282 THE FORESTS OF ALLEGANY COUNTY 



Wherever coal lands bearing considerable useful timber are con- 

 trolled by ownership, the usual plan is to remove all usable timber 

 before the coal is mined. This takes all sound trees down to about 

 three inches in diameter. If uninterrupted, the final recovery by 

 original species is well assured. For when carefully examined, the 

 forest floor of such denuded lands is found to contain well established 

 seedlings of the principal timber species from two to ten years old. 

 In addition to these, much of the sapling growth comprising the same 

 kinds survives the destructive lumbering methods employed and also 

 the caving-in of the surface. 



The much greater value of the coal deposit must always properly 

 have precedence over the present timber crop lying alpove, and also 

 over that which would have been possible during the term of years 

 necessary for the land to recuperate from the effects of the under- 

 mining. It only remains to be said, therefore, respecting the rela- 

 tionship of coal-mining operations and forest reproduction that there 

 is an appreciable loss in timber production on undermined forest 

 land. The period of this loss will vary, according to the purpose 

 for which the timber rotations are taken, from twenty to one hundred 

 or more years. The actual annual loss of timber growth for the 

 species represented could not be accurately stated without an ex- 

 tended study of the productiveness of abandoned coal lands. 



Some permanent damage is also to be mentioned as a result of 

 a fixed change in the surface of undermined forest lands. The inac- 

 cessibility of such lands for future lumber operations is greatly in- 

 creased. In many places the timber is likely to be difficult to get at, 

 and the building of roadways is expensive on so broken a surface. 



FOREST FlEES AND THEIR RELATION TO REPRODUCTION. 



Forest fires have been widely prevalent in this county, but their 

 effects are not strikingly evident. Types of the widespread and long- 

 enduring devastation so common in the more western timbered states 

 are nowhere seen in this region. However severe the damage done 

 may be, the ravages of Allegany county fires are soon greatly con- 

 cealed by rapid and abundant reproduction. Moreover, very little 

 large timber appears to have been killed by fire. 



