190 



SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



executive department, while the leading statesmen are grasping that 

 modern geography which seeks to assimilate science. So it is but 

 natural that the mountaineers of the Appalachian region, a virile and 

 farseeing race, and various representatives of public interests have 

 come to read alike the public lesson of conservation, the conservation 

 of forests, in order that the ver}' mountains may be conserved. 

 Naturall}^ too, the applications of the lesson first came home to the 

 hearts of the mountaineers amid their beloved ranges and rivei-s. 

 They first noted the gullying of hillsides, with the accompanying 

 loss of soil and clogging of valleys and polluting of streams, when 

 clearings were pushed too far up the valley sides. They first observed 

 that the carelessly set forest lire produced, although more slowly, 

 effects as disastrous as those of injudicious cleai'ing. They first noticed 

 that reckless lumbering robbed the land not merely of trees but of 

 soil, of welling springs, and of the trout-filled brook, which were 

 converted into mudd}-, freshet-ridden streams, running dr}^ in mid- 

 summer. They first realized that the stripping of the chestnut oaks 

 for tan bark was but the first step in a cumulative desolation. They 

 were the first to realize the gradual change of brook and river from 

 crystal streams flowing steadily all the season round to dirty danger 

 lines mapped out by disastrous wrecks with every storm, onW to lose 

 themselves in mud between storms. Naturally, then, the agitation of 

 a polic}' began among the mountaineers, and their voices were heard 

 fii'st in local conventions, then in the legislative halls of several States, 

 and finally before Federal Congress and Cabinet. Such, in brief, is 

 the histor}^ of the movement toward an Appalachian forest reserve, a 

 movement which may lag or lunge according to the firmness of the 

 alliance between science and stateci'aft, but which is manifestl}" des- 

 tined for ultimate success, to the immeasurable benefit of mankind. 



EESOLUTION OF THE LEGISLATURE OF VIRGINIA. 



Resolved hy the senate of Yirginia, the home of delegates concurring. 

 That the general assembly of Virginia, hereb}^ expresses its approval 

 of the movement looking to the establishment b}' the Federal Govern- 

 ment of an extensive national forest in the Southern Appalachian Moun- 

 tain region as a wise and beneficent measure, such as many other nations 

 have already adopted, and which this country has already adopted 

 in the West and should adopt in the East before it is too late, looking 

 to the conservation of its forests and the protection of the sources 

 of important streams; and 



Whereas the proposal to establish this forest reserve has been 

 approved and urged by the leading scientific societies and forestry 

 associations of this country and by both the general and technical 

 press; and 



