The first Southern Forest Survey

Abstract

The passage of the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928 authorized a nationwide inventory of the Nation’s forests. In part, such data were required to develop new markets, and the need for such development in the impoverished South was great. The virgin forests of the South had been aggressively harvested and the land lay barren due in part to the tax policies in most Southern States, which taxed cutover land at higher values than other real estate (Fickle 2001). Second growth forests on some of these cutover lands were the pride of early foresters, but their nature, usefulness, and location were largely unknown.

Parent Publication

• Celebrating 100 years of forest science: an abridged history of the Southern Research Station

Citation

Barnett, James P. 2023. The first Southern Forest Survey. In: Bragg, Don C., ed. Celebrating 100 years of forest science: an abridged history of the Southern Research Station. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-272. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station: 115-122.