An Appalachian Forest: Creation of the Jefferson National Forest and its Effects on the Local Community

Abstract

In 1936, amidst the Great Depression and during a dynamic period for the conservation movement in the eastern United States, the Jefferson Nat ional Forest was created in southwest Virginia. The growing conservation movement partly coincided with an industrial timber boom of the 1890s-1920s in southern Appalachia, a boom that peaked in 1909. Th is intensive logging helped inspire federal legislation aimed at protecting the landscape, particularly through watershed restoration and maintenance. In this setting, after large commercial logging operations had run their course, the Jefferson Na tional Forest (hereafter also referred to as Jefferson) interacted with local communities and economies in several important ways. The Jefferson hired local men (especially on fire fighting crews), conducted small timber sales to local loggers and other residents, and built recreational facilities that the public, especially local people, could enjoy. The recovering forest was a potent ial wildlife hab itat, and game managers restocked streams with trout and the forest with deer and turkey, helping revive local hunting and fishing traditions. Jefferson staff members worked closelyand cooperatively with various groups to establish the national forest as part of the community. Much of the early national attention to forest ry focused on the Appalachian Region. In 1891 America's first native scient ific forester, Gifford Pinchot, began work at the Biltmore estate in Asheville, North Carolina, and by 1898 headed the Division of Forestry. The Appa lachian Mounta in Club and the Na tional Academy of Sciences supported preserving Appalachian land, and in 1885 two doctors, Henry O. Marcy and Chase P. Ambler, began promot ing Appalachian forest preservation.' They helped form the Appalachian National Park Association (later the Appa lachian National Forest Reserve Association) in 1899 and advocat ed forest prese rvat ion for economic, aesthetic, and health reasons. North Caro lina Senator Jeter C. Pritchard supported their effort and persuaded Congress to get involved. By 1901 , with congressional backing, President William McKinley agreed to the need for Appalachian forest reserves. The following year Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson submitted a report concerning the Appalachian Region. Among his conclusions were that: