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WCU - Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

Resolution favoring the proposed National Forest Reserve

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Item 1 - Resolution favoring the proposed National Forest Reserve
wcu_great_smoky_mtns-13768.jpg

Resolution favoring the proposed National Forest Reserve

NCWRA_019_12_09_02_01
Item 2 - Resolution favoring the proposed National Forest Reserve
wcu_great_smoky_mtns-13769.jpg

Resolution favoring the proposed National Forest Reserve

NCWRA_019_12_09_02_02
Item 3 - Resolution favoring the proposed National Forest Reserve
wcu_great_smoky_mtns-13770.jpg

Resolution favoring the proposed National Forest Reserve

NCWRA_019_12_09_02_03
wcu_great_smoky_mtns-13771.jpg

Resolution favoring the proposed National Forest Reserve

NCWRA_019_12_09_02_04
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  • after they have been destroyed, judging by experience on similar mountain slopes in Southern France, would be at least $50 per acre. And even after a century of time and care their restoration would be incomplete. Why select the Southern Appalachians for this Hardwood Forest Reserve?—Because this region is the original home of the hardwood or broad-leaved forests in America; and they are found there in greatest variety (137 species), as the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western species meet on these mountain slopes. The mountains are the highest east of the Rockies, and the highest mountains covered with hardwood forests on the continent ; they are washed by the heaviest and most violent rains known in the East; they are the sources of more important streams than any other region on the continent. The absence of lakes leaves the soil of this region the only storage reservoir for regulating the flow of the streams, and the absence of vigorous grasses leaves the forest the sole preserver of the soil. Hence in this region the problem of preserving the streams, keeping the soils on the mountain sides, and saving the mountains themselves from ruin—all of this is a forestry problem. This, together with great variations in climatic conditions and the consequent great variety of tree growth, makes this region above all others on the continent the most suitable for a great hardwood forest reserve. The establishment of this great forest reserve means the accomplishment of a public necessity, and for the government a good financial investment. It means saving for the use of the nation a region which, from its beauty and climate and accessibility, is destined to become the nation's greatest resort for health and recreation; it means the perpetuation of great resources: soils for agriculture, waterpower for manufacture, and streams for navigation; and especially it means, through the development of better forest methods, benefits of incalculable value for our future timber supplies. Allow the present policy of forest destruction and land clearing for short-lived agricultural purposes to continue on those mountain slopes, and this means the ultimate and inevitable ruin of all these resources and possibilities and of the mountains themselves.
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Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

This digital collection was created to contribute to the public's understanding of the forces and ideas that led to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934. The most vi...

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