Rain-ing forest

We love listening to the rain on our motorhome rooftop..... and when the real rain (patter, patter) stops..... it keeps on raining. The 'tree rain' is much different:  louder, much larger drops, and it can last for hours.  Sometimes we get fooled into thinking the real rain has stopped, because the tree rain is louder.
Anyway, I love the trees of this forest.  Yesterday we visited the educational center of the Cradle of Forestry..... the exact location in North Carolina of the first Forestry School in North America.

Fascinating story in a nutshell:
George Vanderbilt came to the Asheville area in 1888 and purchased 2000 acres of forest.  He built the Biltmore Estate family mansion, which included European style gardens and landscaping. He then purchased an additional 80,000 acres and set out to promote the new idea of "forestry" which they practiced in Europe.

Vanderbilt brought over a German Forester, Alwin Schenck, who fell in love with the forests of the surrounding area .... which were overlogged and overfarmed to a large degree.  Schenck soon gained the admiration of people interested in his methods of harvesting trees for income, while maintaining healthy forests for the future. 
At the time America had no forestry schools, so in 1898 Dr. Schenck started the Biltmore Forest School.  The Forest Service purchased the site of the original campus in 1914; and today it is called "The Cradle of Forestry in America".  It is about 14 miles from our campground. Cool place.

Another interesting fact (unsubstantiated) is that 60% of North Carolina land is either Local, State, or National Forests, Parks, or Preserves (or Native American Reservations).   On the downside of that stat (voiced by a local resident) .... is that only 30% of NC lands constitutes its tax base.
I still love the forests.

More later, Marilyn