The national forest is managed on a multiple-use philosophy and are used for lumbering, grazing, oil production, hunting, and recreation. In fiscal year 1994, 93.8 million board feet of timber was harvested from the national forests in Texas, providing 2,098 jobs and $73,108,000 in income to the surrounding Texas communities. In addition, Texas ranchers with special permits could graze their cattle in the national forests. At the Davy Crockett National Forest, 386 head of cattle grazed in fiscal year 1994. Recreational facilities within the national forest at the
Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area include a bathhouse, camping, picnicking and swimming areas, and boat ramps. The Four C National Recreation Trail runs through the northern third of the national forest between the Neches Bluff Overlook and Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area in
Houston County. The Neches Bluff Overlook provides a panoramic view of the bottomlands at the north end of the forest. From there the trail winds southward about 20 miles passing through the Big Slough Wilderness for a couple of miles along the way. It is named after the Central Coal and Coke Company (once owned by
Richard H. Keith), which logged the region from 1901 until all the forest had been clear cut in 1920. Portions of the trail now follow routes, berms, and levees that the Central Coal and Coke Company built for small scale railroads and trams to hall logs. Ratcliff Lake functioned as a log pond and remnants of the sawmill still stand in the Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area. The
Big Slough Wilderness Area was established by Congress in the Texas Wilderness Act of 1984, prohibiting future timber harvest, and allowing natural forces to shape the area. It is located on the northeast margin of the national forest. Most of the 3,639 acre wilderness lies in the floodplain of the
Neches River, which defines 11 miles of its eastern border. Large portions of the area are occasionally submerged during periods of heavy rain and flooding. The most recent logging within the Big Slough Wilderness occurred in 1968, mostly pines in peripheral areas, however parts of the area have never been logged. “The Big
Slough”, is an old, abandoned channel of the river that winds through the center of the wilderness west of the Neches River, forming an island between the slough and the river. The area supports approximately five square miles of hardwood, bottomland,
old growth forest. About two thirds of the wilderness is dominated by hardwood forest, a quarter by shortleaf pine (
Pinus echinata) and loblolly pine (
Pinus taeda), with the remaining portions being a mix of hardwood and pine or open areas of swamp and water. Just a few of the hardwoods growing in the wilderness include River birch (
Betula nigra), bitternut hickory (
Carya cordiformis), sugarberry (
Celtis laevigata), American sweetgum (
Liquidambar styraciflua), American sycamore (
Platanus occidentalis), swamp chestnut oak (
Quercus michauxii), cherrybark oak (
Quercus pagoda), Shumard oak (
Quercus shumardii), American black elderberry (
Sambucus canadensis), black willow (
Salix nigra), American elm (
Ulmus americana), Texas cedar elm (
Ulmus crassifolia), The national champion planer tree (
Planera aquatica) grows in the wilderness. == Fauna ==