By 1920 much of West Virginia resembled what one can see in present-day clearcut areas of Oregon's mountainous landscape. The oldest and largest hardwood forest in our country was wiped away by laissez-faire capitalism. Thirty billion board feet of lumber and an equal amount of pulpwood, along with 98 percent of the profit, left the state. By the 1930s three-quarters of West Virginia's land mass and ninety percent of its natural resources were owned by the outsiders. With the trees gone the people in logging camps and mill towns vanished.
Denuded mountains contribute to flooding .
In the first three decades of the twentieth century prominent West Virginia authors spoke on that topic. Modern research at the USDA Forest Service's Fernow Experimental Forest in West Virginia shows that forests retain water through the process of evapotranspiration , which process reduces flooding. Today one can find a few patches of virgin hemlock trees in the Mountain State, such as Cathedral State Park in Preston County and a virgin hemlock trail near Interstate 68 outside of Morgantown. On North Fork Mountain in Pendleton County stands virgin red pine in an area protected by The Nature Conservancy. Second growth .