ABSTRACT

Appalachia has long exported to its neighbors its stores of coal, petroleum, natural gas, metallic ores, timber, and water. Renewable resources regenerate after use or depletion. The use of nonrenewable resources requires a full understanding of the consequence and planning for economic stability in coal-producing districts prior to the onset of depletion of the resource. Resources can provide the raw materials for sustained regional development and growth. Of all the items in Appalachia's resource inventory, the hardwood and softwood forests may be the most versatile. Despite the assault of nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century commercial lumbering, the region's forestry resources have been steadily reestablished. The largest proportion of the annual harvest, about two-thirds, was processed by sawmills into a wide variety of lumber products. The production of wood pulp is more geographically restricted than is the processing of lumber from saw logs.