A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1523 



The damage that results from conditions within this narrow belt 

 along the river obviously is of national interest. The navigability of 

 the river, its interstate character, and the magnitude of the Mississippi 

 flood problem call for national action. Individual States affected 

 should, of course, assume part of the direct responsibility, but the 

 major part of the control program should and must be carried by 

 the Federal Government. 



PIEDMONT AND UPPER COASTAL PLAINS 



Erosion and floods are the two outstanding watershed problems in 

 the piedmont and upper coastal plain sections, which include the 

 critical situation not only in the southern Atlantic drainages but in 

 the east Gulf drainages as well. The serious conditions are largely 

 confined to the highly erosible deep clay to loam soils of the piedmont 

 and the somewhat similar soils found on parts of the upper and more 

 hilly portion of the coastal plain. Rainfall is abundant, varying from 

 about 35 inches in the upper Potomac to 80 inches farther south. 

 As much as 22 inches of rainfall has been recorded in an individual 

 storm. 



The forest cover, originally almost complete, now extends over only 

 about two thirds of the total area, the forested proportion varying 

 among the larger drainages from 50 percent to 75 percent. Organized 

 fire protection has been provided for only a small part of the forest, 

 and in the 5-year period 1926-30 the average annual burn for the 

 States included was nearly 15 times the allowable burn. 



The major problem has to do with the land that has been cleared 

 and used for agriculture. With as much as 80 percent of the land in 

 the charge of tenants, largely irresponsible, cropping has not been 

 handled skillfully. Fields have been plowed up and down hill instead 

 of along the contour or in terraces; cotton, corn, and tobacco have 

 been grown under clean tillage year after year, the soil being left 

 without cover during the period of greatest rainfall. Reduction of 

 productivity by sheet erosion and destruction of productivity by deep 

 gully erosion have resulted in widespread land abandonment. Within 

 the east Gulf and South Atlantic drainages at least 8} million acres 

 of land has been abandoned in the past 20 years, and present trends 

 indicate that abandonment may reach 12 million acres by 1950. 



Fortunately the climate and the ease with which the southern pines 

 reproduce favor rapid revegetation of abandoned land. It is believed 

 that as much as two thirds of the abandoned land may be reclaimed 

 by natural forest or by weeds and grass if left undisturbed. This 

 would reduce to perhaps 2} or 3 million acres the area demanding 

 treatment within the next 20 years if erosion is to be controlled. On 

 this area tree planting is the logical solution. 



It will be difficult to obtain on privately owned forest the type of 

 management that will adequately meet the erosion and stream-flow 

 situation. It will be practically impossible under private ownership 

 to carry through a program of reforestation and engineering works on 

 idle land such as the situation demands unless the public pays the 

 costs. For the Government to attempt to control the clearing and 

 cultivation of lands that if so treated would be subject to destructive 

 erosion would be impractical so long as the lands remained in private 

 ownership. 



