The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1952-07-11
MODERN TREE FARMING
IS PLANNED ON $4,000
ACRES OF DARE MAINLAND
West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co. Has Recently
Taken Over the One and a Half Million
Dollar MalOOf Tract; Once Owned by Dare
Lumber Comply; Resident Manager Issues
Statement

Statement.
Modern tree farming methods
promising a perpetual forest econ
omy for the region will be follow
ed by West Virginia Pulp and
Paper Company in the manage
ment of about 10000 acres of
timberland in historic Dare Coun-
ty, representatives. of the paper
company indicated today after as
suming ownership of the property,
The paper company, which oper-
ates mills in Charleston, S. c.,
Covington, Va, Luke, Md, Tyrone
and Williamsburg, Pa, and Me-
chanicville, N. Y, acquired title
to the Dare County acreage last
week when the stock of the Dare
Corporation was transferred at a
closing held in the home office of
the new owner in New York City.
Fred N. Maloof was president and
the owner of the Dare Corpora
ton, which has now been liquidat-
ed.
The bulk of the paper company's
new holdings is located in an area
bounded on the west by Alligator
River, on the north by Albemarle
Sound, on the east by Croatan
Sound and Pamlico Sound, and on
the south by Longshoal River and
Pamlico Sound and a line dividing
Dare and Hyde counties.
The area, stretching some 80
miles in length and 18 miles in
width, was the center of extensive
numbering operations at the turn
of the century, when some of the
finest stands of pine, juniper, cy-
press and gum in the East were
cut from the property.
The tract now contains consid-
cradle second growth juniper, pine
and gum, but the stands have been
so seriously damaged by. fire in
recent years that it will require
many years of effective forest
practices before the full potential
of the area can be realized.
While no definite program has
yet been formulated for the man.
agement of the property, the pa
per company is moving forward
with its plans. An office has been
in Manteo, where
William Ernst, Jr., a master for
ester who has been associated
with company timber operations in
South Carolina for some years,
will manage the property.
The first stage in the planning
of program of forest develop
ment and conservation for the
property will come July 1926
when technically-trained company
personnel, including foresters and
forest engineers, meet at Mays
Head to study the tract and rec
ommend tree farming practices
to the Dare County
property.
1t was pointed out that in South
Carolina, where the paper COM
pany owns and operates some
100000 acres of woodlands as
source of supply for its mill at
Charleston, the company has dem
onstrated that it is possible to
grow trees much as farmers grow
grain, hay and other crops. The
cycle is longer, ranging in various
areas from Is to 25 years, but
the principle of tree farming is
essentially the same as that of
other types of farming
The new tree farming concept
calls for planned cutting at reg
ular intervals to keep the land
growing repeated forest crops of
better species. Under such a pro-
gram, sound cutting practices and
the proper dispersal of seed trees
give nature chance to do the job
of reseeding the cut-over areas.
Although balanced forest
management rogram is visualized
for the Dare County land, COM
pany officials stressed that the
first consideration, both in the
preliminary stages and when the
program is more fully developed,
will be efficient fire prevention.
"We must keep fires out of the
woods in order to make progress"
Mr.. Ernst said, "and we welcome
the interested cooperation of the
people of Dare County in this eff
fort"