i6o 



THE FORESTER. 



July, 



established and the timber supply of the and at last, after ten years of failure, these 



country, which other bad laws had helped efforts were crowned with success, in 1891, 



to deplete, was in no way augmented by by the same act which first provided for 



its inapplicable provisions. the establishment by the President of Na- 



Efforts to repeal the Timber Culture tional Forest Reserves. 



laws began not long after their enactment, 



( To be continued.} 



THE PROPOSED APPALACHIAN PARK.- 



The reckless destruction of forests in 

 many portions of our country ; the result- 

 ing scarcity of timber in many sections; 

 and the increasing irregularity in the flow 

 of our streams, in regions where these 

 forests have been, in part, removed, are 

 all serving to awaken a new interest in 

 practical forest problems such as has 

 never been felt in America before. Mean- 

 while, also, the park idea has been de- 

 veloped until we are now setting aside in 

 all of our larger towns and cities park 

 areas for the pleasure and comfort of the 

 people. We are also setting aside for the 

 preservation, in as nearly as possible their 

 original condition and under public con- 

 trol, such historic regions as the Gettys- 

 burg and Chicamauga battlefields. 



We are also beginning to preserve and 

 set aside remarkable landscape features, 

 such as are foitnd in the Yosemite and 

 Yellowstone National Parks. Further- 

 more, the demand for the preservation of 

 large forest areas in different portions of 

 our Western States and Territories about 

 the headwaters of important streams has 

 ifMilted in the setting aside by the Govern- 

 ment during this closing decade of some 

 thirty different forest reserves, embracing 

 more than forty millions of acres. The 

 two great Western National Parks just 

 mentioned contain three million acres of 

 land additional, a considerable portion of 

 which is forest-covered. 



The success attained by the promoters 

 ot the new forest movement in securing 

 the establishment of these great forest re- 

 serves in western States and Territories 

 stimulate',! and strengthened the long ex- 



*Read before the meeting of the American 

 Forestry Association in New York on June 26th. 



isting wish that somewhere in the heart of 

 the great Appalachian system of Eastern 

 America there might be secured and set 

 aside by the Government one or more areas 

 still covered with the original hardwood 

 forests in order that these, also, may be 

 preserved for the examination and admira- 

 tion of future generations. 



Out of this desire has grown the recently 

 developed movement for the establishment 

 somewhere in the southern portion of this 

 Appalachian region of a park or forest re- 

 serve, which should include the finest of 

 the forests, the largest of mountains and 

 the headwaters of important streams. A 

 few decades since these forests were gen- 

 erally regarded as being inexhaustible and 

 even those who could foresee the condi- 

 tions existing to-day, were unwilling to 

 believe that a government forest reserve 

 anywhere in this region was even a remote 

 possibility. But already the lumbermen 

 are making serious inroads on these for- 

 ests ; already streams in the Piedmont 

 Plateau region bordering the mountains 

 are becoming more irregular in their flow; 

 and, fortunately, already public opinion is 

 demanding that careful surveys be made 

 of these more important Appalachian forest 

 areas and of the streams which flow from 

 them with a view to the selection of the 

 most suitable area for such a forest re- 

 serve. Such investigations are now in 

 progress, and it is hoped that at the be- 

 ginning of the new century we may see 

 the establishment under the control of the 

 Government of such a reserve or park as 

 may be considered most suitable. 



At the present stage of this investigation 

 no specific area or areas can be described 

 as most suitable for the location of such a 



