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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE RAILROADS AND THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



rvURlNG 1921 over tive million people visked the 

 National Forests. Year by year the number has 

 been increasing. There is a reason. The National 

 Forests of the w^cst embrace a large proportion of the 

 besit remaining game and fishing grounds of the nation. 

 Within their boundaries are some of the highest peaks, 

 a majority of the glaciers and some of the highest wa- 

 terfalls of the country. By the construction of roads 

 and trails, the establishment of delightful camp sites 

 on wooded mountain streams and the opening up of 

 sunmier home areas, the United States Forest Service 

 is making these attractions readily accessible. 



The National Forests are the greatest pleasure 

 grounds of the American people and to them the 

 .\merican people are coming more and more to seek 

 that invigorating recreation which is now considered 

 a necessity of modcTn life. And the public is not alone 

 in coming to regard these National Forests as a great 

 recreational asset to be seen, used and enjoyed. The 

 great railroad systems of the country are slowly awak- 

 ening to the fact that these great areas of wonderful 

 forests and majestic mountains are growing feeders 

 to their permanent prosperity. 



Covering most of the important mountain ranges of 

 the west, these Forests with their 156 million acres, 

 contain scenic resources alone which make them an im- 

 mense asset to the great transcontinental railroad sys- 

 tems of the United States. The newer National Forests 

 of the northeast and the southern Appalachian range 

 will in time become as great an asset to the railroads 

 of the Atlantic seaboard. 



Within the nineteen National Parks are the superla- 

 tively grand and stupendous effects of Nature, and 



while they will always remain objectives for the trav- 

 eler and the tourist, the National! Forests in no sense 

 the rivals of the Parks ^because of their greater num- 

 ber, wider extent, and accessibility, will always attract 

 a much larger number of visitors. From a recreation 

 standpoint the Naitional Forests should supplement the 

 National Parks, each attracting visitors to the other, 

 each helping the American to a fuller appreciation of 

 what life in the outdoors can mean and what America 

 has to offer in scenic beauty and grandeur. 



Most of the transcontinental lines cross or touch 

 many of the Naitional Forests. Some day the railroad 

 literature, voluminous and for the most part well plan- 

 ned and most attractive, will play up the beauty spots, 

 the free camp grounds, the summer home sites, the 

 mountain peaks and other summer delights of the Na- 

 tional Forests, for the good reason that it will be good 

 business to do this. Good roads, automobiles and an 

 increasing number of camp grounds, both municipal and 

 forest, make this necessary on the part of the railroads. 



Already several of the Pacific Coast lines are begin- 

 ning to do this. One road has issued a special hunt- 

 ing, camping and fishing guide for a group of National 

 Forests in Oregon. An edition of ten thousand copies 

 was published in the spring of 1922 ; this was soon ex- 

 hausted, and a second edition of ten thousands copies 

 was issued within three months, which show that the 

 public wants to know more about recreational delights 

 of the National Forests, from first hand contact. Gen- 

 eral passenger agents and publicity experts of the rail- 

 roads would do well to consider t!he National Forests 

 and What they ofTer. 



THE DAWN OF THE 



A MOTOR road was recently completed to the top 

 of Mount Mitchell, the highest point in eastern 

 America. This road opened up to tourists an alpine 

 climate, a vegetation strongly suggestive of Canada, a 

 magnificent distant view over chain after chain of hazy 

 mountains and alas, as desolate a waste of destroyed 

 forest as can be found anywhere in the East. Slopes, 

 on which there remain only the gray wrecks of dense 

 spruce and fir forest, disfigure the nearer view from the 

 peak, a veritable blot on the escutcheon. Tentative re- 

 sults of studies now being conducted by the Appala- 

 chian Forest Experiment Station indicate that the only 

 effective way to restore these forests is by planting a 

 slow and time-consuming process. 



Unless conservative methods are soon introduced, 

 what is true of Mount Mitchell will be true of mile after 

 mile of spruce covered ridges at high altitudes through- 

 out the Southern Appalachians ; and these, as the sources 

 of its waterpower and the crown of its mountain beauty, 

 are figuratively as well as literally, among the highest 

 assets of the South. 



In many respects potential waterpower, scenery, 

 recreational facilities, timber producing capacity, and 



APPALACHIANS 



incidental values the Southern Appalachians may with- 

 out too much exaggeration, be compared with Switzer- 

 land or Italy. The mountain resources stand in much 

 the same relation to the industrial prosperity, but in 

 the Appalachians the development of these resources 

 still lies largely in the future. As in the older countries, 

 forestry will be an underlying essential of all these lines 

 of development. To reclothe cut-over, burned, and un- 

 sightly slopes with a cover of thrifty timber is a pre- 

 requisite not only of continuous timber production but 

 also of scenic improvement, waterpower conservation, 

 and in fact all the uses to which forest lands are put. 



One of the greatest industries of the Southern Appa- 

 lachians a steadily growing one is the tourist industry. 

 As rapidly as the by-ways and secluded places of the 

 mountains are made accessible to tourist traffic, exam- 

 ples of the need of forestry are increasing both in num- 

 ber and variety. Another first line industry is lumber 

 production. A third great group is comprised of the 

 industries which will develop around waterpower. A 

 three-fold requirement is hereby placed upon forestry. 

 The duty and the opportunity of meeting this demand 

 rest with the public. The federal government, through 



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