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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  • SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN EEGION. 131 the broader bordering valleys were damaged beyond recuperation. Some areas were denuded of soil, while others were covered with desert-like, almost barren white sand extending for miles along the course of a stream. (See PI. XXXIV.) But while the damage from the storm of 1901 exceeds that of any preceding year, it is common knowledge among the mountaineers that annually the floods have risen irregularly but steadily higher, and that their destructive work has been increasing in proportion as the forest clearings and the forest burnings have proceeded. We may confidently expect that floods of the future will exceed those of the past. Many of these streams have fine water powers alone: their Forest clearing . r te and water pow- courses, the value of which is limited by their low- water flow.ers- Deforestation means the destruction of the only source of natural storage in the region, and that the rainfall will reach the stream almost as soon as it falls, so that in the dry season there will be no reserve supply to augment the low-water flow, which is drawn principally from subsurface sources. These water powers are a potential source of prosperity to the region in which they are found, and since their value depends entirely upon the water available, anything tending to reduce its amount or to change its distribution by increasing the violence of the floods and at the same time diminishing the low-water flow, will work injury in precise proportion to the change produced. This result is inevitable upon the deforestation of the drainage basin, and on many of the streams has already become evident. It is the general testimony of the older inhabitants of the region that the streams are now much more irregular than they were before active and widespread clearing operations had been begun. And while the evidence of the "oldest inhabitant," as an individual, may not be quite all that can be desired, collectively it is entitled to large credence. Already 24 per cent of the total area of this region has been cleared of its forests. r stde8truc. Lumbering operations are at present rather widespread, tion°'by iumber- and the forests in many regions already begin to showm evidence of their effect. The large mills are usually steam sawmills, to which the logs are either transported by a system of tramroads radiating from the site of the mill, or, where the mill is located near a stream of sufficient size, the logs are brought down by splashing. A number of small sawmills have been erected which make use of the
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).