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2 Introduction

Three major periods characterize land use in the South: (1) the era of agricultural exploitation, (2) the era of timber exploitation, and (3) the era of recovery and renewal. Agricultural exploitation started in the seventeenth century but reached its zenith in the late nineteenth century, when a vast cotton industry stretched from the Atlantic to Texas. Other crops supplanted cotton as the boll weevil ran its course and all have had influence on the land. Timber exploitation, which peaked in the first part of the twentieth century, had its roots in the disposal of a large public domain in the years immediately after the Civil War (Williams 1989). The timber industry migrated to the South after timber stocks were depleted in the Lake States, and 20 years of extensive timbering left southern timber stocks similarly depleted. By the start of the Great Depression, intensive agriculture and timbering had seriously degraded the land. Farms were abandoned, and forests were reestablished and renewed over the next 40 years.

Currently, a different set of forces is shaping southern forests. Strong economic growth has fueled increased population and urbanization (Alig and Healy 1987). In addition, relative changes in agricultural and timber markets strongly influence the allocation of rural land to agricultural and forest uses (Alig 1986). Agriculture's returns have generally declined relative to forestry, and the South has become the dominant timber-producing region in the country. More than 58 percent of domestic fiber production in 1997 was from the South. Returns to agriculture and forestry vary widely depending on land quality, climate, and location relative to markets. Where agriculture does not dominate and conditions are conducive, much land is actively and intensively managed for timber production. As a result, the South is now the largest agricultural-style timber-producing region in the world.

This Chapter describes historic, current, and probable future land use in the South. It identifies the forces that have shaped, and will continue to shape, forest area. It focuses on the relative roles of population change, economic growth, agricultural markets, and timber markets as they interact to define the values of land in different uses. This Chapter also examines how increasing populations and development influence the landscape structure of forest landscapes.