Managing Western North Carolina's National Forests
Public Deposited- Creator
-
Smith, Walton R.
- Other Affiliation: Retired from United States Forest Service
- Abstract
- "OK, you guys, load on the truck and let's head for V-J Stump Branch. Be sure that your axes are sharp and in the box, that you have your lunch from the mess hall, and that you are ready for a long day's work in 30 degree weather. Jim, do you have the first aid kit? Let's go!" The date is January 10, 1935. The place is Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp No. 1, Mountain Rest, South Carolina on the Nantahala National Forest which extends from North Carolina into South Carolina and northern Georgia. The forestry foreman is me, and I quote from my diary, "Had 17 men, covered 52 acres of Timber Stand Improvement (TSI), took 71/2 hours to finish, worked around waterfalls-very pretty; some white pine. Released 18 crop trees per acre." The mountain hardwood forests were managed by law for high-quality mature timber free of disease and insect damage, for the protection of soil and water, for improved habitat for fish and wildlife, and for a variety of recreational uses. Rangers Nicholson and Woody, mountaineer woodsmen untrained in professional forestry, were not too excited about us young foresters just out of school, taking a crew of untrained city kids into the woods with axes to girdle and remove trees of one species to favor another species; to cut down pine trees that had a conk near the top of the tree (an indication of heart rot in pines to the forester) and burying the conk to keep its spores (seed) from spreading to other pines. They disliked Timber Stand Improvement but we just accepted them as great woodsmen with some old-fashioned ideas. Many of us felt that we were making mistakes in girdling large sound trees of hickory and other species to give sunlight to a small tree of a more desired species, but we were under orders and in the learning process. The CCC gave a great boost to forestry and the overall effect was improved management and harvesting of timber through a selection system that maintained a canopy and uneven-aged forests in the southern Appalachians and favored the multiple uses of recreation, wildlife, water and quality timber for which our mountain National Forests are famous.
- Date of publication
- 1993
- DOI
- Resource type
- Article
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Journal title
- Carolina Planning Journal
- Journal volume
- 18
- Journal issue
- 2
- Page start
- 21
- Page end
- 24
- Language
- English
- Digital collection
- Carolina Planning Journal
Relations
- Parents:
- In Collection:
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