THE SOUTH'S FORESTRY AND WATER 



RESOURCES* 



By Henrv S. Graves, Chief Forester. 



THE South today is standing on 

 the threshold of a vast indus- 

 trial development. The extent 

 of this development and, con- 

 sequently, the adxancement and pros- 

 perity of the South itself, depends very 

 largely on two factors : the production 

 of raw material from the farms, for- 

 ests, and mines, and the protection and 

 development of water resources. The 

 South is preeminently favored in both 

 these respects. It is not merely the 

 great amount of na\iga1)le waters 

 stretching far back into the diii'erent 

 States, available for cheap transporta- 

 tion, but vast water powers which are 

 rapidlv transforming the South into a 

 manufacturing as well as an agricul- 

 tural section. 



The development of the greatest use- 

 fulness of these water jwwers is most 

 intimately bound up with the preserva- 

 tion and protection of the forests at the 

 headwaters of the streams. Of the 

 total estimated potential water power 

 in the United States ( :!(i,i)00.()0() horse- 

 power), 11 per cent is found in the 

 Southern Appalachians. In North Car- 

 olina. South Carolina, and Georgia 

 alone there are about l.iJti 1,000 poten- 

 tial horse-power, of which so far only 

 .■>2 per cent, or -120.000. are actually 

 flevelojied and are l)eing utilized. 



In the southern mountains there is 

 one factor that far overshadows all 

 others. The danger from erosion is 

 l)eculiarly great in the Southern Appa- 

 lachians, because the region has a very 

 heavy rainfall, and as soon as the soil 

 becomes exposed it erodes quickly and 

 \iolently. Furthermore, the ground in 

 this region is bare of snow during all 

 of the year except a few weeks in 

 winter, and is therefore subject to the 

 action of water during ])ractically the 

 entire year. 



Still another condition which tends to 

 increase erosion in the Southern Api)a- 



lachians is the extreme frost action. 

 The ground freezes at night to the 

 depth of an inch or so, and a layer of 

 soil from 1 to l)'j inches is lifted from 

 the surface by columns of ice. In the 

 daytime the melting ice lets the surface 

 earth back into place again. This 

 process constantly at work allows the 

 hea\y rains to remove readily the 

 loosened soil from the exposed slopes. 



Because of the lack in the South of 

 natural storage in lakes and marshes, 

 the washing away of the soil from the 

 mountains removes the only natural 

 storage reservoir for the flood waters 

 and thereby decreases the amount of 

 power that can be developed continu- 

 ously thnjughout the year. Some of 

 the Southern rivers, like the Roanoke, 

 which rise in the mountain regions have, 

 as it is, extremes of high and low 

 waters. This condition is due to the 

 lack of natural storage basins, and 

 these rivers would become entirely un- 

 controllable and ])ractically useless for 

 water-power development were the 

 natural protective cover at the head- 

 waters to be destroyed. 



Injudicious timber cutting in the 

 mountains, forest fires which usually 

 preceded, accompanied and followed 

 lumbering, and above all the clearing of 

 high mountain land for agriculture, fol- 

 lowed by improper methods of cultiva- 

 tion, all these things together have 

 brought about erosion in the mountains 

 which already has produced evil con- 

 sequences. 



SOIL GOES INTO THE STREAMS 



The soil washed from the mountain 

 fields goes into the streams. The de- 

 struction of farm land in the valleys is 

 enormous. esi)ecially during wet years. 

 In 1001, the estimated damage by floods 

 in the valleys of the rivers flowing from 

 these mountains was $10,000,000. The 

 finer eroded material is carried down 



377 



