APPALACHIAN AND WHITE MOUNTAIN WATERSHEDS. 33 



The several States of the Appalachian region can not protect these 

 lands as a whole. They may control certain areas of them, as the 

 States of New York and Pennsylvania are doing, but as a rule the 

 national or interstate bearings of the problem are such as to make it 

 unreasonable to expect that the States will purchase these lands and 

 put them under management. A few examples make this clear. No 

 State of the group feels it incumbent upon itself to provide the Nation's 

 supply of hardwood timber. The State of West Virginia does not feel 

 keenly the necessity of protecting the upper watershed of the Monon- 

 gahela River because certain cities of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Ken- 

 tucky are inundated and suffer damage by the Monongahela floods. 

 North Carolina will never purchase and protect the headwaters of the 

 Yadkin and Catawba rivers because the navigation and water-power 

 interests on these streams in South Carolina suffer from the denuda- 

 tion of the moimtain forests. In the case of almost every watershed 

 there are complications of this kind. 



While none of the three, the Federal Government, the individual 

 holders, or the several States, can be expected to try to solve the 

 problem as a whole, the problem is nevertheless so important that it 

 must be solved, and all three are in a position to be keenly interested 

 in its solution. Therefore it is necessary to consider whether a way 

 may be found by which all three may participate in solving it. 



Since the lands are now in the hands of individuals the simplest 

 procedure . would appear to be by an arrangement whereby the 

 greater part of the region could be handled by individuals so that the 

 property would not change control. Considering the vast extent of 

 the lands, it seems almost inevitable that if they are to be protected 

 at all^ they must be protected mainly by the individuals who own 

 them. Can this be dxane ? It can be done, if at all, only by mak- 

 ing it profitable for individuals to hold these lands after cutting 

 them over. It may be stated as the rule that timberland owners 

 would not want to sell their lands and would put forestry into effect 

 upon them if it were not for the difficulty of protecting them from fire 

 and the high rate of taxation which prevails in many parts of the 

 Appalachian region. But individuals alone can not overcome these 

 great obstacles. 



What individuals under present conditions cannot do, however, can 

 be made possible by the States. It is possible for the States to pass 

 such laws for fire protection as to insure the safety of the most valuable 

 timberlands. This is being done by a number of the States with con- 

 siderable and increasing success. The problem of equitable taxation 

 for forest lands is a more difficult one and it has not as yet been solved. 

 Its solution is necessary, however, and necessary in the immediate 

 future. 



If the States of the Appalachian region would set themselves to the 

 providing of efficient fire laws and the solution of the question of forest 

 taxation, they would do a work of incalculable importance in the pro- 

 tection of the Appalachian forests. They would make it not only 

 possible but profitable to put under protection and conservative man- 

 agement practically all of those lands which are suited to the produc- 

 tion of the most valuable kinds of timber, and which are accessible for 

 economical administration and lumbering. 



