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Conclusions

The South’s forests of today are drastically different from those present 100 or 200 years ago, and they continue to change. Human impacts from centuries of use have forever changed the character and extent of the South's forests. The absence of fire, combined with extensive logging and agricultural practices resulted in the loss of vast expanses of open, park-like stands of timber. By 1900, much of the South’s landscape was composed of cutover woodlands and highly eroded farmlands. Decades of abuse led to massive soil erosion in many parts of the South, leaving the land less productive and watersheds clogged with sediments. When the timber industry moved to the South in 1880, the harvesting of trees on a large scale ensued. In less than 50 years, entire ecosystems were radically changed, some to the edge of destruction. By 1920, 55 million acres had been logged, and less than half supported regeneration. Only one-third of the South’s forested area remained.

The story of recovery from this low point in the history of land use in the South is often overlooked. The conservation movement helped preserve some of the remaining forest land through the creation of parks, nature preserves, and other protected areas. State forest management agencies were formed, and legislation passed that created the National Forest System in the East. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) of the 1930s, and the Soil Bank program of the 1950s and early 1960s, played a large role in the regeneration of southern forests. Between 1938 and 1963, the area of forest land in the South rose by 7 million acres due in no small part to these and similar Federal efforts. In spite of past abuses of the land, and the increased pressures over the past 100 years to provide more, southern forests today are a diverse mosaic of pine plantations, hardwood stands, and mixed pine-hardwood forests.

Many of the benefits derived from southern forests today are the result of these early reforestation efforts. Total forested area, growing-stock volume, and average annual growth and removals increased rapidly between the 1930s and 1950s. Between 1953 and 1999, total hardwood growing-stock volume increased 72 percent, while softwood growing-stock volume increased 73 percent. Average annual growth and removals of growing stock also increased during this time. From 1982 to 1999, average annual removals of growing stock increased 52 percent. Throughout this period, growth exceeded removals. It is only recently that average annual removals of softwood growing stock have exceeded average annual growth.

Forest land under private ownership has been impacted the most by plantation forestry and likely will continue to be in the foreseeable future. In 1952, pine plantations occupied less than 2 million acres in the South, while natural pine existed on 72 million acres. By 1999, the 30 million acres of pine plantations in the South nearly equaled the 34 million acres of natural pine.

The increase in acres of planted pine is seen as a double-edged sword. Those opposed to plantations believe these acres to be little more than cropland—"false forests" or "biological deserts" lacking the diversity and species richness of natural stands. FIA data indicate that pine plantations caused a decrease in species richness over a 30-year period in two Southern States (Rosson 1999). Those who favor pine plantations see them as a means of regenerating harvested sites more efficiently and producing wood at faster rates than in natural stands. In 1999, pine plantations occupied only 16 percent of the South's timberland area, but these acres provided 43 percent of all softwood growth and 35 percent of all softwood removals.

Urbanization and, to a lesser extent, agriculture pose the greatest threats to further loss of forest land in the South. As urbanization and agriculture remove additional acres from the timber base, timber resource managers must strive to retain as many acres as possible in a forested condition. With each successive inventory, FIA data indicate that pine plantations play an ever-increasing role in meeting the South’s increased demand for forest products. Future population increases could result in even greater expansion of pine plantations needed to replace forest land lost to other uses and to keep pace with increased demand.