38 Transactions Tennessee Academy of Science 



PRESERVATION OF OUR FORESTS 



BY R. S. MADDOX, FORESTER OF THE STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



[Read before the Academy, November 26, 1915.] 

 Last summer I stood on the banks of the Cumberland River and 

 saw the water so low that navigation was practically suspended. The 

 other day I again stood on the banks of this same stream and 

 watched its seething waters boiling almost at their record height, 

 carrying with them mud, trash, and portions of the farmer's crops. 

 This river had risen almost forty feet in a week. On the one hand, 

 we had last summer, drought; this fall, on the other hand, we had 

 flood. What does this mean? What is the cause? These floods 

 come from lack of forests. Our forests conserve the water supply 

 by holding the rainfall in the earth. This is done by the aid of the 

 litter of leaves and of trash which the trees throw off" and which is 

 collected on the ground, thus forming a loose surface that permits 

 the water to readily soak into the earth and at the same time re- 

 tains this moisture, letting it seep away gradually. 



Without the forests, the rain flows rapidly off these unprotected 

 slopes and mountain sides, taking away the water at once in a flood 

 and leaving the underground water supply reduced for the mainte- 

 nance of the streams in summer, and thus we have our drought. 



Last fall I ascended the west slope of the mountain near Mont- 

 eagle. This water-shed from the bottom to the summit had just been 

 burned by forest fire. The underbrush and small bushes and some 

 trees were killed or severely scorched. Not long afterward I had 

 the opportunity to see the mountains around South Pittsburg in even 

 a worse condition. Here the ground had l)een kept burned over for 

 years. The trees that had withstood the fires showed tiie injurious 

 effects of burns. 



What does this all signify? Loss of timber to our State. Not 

 only is the damage apparent in the actual trees burned, but these 

 fires stand in a sense for future loss, since they have killed young 

 grow III lliat would have matured in years and brought in a revenue 

 to the Stale. Fuilhermore, the fires have injured the ground by 

 keeping the vegetable mailer burned out and prevented new trees 



