Action on the Blue Ridge 



Wildlife had been depleted until much 

 of the native fauna had been extermi- 

 nated and the more resistant species 

 reduced to a mere remnant of their 

 former numbers. Even the white-tailed 

 deer (Odocoileus virginianus) , named 

 by scientists in honor of Virginia, had 

 virtually reached the point of extinc- 

 tion. Agriculture had ceased to be 

 profitable on much of the area. Small 

 wonder that a prominent Virginian, 

 familiar with Blue Ridge history and 

 a resident for more than half a century, 

 referred to it as "the most abused 

 mountain range in America." 



But now the people of the Blue 

 Ridge have a good deal of enthusiasm 

 as they assume an active role in the 

 broad program of restoring the re- 

 sources. 



THE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM for re- 

 storing wildlife to Virginia's mountain 

 counties is rooted in a number of im- 

 portant actions. In 1911, Congress 

 passed the Weeks Law, which author- 

 ized a program of purchases of forest 

 lands for watershed protection, under 

 which important forest areas on the 

 headwaters of major rivers were added 

 to the national forest system. Scat- 

 tered units in the Appalachians in Vir- 

 ginia have been consolidated to form 

 two national forests, the George Wash- 

 ington and the Jefferson. The forests 

 included 1,409,060 acres on June 30, 

 1948 ; approximately 40,000 acres more 

 have been approved for purchase. The 

 two forests follow the backbone of the 

 Blue Ridge for several hundred miles 

 in Virginia and extend westward and 

 northward to the crest of the Alle- 

 gheny along the Virginia- West Vir- 

 ginia border. 



The national forest work program 

 brought modern forest-fire protection 

 to much of the Blue Ridge as early as 

 1913 ; besides, the Virginia Forest Serv- 

 ice has done an effective job of fire 

 protection for many years. This work 

 has been an important contribution 

 toward restoring the Blue Ridge as a 

 satisfactory habitat for wildlife. 



Establishment of the Virginia De- 



ll. R 



partment of Game and Inland Fish- 

 eries in 1916 marked the first State- 

 wide administration of Virginia's wild- 

 life. A reorganization in 1926 created 

 the present Commission of Game and 

 Inland Fisheries, a progressive step 

 that placed the State in a position to 

 work more closely with sportsmen and 

 with other conservation agencies. Pro- 

 fessionally trained game and fish ad- 

 ministrators were employed. The stage 

 was set for renewed efforts to restore 

 wildlife, and many sportsmen in the 

 mountain counties dipped into their 

 own pockets to match the dollars of the 

 struggling new Commission to buy 

 game animals for restocking purposes. 

 The Emergency Conservation Pro- 

 gram in 1933 put a new reservoir of 

 manpower at the disposal of the na- 

 tional forests for the work on natural 

 resources. The first Civilian Conserva- 

 tion Corps camp in the United States 

 was constructed in the Blue Ridge foot- 

 hills of Shenandoah County, in the 

 George Washington National Forest. 

 There followed a public demand for 

 the use of emergency conservation 

 funds to carry on wildlife development 

 projects, and kindred interests brought 

 sportsmen, the Commission, and the 

 Forest Service into a close but informal 

 partnership to restock and restore wild- 

 life habitat on the national forests. 

 That was a prelude to the cooperative 

 wildlife program now in effect on Vir- 

 ginia's two notional forests. 



