10,000,000 Acre Forest… Gone

I’d like to share some facts about our precious forest that may shock you. Here is a little history I dug up about the ugly side of deforestation.

Before 1750, over 10,000,000 acres of virgin forest existed in the State of West Virginia. George Washington wrote in his journal while traveling along the Kanawa River, "Just as we came to the hills, we met with a Sycamore of a most extraordinary size, it measuring three feet from the ground, forty-five feet round, lacking two inches; and not fifty yards away from it was another, thirty-one feet round."

Along with massive trees, extensive undergrowth existed as documented by an account written in 1857 by David Strother:
"The hunters had been dodging the laurel-brakes all day. They had stories of men who had spent days in them, wandering in circles, and who had finally perished from starvation. Some of these brakes extend for many miles, and are so dense that even the deer cannot pass except by finding the thinnest places. Ascending the stump of a riven hemlock, a striking picture presented itself.
The laurel waved up and down as far as the eye could reach, like a green lake, with either shore walled by the massive forest, and out of its bed rose singly or in groups of three or four, the tallest and most imposing of the fir species."

Man was quick to recognize the economic potential of the extensive woodlands in this "new" territory. With the inventions of the Band Saw and the Shay locomotive, the logging industry took off. In 1909 there were 83 band mills and 1,441 other lumber establishments operating in the state. Nearly one and a half billion board-feet of lumber were produced during that year. Over 30 billion board-feet of lumber was cut in West Virginia between 1870 and 1920. More than enough lumber to build a 13 foot wide and 2 inch thick boardwalk from the Earth to the Moon. Out of the original 10,000,000 acres of virgin forest that existed before 1750, only 263 acres remain.

But logging alone didn't destroy the virgin forest. In 1863 fire escaped from the campfire of Confederate scouts. For many years following, fires swept through the region. The slash from the milled trees (branches, and tree crowns with wood too small to be marketable) created tinder box conditions. These conditions created fire after fire until the remaining green timber and undergrowth were destroyed. Even the deep humus in the spruce areas was burned to the bed rock. The devastation was so bad that even today the Summit of Cabin Mountain is still devoid of trees and soil.

However, there are two areas where the original forest still stands tall and proud. The first is the Monongahela Nation Forest Gaurdineer Knob Scenic Area located roughly four miles north of Durbin, West Virginia. The second area can be found at Cathedral State Park situated in Preston County on U.S Route 50, just west of the Maryland state line. Because of heavy logging and destruction of the forests, several areas have been created in an effort to allow the forest to return to its natural state. The Cranberry Wilderness is just one of these areas. But regardless of these efforts and no matter how far you travel into the wilderness, the railroad grades are still there, ties may still be on the ground and one might even run across an occasional rusted washtub, spike or rail.

Resource:
http://www.patc.us/history/archive/virg_fst.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logging