Summary of National Forest Timber Resources 

 and Trends, 1911-45 



We have seen that little if 

 any forest management 

 existed in the South prior 

 to passage of the Weeks 

 Law of 1911 and the 

 Clarke-McNary Act of 1924. 

 These two pieces of 

 legislation, spawned by the 

 conservation movement of 

 the early 20th century, 

 brought the first National 

 Forest System presence 

 into the Region. 



Set against the obstacles 

 of the prevailing exploitative 

 mood of the Nation, and 

 the 300-year-old southern 

 folkway of annual woods 

 burning, the National Forest 

 Reservation Commission 

 embarked on the 

 revolutionary idea of 

 acquiring Federal forest 

 reserves for the purposes 

 of watershed protection, 

 timber growing, and 

 demonstration for private 

 landowners. 



Staffing was limited, as was 

 the number of professionally 

 trained foresters. The role 

 of the Forest Service in 

 those early years was 

 perforce primarily custodial. 



Then, with the advent of 

 the Great Depression of the 



1930's, President Franklin 

 D. Roosevelt created the 

 Civilian Conservation Corps 

 to combat the waste of 

 America's human and 

 natural resources. With 

 comparatively unlimited 

 funds and labor available, 

 the Forest Service added 

 over 4 million acres and 15 

 new national forests in less 

 than 3 years. 



Corps enrollees brought 

 the South's forests back to 

 life, planting millions of 

 trees; battling fires, floods, 

 and erosion; and building 

 roads to open the back 

 country to fire control and 

 public recreation. 



In July 1934, the Forest 

 Service's Southern Region 

 was established, with its 

 headquarters in Atlanta. 

 Professional foresters were 

 assigned to supervise Corps 

 camps and projects; and 

 as the number of foresters 

 increased, an 

 understanding of the 

 southern pineries increased 

 as well. 



Experimentation with the 

 planned use of fire as a 

 timber management tool 

 progressed during the 



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