FOREST 



RESOURCES 



O F 



SOUTHEASTERN 



TEXAS 



Description of the Unit 



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THE AREA covered by this report consists 

 of 17 counties in southeastern Texas. It is 

 in the southeastern corner of the broad 

 region known as the east Texas plains and forms 

 the south half of the east Texas pine timber belt. 

 Houston, Beaumont, and Port Arthur, the largest 

 cities in the unit, are in the southern tier of coun- 

 ties; while Lufkin and Crockett are among the 

 important centers of activity in the northern part 

 of the unit. 



Physical Conditions 



TOPOGRAPHY 



Topographically, the land surface can be divided 

 into two distinct areas: the coastal prairies and the 

 rolling plains. The coastal prairies within the 

 unit form a belt about 40 miles wide that parallels 

 the Gulf of Mexico. Treeless, except along the 

 watercourses, they are level and poorly drained. 

 The heavily timbered rolling plains rise gradually 

 from these prairies, becoming more broken with 

 increasing distance from the coast. Elevations of 

 200 to 400 feet are attained in the most northern 

 counties. 



SOILS 



The soils of the unit are in two broadly defined 

 groups: the dark-colored prairie soils, confined to 

 the coastal prairie section; and the grayish-brown 

 upland soils, which characterize about 65 percent 

 of the unit. 



The prairie soils are for the most part poorly 

 drained heavy clay of the Lake Charles series, 

 with a dense clay subsoil. Along the northern 

 edge of the coastal prairie adjacent to the timbered 

 areas, the surface soils have a sandy texture and 

 rest directly upon an impervious clay subsoil. 



The light-colored upland soils, upon which the 

 important timber stands occur, were developed 

 primarily from sands and sandy clays. Deep, 

 sandy subsoil prevails in a belt about 40 miles 

 wide, extending about halfway across the unit 

 just north of the coastal prairies. The Segno soil 

 series is the most important in this area, but 

 Ruston, Caddo, and Kalmia soils also occur. In 

 the northern and western parts of the unit, where 

 the Susquehanna and Lufkin soils are most im- 

 portant, the sandy loam surface soils are underlain 

 with a dense, heavy, almost impervious subsoil. 



A local variation from the grayish-brown upland 

 soils is formed by the Nacogdoches soils of the 

 "redlands" belt in Sabine and San Augustine 

 Counties. These rather heavy, red to reddish- 

 brown soils have a crumbly, permeable clay 

 subsoil, and with the rich land in the river bottoms, 

 represent the most fertile soils in the unit. 



DRAINAGE 



The rolling uplands are well drained by the 



Sabine, Angelina, Neches, Trinity, and San 



Jacinto Rivers, which with their tributaries flow 



in a southeasterly direction into the Gulf of Mexico. 



During the spring months, or after extremely 



heavy rains, these rivers overflow their banks, but 



they seldom cause heavy damage. In the coastal 



prairies drainage is poor, and it is only by means of 



combined drainage and irrigation projects that 



much of the land is made available for agricultural 



crops. 



CLIMATE 



This portion of Texas has a relatively humid 

 climate. Rainfall decreases westward from over 

 50 inches a year along the Sabine River to 40 

 inches annually in the western part of the unit. 

 Alon? the coast the heaviest rainfall is in the 



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