Tennessee: Physical and Economic Characteristics 1 



->» 4&r 



FORESTS, which occupy 47 percent of all the 

 land in Tennessee, are one of the State's most 

 important natural resources. The benefits from 

 these forests — timber, water, recreation, and wild- 

 life — form the economic pillar of many communities 

 and are important to the welfare of the entire State. 



Forest Survey Regions 



Tennessee is a state with widely contrasting phys- 

 iographic features. A relief map shows a succession 

 of mountain slopes. From the peaks of the Great 

 Smoky Mountains — 6,642 feet in elevation on Cling- 

 man's Dome — the land drops toward the west in a 

 series of plateaus and ridges to the Mississippi bot- 

 tom lands. 



1 Historical material in this section is drawn largely from the 

 following sources: (1) Federal Writers' Project. Tennessee, 

 a guide to the state. 558 pp. New York. 1939. (2) 

 Hough, Franklin B. report upon forestry. 650 pp. 

 Washington, D. C, 1878. (3) Sargent, Charles S. report 

 on the forests of north America. U. S. Census Office, Dept. 

 of the Interior. 1884. (4) Various other U. S. Census reports. 



The Forest Survey regions in Tennessee — west, 

 west-central, central, Plateau, and east (fig. 1) — con- 

 form partly to major physiographic areas 2 though 

 they are distinguished also on the basis of forest types 

 and economic conditions. Boundaries follow county 

 lines for convenience in compiling data. 



The Survey region termed east Tennessee is made 

 up of two physiographic areas — the Unaka and 

 Smoky Mountains and the Great Valley. The moun- 

 tains, which extend along the North Carolina line in 

 a strip 2 to 20 miles wide, are rough and rugged. 

 Settlement antedates the Revolutionary War, but 

 agriculture could not get much of a hold except 

 in the coves and valleys (fig. 2). Most of the moun- 

 tains remain a forested wilderness now in 

 public ownership. The Great Valley, which flanks 

 the Smokies, is 30 to 60 miles wide. Its floor is com- 

 posed of a succession of minor ridges and valleys 

 runninsr northeast to southwest. Viewed from 



2 Major physiographic regions in Tennessee are delineated on 

 map following p. 56. 



~Tl 



1 1 .._. ■ 



/?„ 



T^ 



/ 



h 



.A 





■ (plate auK"~X-* 



3 ^ HD r" - ; V 



h 



J* s fWE|ST^ UME$T-\ c Ey'N i f ' R !AL>.^ / J?™\ 



Figure 1. — Forest Survey regions in Tennessee. 



Forest Resource Report No. 9, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



