The historical geography of environmental change in the Copper Basin

From 1870 to 1946 the Copper Basin, in southeastern Tennessee, changed from a forest environment to a desert environment. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the causes for that change. Several arguments have been proposed to explain the causes for the environmental change:

1. industrial pollution 2. excessive logging and pollution 3. settlement on mountainous topography The hypothesis tested in this thesis proposes that all three of these activities affected the change as well as grazing, burning, neglect, and the cumulative effects of erosion.

The methodology used to prove the stated hypothesis is a historical one. The history of the basin is divided into three sections: (1) 1839- 1890, (2) 1890-1946, and (3) 1946-1980. Each period is examined in terms of its industrial, residential, and agricultural activities and the environmental effects of all three.

The results of the research proved that the hypothesis was correct. Industrial pollution, logging and topography all played important roles in the early part of the change. However, the duration of the change and the increasing erosion and siltation resulted from later activities such as grazing and burning. The most important evidence presented in defending the hypothesis is in the duration of the change and the fact that the basin's appearance today is not much different than in l905.

Also severe erosion still continues today as evidenced by the increasing silt load being deposited in the Ocoee No. 3 reservoir.