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Ownership

The 13 Southern States contain an estimated 215 million acres of forest land. About 201 million acres are classified as timberland (chapter 16). In 1999, an estimated 179 million acres of the South’s timberland (89 percent) were in private ownership (chapter 16). Birch (1996) found southern private timberlands to be in 4.9 million tracts owned or controlled by private individuals and legal entities, including corporations, clubs, trusts, partnerships, American Indian tribes, and Native American corporations. More than three-quarters of all private owners owned only one tract. More than two-thirds of these tracts were located <1 mile from owners’ residences.

In 1999, about 21 percent (37 million acres) of the South’s private timberlands were owned by forest industries (chapter 16). In 1994, forest industries represented <1 percent of all private ownership units (Birch 1996). Although forest industry timberland acreage slowly increased from 1953 until 1989, it declined by about 1 million acres (3 percent) between 1989 and 1999 (chapter 16).

In 1994, an estimated 4.7 million individual owners held the largest share of private southern timberland. Individual owners compose the core of the group commonly referred to as NIPF owners (Moulton and Birch 1995). Almost 95 percent of all private timberland owners in the South are in this group (Birch 1996). In 1999, they controlled 63 percent of the total private timberland acreage (chapter 16).

Since African-Americans constitute the largest group of minority rural landowners in the South, they are probably also the largest group of minority NIPF owners. No statistics are available, however, regarding overall minority ownership characteristics (Shelhas 2000). Gan and others (1999) have reported data about a limited number of minority NIPF owners in two southeastern Alabama counties. Selected owner information from this study is included in various sections of this chapter.

In 1994, nonindustrial corporations, partnerships, clubs, associations, and other entities held nearly 5 percent of the 4.9 million private timberland tracts in the South (Birch 1996). Acreage in nonindustrial corporate ownerships increased by about 25 percent from 1982 to 1999. By 1999, corporate owners accounted for 11 percent of private timberland acreage (chapter 16). Nonindustrial corporate owners include various timber and investment management organizations (TIMOs), such as banks, insurance companies, agribusiness, and investment and development firms (chapter 16). In 1999, TIMOs held about 4 million acres of timberland throughout the South (chapter 14).

Information about timberland ownership by ecological province is presented in chapter 16. As illustrated in figure 16.35 and table 16.32 of that chapter, private timberland is represented in all 11 provinces. Public, private corporate, and private forest industry ownerships are concentrated in the Outer Coast Mixed and Southeast Mixed Provinces (chapter 16).

Nearly 2 million new, predominately NIPF owners acquired their land sometime between 1980 and 1994. Of these new owners, more than one-fifth acquired land between 1990 and 1994 alone (Birch 1996). Many undoubtedly inherited land. Amacher and others (1998), for example, found that almost one-fourth of Virginia’s NIPF owners had obtained their land through inheritance. Jacobson (1998) reported the same situation for three-tenths of Florida NIPF owners.

The acreage and number of all private timberland tracts in the South increased at a moderate rate between 1978 and 1994, while average tract size decreased. During that period, all private timberland ownerships increased by nearly one-third, or 1.1 million units. Acreage held in tracts of <10 acres increased by 51 percent. Other acreage changes included: 10- to 99-acre tracts (+25 percent); 100- to 499-acre tracts (-15 percent); 500- to 999-acre tracts (-9 percent); 1,000+-acre tracts (+9 percent) (Moulton and Birch 1995). For a comprehensive review of changes and trends in forest land and timberland over the past 50 years, see chapter 16.

By 1994, about two-thirds of all private timberland tracts were <10 acres. Together, however, these small tracts accounted for only 4 percent of the South’s total private timberland acreage. The majority of all timberland (70 percent) was held in tracts of at least 100 acres, by <6 percent of all owners. Tracts >500 acres alone represented nearly one-half the total private timberland acreage (Birch 1996).