348 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Hardwoods, such as oaks and gums, formed an important part of the 

 forest. Along the rivers and in the coastal swamps a mixed forest 

 occurred, but cypress and southern white cedar were also of great 

 importance. The forests of the coastal plain have been cut very heav- 

 ily. Longleaf pine has been practically exterminated from Virginia, 

 and in North Carolina it has been very largely replaced by loblolly 

 pine. Fires have been particularly frequent and widespread in the 

 coastal plain, and would have devastated wide areas had not the 

 indigenous species of pine, particularly longleaf , been relatively resist- 

 ant. In Virginia and the Carolinas as a whole an average of 366,000 

 acres of land under protection burned yearly between 1926 and 1930. 

 Of the millions of acres not protected in the region, it was estimated 

 that in 1931 about one quarter burned over. Statistics for the coastal 

 plain separately are lacking, but it is probable that the bulk of the 

 fires occurred in this physiographic province. 



By far the greater area of forest lands in the South Atlantic drain- 

 ages are in private ownership, and the present impoverished condi- 

 tion of the watershed cover is a reflection of private land management. 

 Some national forest lands purchased in the mountain area are in 

 decided contrast to the private lands because in the past 20 years 

 they have received incomparably better fire protection, the cutting 

 has been done in such way as to encourage regro*^th, and the badly 

 eroded agricultural lands have largely reforested. Although a full 

 cover has not yet developed in the short time these lands have been 

 administered, watershed conditions have steadily improved. Private 

 lands, however, still evidence the lack of adequate protection and 

 management. Conditions on State and other local public lands, with 

 some notable exceptions, resemble more those on the privately owned 

 land than they do those on the national forests. 



CONCLUSIONS 



That a permanent vegetative cover on a watershed is a powerful 

 preventive of erosion is clearly shown in the South Atlantic drainages 

 by the relative clarity, even in flood, of streams flowing from land in 

 forest or permanent sod, as compared with the turbidity and heavy 

 silt load characteristic of streams flowing from cultivated land. 

 Although there has not been enough experimentation in this region to 

 furnish conclusive evidence that forests exert other favorable influ- 

 ences on streamflow, research elsewhere in the United States, even 

 though with other forest types, climates, and soils, tends to the belief 

 that they do. The magnitude and gravity of the erosion and stream- 

 flow problems of the South Atlantic drainages certainly warrant the 

 following conclusions: (1) That where forests already exist in the 

 region they should be protected against fires, destructive lumbering, 

 and other treatment likely to impair their favorable influence on 

 erosion and streamflow, and (2) that where erosion of land now cleared 

 has forced, or is forcing, its abandonment for agriculture, its prompt 

 reforestation and administration as a permanent protection forest are 

 necessary. 



First-class fire protection is justified from every point of view 

 either that of reaping a full crop of wood under a climate favorable to 

 rapid growth, or of realizing the full indirect benefits of a forest cover. 

 A very small percentage of the region is now receiving first class fire 

 protection. After 18 years' effort Virginia does not even attempt to 



