A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 939 



FORESTS OF THE SOUTH 



(Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missis- 

 sippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas) 



PRESENT CONDITIONS AND MANAGEMENT POLICIES 



The estimated area of privately owned forest land in the South is 

 187,264,000 acres, of which 57,866,000 acres is in farm woodlands. 

 The forest area in public ownership is small. Commercially valuable 

 species of pines are found throughout the South, making it the most 

 extensive pine region in the world. In river bottom lands and swamps 

 and at the higher altitudes occur considerable areas of hardwoods. 

 Most of the land in the region is level or only gently sloping, which 

 makes extraction of timber from the forests very simple. 



Cutting has been carried on entirely without regulation, and as a 

 rule with little regard to the future effect on the forest. As might 

 have been expected, under this practice the forest productivity has 

 suffered severely. According to the best estimates (see table 1), 

 43,229,000 acres are in poor to nonrestocking condition and 33,802,000 

 acres contain a fair amount of young growth but lack larger growing 

 stock. Of the areas having immediately effective growing stock, 

 52,013,000 acres bear timber of cordwood size and only 55,220,000 

 bear saw timber, much of which is second growth. On the saw- 

 timber areas the growing stock is very seriously depleted. 



As in other regions, three grades of forest-management effort are 

 considered. 



1. Fire protection: Elsewhere in this report detailed data on fire 

 protection are presented. In proportion to the areas involved, fire- 

 protective effort is less widespread in the South than in other regions. 

 Undoubtedly the southern pines, on account of greater resistance to 

 injury from fire, are more productive in the absence of fire protection 

 than most commercial species of other regions. They vary among 

 themselves in this respect, and some types suffer from fire more than 

 others. Hardwoods, whether mixed with the pines or in pure stands, 

 are severely damaged by fire. 



The areas of 1,000 acres or more reported to be under private pro- 

 tection in this region are as follows: Virginia, North Carolina, and 

 South Carolina, 1,441,748 acres; remainder of the region, 7,760,000 

 acres ; total, 9,201 ,748 acres. In addition there are large areas of farm 

 woodlands which because of their isolated situation or the efforts of 

 the owners are protected from fires. Public efforts are extending pro- 

 tection to much larger areas. 



2. Conservative cutting, planting, leaving seed trees, and other 

 practical measures for improving production, without definite plans 

 for sustained yield, are reported to be practiced on the following areas: 

 Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, 662,500 acres; re- 

 mainder of the region, 2,092,500 acres; total, 2,755,000 acres. 



3. Permanent forest land management and organized plans for sus- 

 tained yield (by a somewhat liberal construction) may be said to be 

 in effect on the following aggregate areas: Virginia, North Carolina, 

 and South Carolina, 5,000 acres; remainder of the region, 1,349,000 

 acres; total, 1,354,000 acres. Large additional acreages are in con- 

 dition to warrant putting them on a definite sustained-yield basis. 

 To do this would necessitate systematizing the operations already 



