No section of the United States offers more favorable opportunities for forest culture than the South. Its 270 million acres of forest represents two-fifths of the commercial forest land of the entire nation. Proper development of this great natural resource will help to assure ample future wood supplies for the whole country, as well as furnishing continuous employment and an improved standard of living for many people in the region. Fortunately, the South offers many advantages for the maintenance of forest industries on a large scale. The soil and climate favor rapid tree growth; there are numerous valuable hardwood and softwood tree species native to the region; 1ogging operations are relatively simple; all parts of the region are easily accessible to good rail and water transportation facilities; markets for forest products are generally good; ample labor is at hand; and industrial development is well under way.

Observational studies of numerous plantings of hardwood species for shelterbelts, woodlots, erosion control and in reforestation and afforestation projects have shown that, unless soil and climatic conditions are extremely favorable, planting without some attempt at site preparation is often disappointing. This is especially true i£ the soil conditions have been rendered extremely unfavorable by excessive sheet and gully erosion. Such a condition prevails in the erosion problem area of southern Iowa on sites usually selected for erosion control tree planting. In this and comparable areas, numerous examples can be found o£ plantings in gullies and on badly eroded slopes which show, after several years, a low rate of survival, poor establishment of many which did survive and inadequate growth o£ the occasional seemingly favored tree.

Some time back in the dim days of peace, you decided to be a forester. Probably you don’t even remember the exact reason- few of us do. Maybe you saw sunrise on a snow capped mountain. Maybe it was moonlight on the desert, or the smell of wood smoke in the autumn or the taste of maple sugar in the spring that first put the love of the woods in your blood. Or was it the white anger that surged up when you saw the waste and destruction of the woodlands that made you seize forestry as a weapon to stop the crime? It doesn’t really matter; you became a forester-and were proud of it.

The term “range improvement” is used very freely, but it is seldom defined. The term might appear to be so easily understood as to make definition unnecessary, yet its great variation in significance, as used by range managers in reports of range condition, makes clear that the term means different things to different men. Some consideration of its significance is therefore in order.