will not exceed the annual growth, and when large areas of timber, valuable for scenic beauty and for protecting the flow of streams, are permanently safe from ordinary destructive lumbering and from the ravages of soil-consuming fires.

Ayres died on November 3, 1945. By that time, 900,000 acres of national forest lands had been acquired by the Federal government in New England alone. Across the country, over 18 million acres had been bought -- all under the authority of the Weeks Act.  

Several years after his death,  his daughter, other family members, friends, and colleagues of Ayres dedicated a bronze plaque on the shores of Echo Lake commemorating Ayres' role in protecting Franconia Notch. It is fitting that it was placed in a spot that commands one of the best scenic views to be found in the state. Another plaque placed on Mt. Monadnock also was dedicated to Ayres. However, the plaques were merely a token. His largest memorial is the rich green of the forests and sweeping grandeur of the White Mountains that he worked so tirelessly to save from destruction. They serve as a lasting tribute to New Hampshire's adopted son who became, one of its most revered citizens. An article appearing in a 1945 issue of Forest Notes stated, "it is to Philip Ayres, whose courage never faltered no matter what the odds, that we owe, more than to any other individual, the preservation of so much of New Hampshire's natural beauty and grandeur." His legacy was summarized by his grandson, who was quoted in a 1968 Littleton Courier article as saying about his grandfather, "His life shows that the office of citizen in the United States is in itself one of the most powerful and responsible in the world."

Sources:
Rosemary G. Conway and Richard Ober (2001) People and Place: Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the First 100 Years. Concord, New Hampshire: Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
Forest Notes, February 1948, Vol. X11 (1).
Forest Notes, Philip Wheelock Ayres, Forester. December 1945, Vol. IX (3).
Contributed in part by Candace Shea.

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