-^aH"* 



3*v^^s' 





Figure \3.—AI! vegetation is 

 destroyed in strip-initiing 

 operations, and unless steps 

 are taken to rehabilitate 

 areas such as this, manx 

 years will pass before na- 

 ture produces a useful crop. 



by mineral-right lessors tend to discourage the land- 

 owner from forestry. Many landowners hesitate to 

 plant trees on land covered by a mineral lease for 

 fear that subsequent mining operations may Avipe 

 out their investments (fig. 13). It is estimated that 

 the area of leased land is inore than a million acres. 

 Six percent of the forest area is in public owner- 

 ship. Of this more than half is in the Cumberland 

 National Forest. Less than 1 percent is State-owned 

 —largely in State forests and State parks. 



Forest Types 



The Forest Survey recognized eight forest tvpes 

 in Kentucky. The oak-hickory and mixed-hard- 

 woods types together cover more than 75 percent 

 of the commercial forest area (fig. 14). The oak- 

 hickoiy tvpe. found chiefly on the dry uplands, con- 

 tains a number of species of oak in mixture with 

 hickory and other hardwoods (fig. 15). In eastern 

 Kentucky, chestnut oak and black oak are the pre- 



Fic.URE \A.— Kentucky's com- 

 mercial forest area by for- 

 est type. 



FOREST TYPE 



OAK-HICKORY 



MIXED HARDWOODS 



OAK-PINE 



REDGEDAR-HARDWOODS 



BOTTOM-LAND HDWDS 



BEECH-MAPLE 



WHITE OAK 



PINE 



AREA 



TOTAL 

 11.4 MILLION ACRES 



2 3 4 



MILLION ACRES 



12 



Forest Resource Report \o. 7, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



