A Depression-era relief program on Bent Creek Experimental Forest yielded firewood and a new study

Abstract

As effects of the Great Depression increased in western North Carolina, the Pisgah National Forest (PNF) and the Asheville Unemployment Council (AUC) had a tree problem in common. The PNF needed to sell some trees so that a researcher at the Bent Creek Experimental Forest (BCEF) could install a study— but there were no buyers. The AUC needed to buy trees for their innovative employment relief program—but they had no money. A series of newspaper articles appearing in the Asheville Citizen (1930a–1930d, 1931a–1931h) and Asheville Citizen-Times (1930; 1931a, 1931b) described how the two groups worked together for a common solution.

Parent Publication

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

Citation

McNab, W. Henry. 2023. A Depression-era relief program on Bent Creek Experimental Forest yielded firewood and a new study. 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: 273-276.