Message from the President of the United States, A Report of the Secretary of Agriculture in Relation to the Forests, Rivers, and Mountains of the Southern Appalachian Region

Abstract

To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of Agriculture, prepared in collaboration with the Department of the Interior, upon the forests, rivers, and mountains; of the Southern Appalachian region, and upon its agricultural situation as affected by them. The report of the Secretary presents the final results of an investigation authorized by the last Congress. Its conclusions point unmistakably, in the judgment of the Secretary and in my own, to the creation of a national forest reserve in certain parts of the Southern States. The facts ascertained and here presented deserve the careful consideration of the Congress; they have already received the full attention of the scientist and the lumberman. They set forth an economic need of prime importance to the welfare of the South, and hence to that of the nation as a whole, and they point to the necessity of protecting through wise use a mountain region whose influence flows far beyond its borders with the waters of the rivers to which it gives rise.

Citation

Roosevelt, Theodore. 1902. Message from the President of the United States, A Report of the Secretary of Agriculture in Relation to the Forests, Rivers, and Mountains of the Southern Appalachian Region. Washington: Government Printing Office - Excerpts. 120 pages