Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Report of the Secretary of Agriculture in relation to the forests, rivers, and mountains of the southern Appalachian region

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  • 38 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. this will encourage both individuals and States to adopt such methods of forest management on their own lands as will not only protect the forests in existence, but also restore them on lands which should never have been cleared. Mineral devei- t am informed by the geologists who are familiar with opments not in- . . • ^i i 1 1 terfered with. tnis Southern Appalachian region that the development of its mineral deposits would neither interfere with nor be interfered with by the creation and proper handling of such a forest reserve. Existing settle- rrhe settlements now existing within the limits of the nionts not, inter- fered with. proposed reserve would not be interfered with, nor would their existence there, nor their legitimate enlargement, interfere with the purposes to be accomplished in the establishment of the reserve. boundarynnow I* woul<i n°t be wise at the present time to make public glven- the exact location of lands which may be thought best adapted for incorporation in such a forest reserve, but the general boundaries of the region within which it is proposed to purchase these lands are indicated on the accompanying maps (see Pis. II, IV, and XII). I am of the opinion that the reserve should ultimately include not less than 1,000,000 acres. CONCLUSIONS. The results of these investigations of the forests and forest conditions of the Southern Appalachian region lead unmistakably to the following conclusions: 1. The Southern Appalachian region embraces the highest peaks and largest mountain masses east of the Rockies. It is the great physiographic feature of the eastern half of the continent, and no such lofty mountains are covered with hard-wood forests in all North America. 2. Upon these mountains descends the heaviest rainfall of the United States, except that of the North Pacific coast. It is often of extreme violence, as much as 8 inches having fallen in eleven hours, 31 inches in one month, and 105 inches in a year. 3. The soil, once denuded of its forests and swept by torrential rains, rapidly loses first its humus, then its rich upper strata, and finally is washed in enormous volume into the streams, to bury such of the fertile lowlands as are not eroded by the floods, to obstruct the rivers, and to fill up the harbors on the coast. More good soil is now washed from these cleared mountain-side fields during a single heavy rain than during centuries under forest cover.
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).