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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  • 166 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE ON THE FORESTS OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. To the Smote and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith, for the information of the Congress, a letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, in which he presents a preliminary report of the investigations upon the forests of the Southern Appalachian Mountain region. Upon the basis of the facts established by this investigation the Secretary of Agriculture recommends the purchase of land for a national forest reserve in western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and adjacent States. I commend to the favorable consideration of the Congress the reasons upon which the recommendation rests. William McKinley. Executive Mansion, January 16, 1901. United States Department of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary, Washington, D. C, January 3, 1901. The Presideni : The bill making appropriations for the Department of Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June ?,(). 1901. provides that a "sum not to exceed $5,000 may. in the discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture, be used to investigate the forest conditions in the Southern Appalachian Mountain region of western North Carolina and adjacent States." In accordance with this provision I have made a thorough investigation of the forests in a portion of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, as directed above, including an estimate of the amount and condition of the standing timber, an inquiry as to the suitability of this region for a national park, as proposed by the Appalachian National Park Association, and an examination of the validity of the reasons advanced by its advocates for the creation of such a park. In this task I have received generous and effective cooperation and assistance, through the United States Geological Survey, from the Department of the Interior, which recognized in this way the deep and widely diffused public interest in the plan. The forest investigation was made to include a study of the character and distribution of the species of timber trees, the density and value of forest growth, the extent to which the timber has been cut or damaged by fire, the size and nature of the present holdings, the prices at which these forest lands can now be purchased, and the general and special conditions, that affect the prosecution of conservative forestry on a large scale.
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