Vol. 4 (1995): North Carolina Geographer
In this, the fourth volume of The North Carolina Geographer, we have included articles that represent each of the three subject cornerstones in the science of geography, physical, cultural, and regional geography.
Specifically, there are three contributions that emerge from a physical environmental foundation to show how people in North Carolina have been affecting, through their varied land Uses, some particular condition of our natural resources. In these articles the primary focus is on soils and on hydrology, or water resources. Our authors are concerned not only to demonstrate the newest in geographic tools used to assess the particular environmental problem, but also to show how changing pressures on the land require new approaches to land resource management. And so it is also for the articles that on the one hand focuses on cultural attributes, specifically mill villages, and on the other, the changes occurring in multi-county government organization and impacting the state's communities.
Craig Seaver and Mike Mayfield from Appalachian State University provide a study of soil erosion rates as they are affected by shifting land uses over nearly four decades. Soil erosion is especially problematic for hilly tracts of land, and none are more so than those found in the Appalachian mountains. Here the problem received considerable attention beginning in the 1930s, with the initiation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and soil conservation measures have since been widely applied. The authors use geographic information systems technology to assess shifts in erosion rates, finding that the reduction in erosion is probably more related to a gradual changes from agriculture to urbanization related land
uses, rather than specifically to the application of soil conservation measures.
Tom Ross of Pembroke State University has for several years been focusing his research on improved rural land management practices in the southern part of the state's coastal plains region. Through a detailed assessment of agricultural productivity he finds that the use of irrigation to supplement the natural, but irregularly occurring pattern of precipitation, provides an important boost to crop yields. Though he suggests that further work is needed on understanding the availability and quality of irrigation water from its two main sources, groundwater and surface, he shows that the irrigated acreage can be expanded.
County-wide wellhead protection is a new state encouraged approach for local government to identify and manage the recharge areas for public water. The persistent threat of public water contamination provides the motivation for this important public program. Will Harman and Steve Smutko, both associated with the Agricultural Extension Service, Harman as a Field Agent in Gaston County and Smutko as an Extension Specialist with North Carolina State University, are the authors of this report on how Gaston County is approaching the development of a wellhead protection program. So far unique in the state, the Gaston approach may serve as a model for other counties as they begin to address county-wide wellhead protection.
Doug Eyre of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill returns us to a recurring North Carolina Geographer theme in the cultural geography, the condition and future of our communities and smaller towns. As a major feature in the state's settlement history, the changing character of mill villages and towns certainly deserve particular attention. In this comparative case study of Bynum, Saxapahaw, and Carrboro, Eyre traces their evolution from their initial selection as textile mill sites. The three mill villages have emerged as very different settlements. Though all three have been negatively affected by locational shifts in the textile industry, their present status reflects their differing proximity to the heart of a rapidly
expanding urban region, the Piedmont Triangle, within which they are emerging as economic satellites.
Rapidly expanding metropolitan regions reveal only one of several patterns of change and development in the state. North Carolina, like her sister states, is characterized by a persistence in the geographic unevenness of its development, both economic and social. In an earlier day this was in part ameliorated by multi-county regional governments whose task it was to channel federal social welfare benefits to the state's localities. Ole Gade of Appalachian State University provides an analysis of how earlier attempts at ensuring local access to federal programs now may be encumbered by a postfederal deemphasis on revenue sharing to the local level, and the newly emerging regional structure which takes its cue from local private enterprise initiatives plus state government support for new or relocating industries. Gade suggests that communities in the state's more rural periphery will be the losers by this new vision of public responsibility.
As always, the Journal closes with comments on ongoing research that finds display of its results on the front and back cover. While the back cover represents a multicolor version of a figure provided in the Seaver/ Mayfield article, the front cover includes a set of visuals from a map sheet, North Carolina's Place in the World, recently published by the Department of Geography of Appalachian State University. An undergraduate major in the Department, David Lambert, discusses the visuals.
On the behalf of the North Carolina Geographical Society, I must thank those individuals and departments who have provided the additional support needed to publish this issue of the Journal. Continued support is provided, both technical and financial, by the Appalachian State University GIS and Image Processing Labs. By their sponsored advertising I acknowledge the support of the departments of geography of the following institutions, East Carolina State University, The University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, and The University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Due to the yearly appearance of this Journal it is not feasible to publish in every issue the names of one of its most critical human resources, the readers who provide invaluable assistance in rendering objective and knowledgeable judgment and recommendation on the articles presented to the Editor for possible publication. I hope that the readers will bear with me. They may expect to see their names listed in tribute only every third issue. Finally, I apologize for the inadvertent omission in last year's issue of the Acknowledgment paragraph of the article by Eugene J. Palka and Thomas W. Crawford.
