66 



SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



The hard-wood forests of the Southern Appalachians 

 are by no means so inflammable as the coniferous forests 

 of the North and West. Forest fires in this region are 

 seldom more than ground tires, and onl}' under the influ- 

 ence of exceedingly high winds in a dry season l>ecome 

 uncontrollable. With an active and adequate foi'ce of i-an- 

 gers and a thorough s^'stem of trails, the protection of the 

 proposed reserve would be practicable. The good results 

 of its preservation from tire would be twofold. In addition 

 to the evident benefits of efficient fire protection upon the 

 forest would be the forcible example provided to prove 

 that the forest untouched b}' fire 3'ields in the long run 

 better and more plentiful pasturage than if it be annually 

 burned over. The modification of present methods of 

 grazing in the Southern Appalachians, like the modifica- 

 tion of present lumbering methods, will follow proof of 

 its advantages much more rapidl}' than it would follow 

 propaganda. The one is no less important to the best 

 development of this region than the other. The axivan- 

 tages of both coidd in no way be bettei established than 

 by their practical illustration in the proposed reserve. 



The mountain forests of the Southern Appalachians are 

 silviculturally the most complex in the United States. 

 They contain manj- kinds of trees, varying widely in habit 

 and also in merchantable value, and the forest t^^pe is 

 constantly changing with the differences in elevation, 

 gradient, and soil. Their best management is difficult, 

 because the lack of uniformit}^ in the forest renders it 

 necessar}^ constantly to vary the severit}^ of the cutting 

 and to discriminate in the kinds of trees which are cut, 

 instead of following onh' those general rules which suffice 

 where there are fewer species represented and the forest 

 conforms more closely to a single type. 



IMPROVEMENT IN GENERAL FOREST POLICY 

 NECESSARY. 



Improvement Jn Order to reproduce these forests successfully and to 



in method of ... 



lumbering. minimize the damage done by lumbering, first of all it 

 will be necessarjf to have a radical improvement in the 

 fellings. Such an improvement is entireh' practicable 

 without additional cost per 1,000 feet B. M. of timber 

 felled. It often requires no more labor to fell a tree up a 

 slope than down it, or upon an open space rather than 

 into a clump of .young growth; and it is in just such cases 

 as these that unreasoning disregard for the future of the 



