Forests are important in the local and regional economies of the South. The overall southern economy has grown since 1969 with increases in numbers of jobs proportionate to increases in population and in the national economy. This new economy is less dominated by manufacturing and agriculture. Timber and agriculture, the two major uses of rural southern land, still account for over 6 percent of the southern economy. Much of the South is still rural and poor, though conditions have improved.
The South has 33 percent of the U.S. population and 24 percent of the U.S area, but only 4 percent of Federal land and 12 percent of State park and forest land. About 2.6 percent of U.S. wilderness is in the South, and 6.8 percent of miles of wild, scenic and recreational rivers are in the 13 Southern States. These percentages imply that both recreational and timber producing opportunities may be more constrained on public land in the South than in other regions of the United States. National Forests in the Southern Region are the second most heavily used for recreation among the nine USDA Forest Service regions with visits of 1.9 per acre, reflecting the scarcity of public land for outdoor recreation in this region. National forests contributed 1.7 percent of the value of timber harvested, and an estimated 17 percent of outdoor recreation-based tourism in 1997. Fourteen southern counties have high concentrations of wood products employment and high percentages of land managed by the USDA Forest Service.
The U.S. wood products industry continues to concentrate in the South, which already has 39.3 percent of U.S. wood product jobs. Concentrations of both the lumber and wood products sector and the pulp and paper sector have increased since 1969, while the furniture sector concentration decreased. The percentages of State-level jobs and income in wood products have generally declined since 1969, but actual numbers of jobs have remained fairly constant. Tourism-related industries are increasing in the South, but are not becoming more concentrated in the South. The percentage of State-level jobs and income in the tourism-related sectors is increasing in all 13 States, as are the actual numbers of jobs and amount of income.
In 1997, wood products sectors contributed 5.5 percent of southern jobs and 6.0 percent of GRP. Public lands represented 8.5 percent of this contribution. In 1997, outdoor-recreation-based tourism contributed between 0.64 and 2.88 percent of southern jobs and between 0.51 and 2.51 percent of GRP. Public lands represented approximately 56 percent of this contribution.
Both forest-based recreation and wood products rely on the nearby presence of forestland. Thus, these sectors are often concentrated in rural areas. Rural areas in the South are generally less well off, have higher minority concentrations, and more forestland. While causality between forests and well-being cannot be determined, the associations between forested areas, wood products concentrations, and economic well-being indicate that rural, forested areas are less well off than many, but not all, other rural areas.
