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Show French Forests Ruined Tl e Germans are cutting tl e irarket able timber from the forests in norther 1 France now in their po sess on and sel ing it i Germany Jean Pau Alaux an off cer n t e Prencl army now in the trenches near rras nforms1- the A.mer lean Forestry assoc at on Tren endous damage is also being Inf Icted on the fores s of Fran e by the m 1 tary ope a tions He says when Paris was threat ened with capture the fores s to e north were cleared The w nter rains says if Uu have re dered most of the roads jmpas sable e&pe a y In t e wooded eg o s In the forest of Bouvigny near Arras and In the forest of Berthon al the a lerymen were unable to move the j guns o er the muddy and Intrenched roads and It was Imposslb e to even transpor ammun on In o de to keep the gunb supplied it was necessary to ut new roads in a d re t ons th ough the Jo ests us ng the felled trees for tl e p pose The trunks In sec ons of about twelve feet are laid s de by side and bound together with ropes and wi h ga vanlzed iron wire They a e further se cu ely fastened to stakes driven deep n the ground The f rst layer of trees hav ing proven insuff clent a second vas added Tl is again fail ng to s ffice a hlrd became necessary until I man cases three layers of trees are supe posed in order to permit the passage oi convoy wago s To avo d the too ap d wear of the wood through the grind n of the heavy wheels and the tearing of the hors es shoes, earth m Wed wl t straw bark and the twigs and sma 1 branches of the fa en trees s strew plentifully over t ese impro ised road ways The forest of Vitrlnont behind L,u e ille, 1 as been comp etely razed In the forest of Mearffc lanes f om 150 to 3000 feet m width ha e been cut at Intervals of every thousand feet This was of course for the purpose of al owing the artl lery to shower lt murderous f rp over a wide a ea as ough some gigantic loophole One annot find a remnant o copse of thickets al the trees and sap lings have d sup pea red 1 roughout tm. razed area For se eral weeks I ha e been qua tered in the vicinity of Arras. In t e wood of La Haye al of the trees and n dergrowth a e been cut practically throughout the whole area of the fores It was done to pro Ide firewood for the kit hens and shelters The forests In t e west whi 1 we e scpne of some of the nost violent encounters at the beginning of he an paign were 1 terally cut lo pieces by ar ery f re The trees within the zone of f re we e romp ete v ruined Tie wooded sections in the east have endured the most terr ble bonbardnents The are reduced to a ghastly array o skeletons torn o bits b he burst ng of s e Is riddled b fire blackened w smoke tl ese fo ests must be entire cleared away and the area reforested In certain forests such as that of Arancourt where the French troops lay in concealment and where the Germans attempted to d slodge them with art Uery fire the bo oa dment produced an enor mous dan age Such trees as were not cut down by tl e f re were entire y de udel of the r b anches I have seen eno n ous trees cut down b shel s as tnougr they were mere tinder |