REPOET 



ON THE 



FORESTS AND FOREST CONDITIONS OF TKE SOUTHERN 

 . APPALACHIAN MOUiNTAIN REGION. 



To the President: 



An interest in practical forestry, notable and commend- 

 able, has grown up among the American people during the 

 past few 3'ears. There is an evident determination that 

 our country shall profit from its own and the experience 

 of other countries by beginning the preservation of our 

 forest remnants before it is altogether too late. 



The most important practical outcome of this awakening 

 has been the setting aside by the Government, out of the 

 public domain, in the several Western States and Terri- 

 tories, of some 70,000 square miles of forest-covered lands 

 about the mountains in these regions, to protect the streams 

 and perpetuate the timber supplies. A more recent result 

 is the movement, which has met with the general approval 

 of business and scientific organizations and the unanimous 

 support of the press, toward the preservation by the Gov- 

 ernment of the hard-wood forests on the slopes of the 

 Southern Appalachian Mountains. 



The proposal that the Government shall protect these 

 Appalachian forests by purchasing the lands and making 

 of them a great national foi'est reserve was first brought 

 directly to the attention of Congress in January, 1900, 

 when a memorial to that effect was presented by the Appa- 

 lachian Mountain Club of New England and the Appala- 

 chian National Park Association of the South Atlantic 

 States. In response to this memorial and in recognition 

 of the importance of the movement, the act making the 

 appropriation for the Department of Agriculture for the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, provided that a "sum 

 not to exceed $5,000 may, in the discretion of the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture, be used to investigate the forest con- 

 ditions in the Southern Appalachian Mountain region of 

 western North Carolina and adjacent States." 



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