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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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  • THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE MOVEMENT FOR THE PROPOSED FOREST RESERVE IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS. The necessity for the preservation of the forests in the Southern Appalachian region in order to prevent the washing away of the mountain lands and the destruction of the mountains themselves has for many years been advocated by the geologists working in that region. Their position in this has met with the hearty approval of the forestry experts and even the lumbermen who have gone into that region. The growing prominence and recognized suitability of much of this region as a health and pleasure resort has added this element also to the movement for the preservation of these forests and rivers. The increasing violence and destructiveness of the floods during the past few years, and the general recognition of the fact that the continued clearing of these mountain slopes would soon result in the absolute ruin of all the interests of this region and of the adjacent lowlands in the several States—this has combined and strengthened this movement in the country at large, and has brought it to its present position before Congress. On November 22, 1899, the Appalachian National Park Association was organized at Asheville, N. C, with a large membership, including citizens from Northern, Southern, and Western States. On January 2, 1900, memorials from this Appalachian National Park Association and the Appalachian Mountain Club of New England were presented to Congress, asking that measures betaken looking to the preservation of the Southern Appalachian forests. In response to these memorials, supported by the unanimously favorable press of the country, Congress incorporated in the bill carrying the appropriation for the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30. 1901, a provision that a " sum not to exceed $5,000 may, in the discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture, be used to investigate the conditions of the Southern Appalachian mountain region of Western North Carolina and adjacent States.*' The United States Geological Survey of the Department of the interior cooperated with the Department of Agriculture in this investigation so as to have it include a study of the geology and topography and rivers of the region. In January, 1901, the Secretary of Agriculture submitted a short preliminary reporta setting forth the result of these investigations up •See pp. 166-168. 157
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