NORTH CAROLINA FOREST RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES 



The State: Its Environment and Resources 



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Physical Environment 



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ROM the Atlantic Ocean on the east, North 

 Carolina extends 503 miles westward to Tennessee. 

 The extreme width north and south trom the 

 Virginia boundary to Georgia and South Carolina is 187 

 miles. The State's total area is 52,712 square miles, 

 including 3,570 square miles of water. It ranks third in 

 size among the South Atlantic States (fig. 1). 



Three major physiographic regions trisect the length 

 of the State, from the crest of the Great Smoky Mountains 

 to the ocean (fig. 2). In the west is the rugged mountain 

 region, across the central part is the gently rolling Pied- 

 mont Plateau, and bordering the seacoast is the wide, 

 level coastal plain. 



The mountain region occupies approximately one-sixth 

 of the State. It is a high plateau bordered on the west 

 by the main chain of the Great Smoky Mountains and on 

 the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains. Several cross 

 ranges cut the plateau into a patchwork of small basins, 

 each with an independent drainage system. The main 

 floor of the plateau is 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level, 

 but more than 40 peaks exceed 6,000 feet and one, Mount 



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Mitchell, is 6,684 feet high. Much of the land on the 

 upper slopes is too steep or rocky for cultivation, but the 

 lower slopes are pastured and the valley bottoms are 

 farmed intensively (fig. 3, A). About two-thirds of the 

 land is forested, chiefly with second-growth hardwoods. 



The Piedmont Plateau, embracing about one-third of 

 the State's territory, extends from the base of the Blue 

 Ridge Mountains at about 1,000 teet elevation east to the 

 fall line at the inland limit of the coastal plain. In contrast 

 to the rough mountain topography, it is characterized bv 

 gentle hills and valleys. Surface features place little 

 restriction on the use of land; cultivated fields, pastures, 

 and woodlands are intermingled throughout the area (fig. 

 3, B). Almost one-half of the land is timbered, chiefly 

 with shortleaf pine or Virginia pine in mixture with 

 hardwoods. 



Nearly one-half of North Carolina lies in the Coastal 

 Plain, the broad, almost level belt of land extending inland 

 from the seacoast an average of 150 miles. A narrow chain 

 of off-shore islands known as "banks" forms the extreme 

 eastern boundary. The tidewater area forms a belt 30 to 80 

 miles wide in which large swamps are common, some of them 

 of several hundred thousand acres. Pocosins (marshes, 



Figure 2. — Physiographic regions, counties, principal cities, and rivers in North Carolina. 



