Title:	History of Missouri Forests in the Era of Exploitation and Conservation
Author(s):	Benac, David; Flader, Susan
Date:	2004
Source:	Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-73. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. pp. 36-41
Description:	The era of timber exploitation and early conservation in the Missouri Ozarks occurred roughly from 1880 to 1950, beginning when large timber companies moved into the region to harvest the pine and oak of the valleys and ridgelines. Pine was largely depleted by 1910, but oak harvest continued. Resident Ozarkers, who came largely from a tradition of subsistence hunting, gathering, and basic farming, frequently resisted the efforts of both timber companies, such as the Missouri Lumber and Mining Company, and governmental agencies to bring modernization and industrial productivity to the region. As a result, governmental conservation developed later in Missouri than in neighboring states. The federal government created its first national forests in Missouri in 1933, and the state did not establish a permanent agency devoted to forestry until 1937. The struggle to control access to the region’s forest resources and culture remained a prominent issue throughout the era. The legacy remains today in forests with an abnormally high percentage of cull and continued resistance of Ozarkers to governmental regulation.
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