The Torester. 



Vol. VII. 



MARCH, 1 901. 



No. 3. 



DESTRUCTION OF TIMBER BY THE GALVESTON STORM. 



By William L. Bray. 



University of Texas. 



SINCE the Galveston storm of Septem- 

 ber Sth of last year, attention has 

 been so generally directed to the de- 

 struction wrought at Galveston and the im- 

 mediate coast country, that the damage to 

 forests within the storm's area seems not 

 to have excited comment outside of the 

 circle of lumbermen and private owners 

 who sustained the loss of timber. 



The forest area which sustained the 

 heaviest damage is comprised in a belt ex- 

 tending from the Trinity River to the 

 western limits of the East Texas Pine 

 lands (about seventy miles), and from the 

 border line of forest land and coast prai- 

 rie more or less thirty miles northward. 

 This would constitute an area of 2,000 

 square miles lying in Montgomery and 

 Liberty Counties and a part of Harris and 

 Waller, with possibly also the southern 

 part of San Jacinto County. The fury of 

 the storm was greater west of this area, 

 but as there is no Pine farther west and as 

 only the river bottoms are heavily tim- 

 bered, the destruction of timber there 

 would be of secondary importance. 



The great forest area of the Atlantic 

 Coast Plain reaches its southwestern limit 

 in the region damaged by the storm, and 

 although this is on the confines of a for- 

 est land, the timber growth is not only very 

 heavy, but large and valuable as well. 

 It is the region of Loblolly Pine and hard 

 wood forests which lies to the south and 

 west of the fine body of Longleaf Pine of 



western Louisiana and eastern Tex 

 The area covered by this forest type i- a 

 low, almost level plain lying just to the 

 interior of the flat coast prairies. The 

 streamways have cut but little below the 

 general level and much of the country is 

 quite undrained, being covered with water 

 except during dry periods. Beside these 

 swamp flats or glades and the stream way 

 bottom land, the low sandy knolls or ridges 

 are a characteristic feature. Each of these 

 features supports its characteristic timber 

 growth. That of the bottom land along 

 the streams is a very dense forest of large 

 growth in which species of Oak predomi- 

 nate or at least are the dominant valuable 

 tree and in which a considerable per- 

 centage of Loblolly Pine may occur. One 

 lumber concern reports having cut as high 

 as 4,000 feet each of White Oak ( Quercus 

 Mlchauxii) and Loblolly (Pi>i"s tada) 

 per acre in the San Jacinto bottoms. The 

 sandy ridges or knolls have chiefly a 

 heavy growth of Loblolly Pine which not 

 unfrequently becomes pure Pine forest 

 yielding upward of 10,000 feet (board 

 measure) to the acre. The swampy land 

 has very little Pine and White Oak, but a 

 tangled' growth of Gums, Water Oak. un- 

 dergrowth and climbing vines. These 

 stretches are chiefly significant because 

 the difficulties they offer to Logging opera- 



tions. 



Lumbering operations have keen eon- 

 ducted on parts of this bod) of timbei 01 



