SAA Summary Report - Introduction

Figure 1
The Southern Appalachian Assessment Area

Introduction

The living systems of the mountains in the Southern Appalachians (fig. 1) - the people, the animals, the plants, and the land, air, and water that support them have experienced enormous changes in the 20th century. At the start of the century, land management practices exploited natural resources. The results were rapidly eroding cropland and pasture and heavily logged forests in which little of value remained. People were leaving the area to find better opportunities in more hospitable surroundings (fig. 2).

Figure 2
Early in the 20th Century, people were leaving the mountains to find better opportunities elsewhere.

A concerned nation supported restoration and conservation efforts. National forests were created to protect the headwaters of major rivers in the Southeast. The Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah National Parks were established to preserve some of the special places in the Southern Appalachians. Together, those national forests and national parks now make up the largest concentration of federal land in the eastern United States. A special authority was established to oversee the protection and development of the Tennessee Valley. Organized efforts were supported to control wildland fires, and research was financed to find ways to restore and protect the land.

The results are most gratifying. With the assistance of many people and organizations, the area's ecosystems recovered or made improvements. Despite setbacks, such as the destruction of the American chestnut by chestnut blight, much has been achieved. Forests were restored, key areas were preserved in a natural state, soils were protected from erosion, and the power of the Tennessee River system to create human disasters was largely controlled.

As the 21st century approaches, the Southern Appalachians are thought of as a desirable place to live rather than a place to avoid (fig. 3).

Figure 3a
As the 21st Century approaches, the Southern Appalachians are thought of as desirable places to live.

The area has become a vital refuge from urban America for plants, animals, and people. Millions of tourists come each year to enjoy the scenery and the area's special places.

Figure 3b
Southern Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina.

Time for a Checkup

According to their biological clocks, the forests established in the Southern Appalachians between 1900 and 1940 are no longer young. They are what people would consider to be middle-aged. They are old enough to suffer from serious problems but young enough for their passing to seem premature.

The Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA) is the ecological equivalent of a thorough medical checkup. It was designed to take a careful look at what we know about the region's ecosystems and its air, water, and land resources. The hope was that potentially serious problems could be identified before they threatened the well-being of the natural resources.

Using the best available technology, the scientists who conducted the SAA gathered and interpreted large quantities of data about the region. The results provide estimates of what is happening in the region and what the consequences of those trends may be.

The assessment revealed no major crises, but some of its findings are worrisome. Forest pests are causing some serious problems, particularly in northern Virginia. Ecological changes are occurring in the region's forests. Pollution makes some streams unsuitable for human use. Acidity has significantly affected water quality and fish species in certain streams. The pressures of human development are having serious effects on natural resources around the region's cities, and conflicts over uses of the area's natural resources are brewing.

The authors of the SAA do not attempt to provide solutions for the problems that have been identified. They avoid prescriptions, because prescribing is a political process in which all Americans must have a part. Instead, the assessment tries to give the information people need for a productive discussion of the problems.

The Southern Appalachians

The area chosen for the assessment covers some 37.4 million acres of mountains, foothills, and valleys stretching from northern Virginia and eastern West Virginia to northwestern South Carolina, northern Georgia, and northern Alabama (fig. 1). When the first Native Americans came to the region, forests dominated the landscape, and they still do. Forests cover 70 percent of the region. Pastures cover 17.4 percent, croplands cover 3.4 percent, and areas developed for roads, dwellings, and other human structures cover 3.1 percent (fig. 4).

Figure 4
Current land cover in the study area.

The terrain characteristics of the Southern Appalachian region are so significant in shaping its ecology that it is impossible to discuss the region without referring to these features (fig. 5). They account for the great diversity of plants and animals, for the climate and soils, and largely for the cultural and economic development of the region.

Figure 5
Ecological units of the Southern Appalachians.
(Source: USDA Forest Service, Technical Publication R8-TP 21)

The eastern portion of the region is dominated by the Blue Ridge Mountains which rise abruptly from the Piedmont province forming a rugged and diverse landscape. The Blue Ridge Mountains range from about 2,000 feet to more than 6,000 feet and contain the highest peaks in the eastern United States. These mountains formed a significant barrier to early European settlement, but they also form corridors for migrating neotropical birds. The variations in elevation, aspect, rocks, and soils produce sites that support a variety of vegetation from oak and hickory forests at lower elevations to the spruce and fir forests on the mountain tops. The wide range of climatic conditions accounts for the occurrence of many plants and animals that are at the edge of their natural range.

Instead of trying to tame the Blue Ridge Mountains, early settlers established small farms along the great valley. Also known as the Ridge and Valley Province, the topography of this region is most suitable for agriculture. With few exceptions, population centers are in the central valley (fig. 6). The terrain is rolling to hilly with ridges running southwest along the length of the valley. Cropland and pastures are the predominant land uses but forests still occupy almost half of the area.

Figure 6
With few exceptions, population centers are in the Central Valley.

To the west of the great valley rise the mountains and ridges of the Cumberland Plateau. The abundance of coal in parts of the area supported mining communities for decades. Large tracts of land were owned by lumber and coal companies and forests still cover about two-thirds of the area. In places, the effects of surface mining are still a problem, but current regulations require rehabilitation.

Regionwide, the area of developed land has increased considerably over the past 20 years. Much of this development has been at the expense of cropland and pasture. Forest acreage has decreased slightly, reversing an increasing trend that occurred since the 1920s. Forest acreage grew for many years as croplands and pastures were abandoned and returned to natural vegetation. In the future, however, additional losses of forest are expected as population in the region expands.

More than 4 million acres in the Southern Appalachians are managed by the USDA Forest Service. The area's national forests include the George Washington and Jefferson in Virginia, a portion of the Monongahela in West Virginia, the Pisgah and Nantahala in North Carolina, a portion of the Sumter in South Carolina, the Cherokee in Tennessee, the Chattahoochee in Georgia, and a portion of the Talladega in Alabama. The area also contains the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Shenandoah National Park, Little River Canyon, and the Blue Ridge Parkway (figs. 7, 8, and 9). Other federal lands are managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Department of Defense.

Figure 7
Public land in the Southern Appalachians, 1990 (Source: U.S. Geological Survey). The majority of public land in the Southern Appalachians is in national forest land. A significant portion of the public land is in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the largest single tract of public land in the region.

Figure 8
The region contains the largest concentration of federal lands in the eastern U.S. This is the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina.

Figure 9
Privately owned pasture land in Virginia -- the vast majority of the region is privately owned.

Though the region has the greatest concentration of federally owned land in the eastern United States, the vast majority of the region's land is privately owned. While management of public land was a focus in the SAA, it should be remembered that the decisions of private landowners will determine the health and appearance of most of the region's ecosystems (fig. 10).

Figure 10
The distribution of current SAA area acres by ownerships. (Source: Derived USGS and national forest stand cover data layers for the SAA.

Teams of Scientists

In modern science, information is accumulating too rapidly for any one person to keep abreast of changes in anything more than a selected field of specialization. For the SAA, specialists were assigned to several teams (fig. 11).

Figure 11
Interagency Assessment Teams Organizational Chart.

Each of the four resource teams gathered and interpreted information about the status, management, and use of ecosystems in the region. The study includes portions of seven states: the mountainous parts of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, a small area of eastern West Virginia, and a large part of eastern Tennessee. Each team produced a technical report that summarizes its findings. Copies of those reports are available on request from the Southern Regional Office of the USDA Forest Service, 1720 Peachtree Rd., NW, Atlanta, GA 30367.

The Process

The SAA was conducted through the coordination of the Southern Appalachian Man and Biosphere (SAMAB) program. It is a combined effort of the federal and state agencies that participate in SAMAB. Most of these agencies have formal planning processes that require an underpinning of reliable scientific data. Results of the SAA provide much of the needed data. By working together, the individual agencies have reduced the work that will be needed to support upcoming and ongoing planning efforts.

Public meetings were held in the SAA study area to solicit public concerns about specific issues. Based on these concerns, questions were formed. These questions provide a framework for all of the scientific teams. Furthermore, the teams were asked to use existing information. With very few exceptions, information presented is not new. What is new, is the aggregation of pertinent information on many subjects related to the ecosystems of the Southern Appalachians. The close cooperation among scientists and administrators from so many agencies for an extended period also may be new.

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