A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1527 



forest of 35,000 acres. Altogether, some 4% million acres of forested 

 watershed land in the region is in public ownership. This acreage 

 should be increased very materially. 



Private ownership of a large part of the watershed lands will and 

 should continue. Timber values in this region, with proper manage- 

 ment, make private forest-land ownership profitable, particularly on 

 the more productive and more accessible sites. Fire protection, with 

 public aid, is very nearly adequate. There is definite need, however, 

 for a greatly expanded program of forest research and extension in 

 order that timberland management may be improved. 



APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CHAINS 



The Appalachian Mountain chains include the Allegheny and 

 Appalachian Mountains, the Cumberland Plateau, and the Blue Ridge. 

 They extend southwestward from New York to northern Georgia 

 and involve some 50 million acres. They contain the headwaters of 

 the Susquehanna, James, Ohio, Tennessee, and other important 

 navigable rivers. Where the slopes and soils permit, farming is 

 common. 



The greatest watershed problem in this region is irregularity of 

 steam flow. Erosion, also, is extremely serious, particularly on 

 farmed lands. The forests have been cleared, unfortunately, from a 

 large acreage entirely too steep and too erosible for profitable agri- 

 cultural use. Cultivated fields with slopes of more than 30 percent 

 are not unusual. Because of erosion, such land is ruined for agriculture 

 by a very few years' cultivation. For this reason agriculture is 

 declining and land abandonment is prevalent. 



Originally the Appalachian Mountain chain was almost wholly 

 forested. Almost all its forest land has now been cut over and many 

 parts have been culled repeatedly. While the forest has so depreci- 

 ated in quality that much of it now has little commercial value, the 

 ground has reclothed with a cover sufficient to control erosion when 

 fires are kept out. The fire-protection record for much of the area to 

 date is bad and public interest in meeting the need for adequate pro- 

 tection is in general lacking. Those who have studied watershed 

 conditions on the ground in the Appalachian Mountains consider 

 improvement of the forest and other vegetative cover necessary as a 

 means of controlling silting and reducing flood damage. 



Here again the problem is complicated by ownership. There is no 

 reason to expect private owners to correct conditions on practically 

 worthless abandoned farm lands, and little more hope that they will 

 adequately protect timberlands. Apparently the logical solution is 

 public acquisition of a very large share of the high-influence forest 

 and abandoned farm land. Because of the interstate character of the 

 streams the Federal Government should carry the greater part of the 

 burden. There is ample opportunity for both State and Federal 

 ownership. 



With a large area in public ownership and with adequate control 

 of the use of fire on private lands the situation should improve rapidly. 



OZARK-OUACHITA 



The Ozark-Ouachita area of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri 

 includes the hilly to mountainous country of the lower Mississippi 



168342 33 vol. 2 31 



