to improve the condition 

 and growth of the timber 

 resource, timber 

 management activities 

 produced some notable 

 results, including the 

 planting accomplishments 

 cited above. Also by the 

 end of 1941, and the 

 beginning of World War II, 

 the annual timber harvest 

 had more than quadrupled 

 in a 10-year period, to 193.5 

 million board feet. Timber 

 receipts that year were 

 $1,146,162.41 (USDA Forest 

 Service 1985a, unpubl.) 



With the expansion of timber 

 stand improvement work 

 during the Civilian 

 Conservation Corps era, 

 and the beginning of 

 sale-area betterment work 

 with Knutson-Vandenburg 

 Act 4 fund came complaints 

 from the southern 

 Appalachian forests and 

 the Ouachita in Arkansas 

 that the work was destroying 

 the food supply of game 

 animals and birds. 



A study at the Southern 

 Appalachian Experiment 

 Station concluded that the 

 current policy of restricting 

 the cutting to trees actually 

 overtopping potentially 

 more valuable trees would 

 cause little real harm to 

 wildlife. Specific 

 recommendations were 

 made for leaving some den 

 trees and mast-bearing 



trees and vines. Also 

 mentioned was the need to 

 vary timber stand 

 improvement policy in 

 accordance with the forest 

 type, stage of forest 

 succession, and wildlife 

 and other resource 

 management objectives to 

 achieve a balance of all 

 forest resources. These 

 recommendations were 

 forerunners of the more 

 sophisticated timber-wildlife 

 management coordination 

 guides developed 30 years 

 later. 



Contributions of the 

 Civilian Conservation 

 Corps 



Most Forest Service retirees 

 who witnessed this era in 

 the Southern Region agree 

 that the single greatest 

 contribution to reclaiming 

 the South's forest 

 lands was the formation of 

 the Civilian Conservation 

 Corps. Some, like 



4 The Knutson-Vandenburg Act of 

 1 930 authorized the Secretary of 

 Agriculture to require any purchaser 

 of national forest timber to make 

 deposits of money (in addition to 

 payment for the timber) to cover 

 the cost of reforesting a sale area 

 and for sale-area betterment (such 

 as timber stand improvement). The 

 act was later amended to include 

 costs of wildlife habitat 

 management on the sale area. 



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