THE MANAGEMENT OF HARDWOOD FORESTS IN THE 



SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS 



By I. F. EivDREDGE 

 Assistant District Forester, Eastern District 



The spectacular rise in the price of all wood products during the 

 last two years is due in great measure to the increased cost of manu- 

 facture and delivery, and to the resumption of building operations on 

 a large scale after several years of inactivty. In the case of hardwoods, 

 another factor shares largely with the high cost of production the credit 

 of increasing values; that factor is the growing realization that the 

 supply of virgin stumpage is rapidly drawing to an end in this country. 

 It has been said that the greatest bar to the practice of forestry in 

 this country is the low value of stumpage. If this is true, forestry can 

 soon be expected to come into its own, in the eastern United States 

 at least. 



When the eastern forests are exhausted we must import practically 

 our whole hardwood supply, for there is no enormous reserve of this 

 much needed timber in the west as is the case with the softwoods. 

 The date is not far distant when we shall buy mahogany and rosewood 

 furniture at less cost than furniture of white oak from our own 

 mountains. 



The demand for hardwood stumpage and the growing difficulty of 

 finding it are beginning to focus the attention of the lumber industry 

 and lumber users in general upon the problems of maintaining our 

 future timber supply as no amount of forestry propaganda has been 

 able to do in the past. 



In addition to the paternal concern which the Government feels in 

 the matter of maintaining the sources of supply for such a great and 

 vital industry, it is directly interested in the problem, being the largest 

 single proprietor of hardwood forests in the country. 



Under the administration of District 7 (Eastern District) of the 

 Forest Service the Government owns approximately 978,124 acres of 

 forest land in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, of which by far 

 the greatest part is under hardwood forests. This acreage is organized 

 for administration in seven National Forests, each under a technically 



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