Table 1. Acreages of bottomland hardwoods (oak-gum-cypress and elm-ash- 

 cottonwood) and other forest wetland classes in the south Atlantic States*^ 

 (Data courtesy Noel Cost, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Asheville, NC. ) 



Inventory dates: Florida, 1980; North Carolina, 1974; South Carolina, 1978; Georgia, 

 primarily 1972 but includes 1981 survey of southwest Georgia. 



This community profile has been pre- 

 pared in part to provide information for 

 management decisions. Like most natural 

 communities, bottomland hardwoods have 

 felt the impact of man. Unfortunately, 

 the absence of uniform treatment of data 

 and the screening of it as indicated above 

 in publications such as Boyce and Cost 

 (1974), Langdon et al. (1981), and Turner 

 et al. (1981) make it difficult to use 

 earlier survey figures to calculate this 

 impact in terms of loss of bottomland 

 hardwoods on southeastern floodplains over 

 time. 



Losses of bottomland hardwoods in 

 areas outside the specific study region 

 have been severe, none more so than the 

 floodplains of the ^'ississippi River 

 drainage. There conversion of forest to 

 agriculture, primarily soybeans, has re- 

 duced by 60% the areal extent of the hard- 

 wood community; by 1995, only a projected 

 3.9 million acres will remain intact, down 

 from 11.8 million acres in 1937 (MacDonald 

 et al. 1979). Although losses of flood- 

 plains bottomland hardwoods in the Caro- 

 linas, Georgia, and northern Florida have 

 been much less extensive, few areas in the 

 Southeast have escaped some direct or 

 potential impact of man. 



Besides conversion to agriculture, 

 another impact on bottomland hardwoods has 

 been conversion to tree-farm monoculture. 

 Numerous examples occur along the flood- 

 plains of the Gcmulgee and Oconee Rivers, 

 GA, where the higher elevated bottomland 

 hardwood communities are logged, the stumps 

 bulldozed into windrows, and the terrain 

 prepared for pine (or other) monoculture. 



Floodplain rivers have also been 

 subject to severe impacts, including con- 

 struction of impoundments, diversion 

 canals, channelization, dredging, and 

 shortening of channels. These alterations 

 change the hydroperiod and may permanently 

 alter the ecology and functioning of the 

 floodplain. 



It has not always been recognized 

 that the entire bottomland over which 

 flooding occurs is a functional part of 

 the wetland system and must be considered 

 as a unit when making resource decisions. 

 Because the bottomland hardwoods in the 

 study area still retain their ecological 

 functions and value, environmental manag- 

 ers have the opportunity to consider and 

 weigh management alternatives. This pro- 

 file provides information to aid them in 

 this task. 



