Logging is underway in the biggest state park in New Hampshire. Pisgah state park is near Keene and Brattleboro. It includes more than 13,000 acres. Kathy Thatcher is president of Friends of Pisgah www.FriendsOfPisgah.org an environmental group. On June 27, she said that, in 1968, the state asked the federal government for money to buy the land that is now Pisgah state park. The request was approved. The written plan was “to build a state park specifically for outdoor recreation... The request also stated [there would be]: ‘an emphasis on wilderness experience for the user. Multi-purpose activities and facilities will include swimming, boating, picnicking, camping and nature study.’ … There is no reference to commercial timber harvesting.”

Photos of a part of Pisgah that is not being logged are at:

www.ValleyPost.org/2011/07/02/photos-lake-swimming

Another group that works to save wilderness has a web site at www.wilderness.org.

Meanwhile, in Holyoke, activists are fighting a proposed Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is owned by the richest family in the world, the billionaire Waltons. The Walton family pays workers at Wal-Mart factories among the lowest wages in the world. Wal-Mart workers in the U.S. make barely above minimum wage.

In 2009, Lowe’s Corporation said it wanted to build a big box store on Whiting Farms Road in Holyoke. A group of Holyoke residents including Terri Laramee fought the plan and won. Now Wal-Mart wants to build a big box store in the same place. Laramee is spearheading the fight against Wal-Mart. She organized a recent meeting in Holyoke of 30 people to stop the store. To help, call her at (413) 538-7574. Another group that fights Wal-Mart has a web site at www.jwj.org.