352 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



TOPOGRAPHY 



The East Gulf area may be divided into three physiographic prov- 

 inces ; the coastal plain, the piedmont, and the Appalachian highlands. 

 The Coastal Plain rises from sea level to between 200 and 400 feet, 

 where it adjoins the piedmont. Much of the Coastal Plain area is 

 flat and less than 100 feet in elevation. Inland the elevation increases 

 more rapidly, the land becomes more rolling, and occasionally sharp 

 differences in elevation occur. The piedmont rises to elevations of 600 

 to 1,200 feet, the topography varying from rolling to broken. Most of 

 the hills are broad and of such even slope that agriculture early claimed 

 a large part of the hill land. The Appalachian highlands rise to a 

 maximum elevation of about 4,000 feet in northern Georgia, at the 

 southern end of the Appalachian Mountains. Rough topography is 

 characteristic of much of the highland area. 



It is largely because of steep slopes and rapid run-off from bared 

 soils that a very large part of the highland forest is classed as having 

 a major influence on watershed conditions. It is largely because of 

 poor drainage due to insufficiency of relief that the Coastal Plain forest 

 is classed as having little influence upon watershed conditions. 



SOILS 



In the Coastal Plain, absorptive sands are the predominate soil 

 type. These are comparatively shallow on some areas where hardpan 

 has developed. On the upper Coastal Plain the sandy soils give way 

 to highly erosible loams. 



The piedmont soils are predominantly deep clays, which erode 

 rapidly when exposed. Cultivation greatly hastens erosion. Although 

 the piedmont subsoils unlike most others, can be cultivated if ferti- 

 lized, yet here as elsewhere the subsoils are much inferior to surface 

 soils in both absorptive and water-holding capacity. Consequently, 

 exposure of subsoils over large areas increases floods and renders 

 stabilization of streamflow difficult. It is largely because of their 

 easily eroded soils that the forests of the piedmont are classed as having 

 a major influence. 



The soils of the highlands are inclined to be stony. Some are clay 

 soils derived from limestone and shales, others are loam. Save for 

 occasional pockets of deep loam and for rare areas unburned by 

 recurrent fires, the highland soils are much shallower and poorer than 

 those of the piedmont. For this reason they do not absorb and hold 

 as much water as the piedmont soils. The fact that they are shallow 

 makes it all the more necessary to maintain the cover upon them 

 intact. 



FOREST CONDITIONS 



In the highland section, hardwoods predominate. At less pro- 

 nounced elevations pines, particularly shortleaf, occur with the 

 hardwoods. This mixed forest has been repeatedly culled of its best 

 timber. In places it has been severely cut and repeatedly burned, 

 with the result that it has been converted into a more or less open 

 and scrubby woodland. On approximately 20 percent of the forest 

 land in the highlands the forest stands have been either destroyed or 

 badly culled and burned. Much of this land is pastured, and this 

 form of use intensifies the deterioration of the remaining forest. 



