part of the amazing story of what has been known 
as the South's “third forest". 
Only within the last 15 years have we begun to 
approach the land's potential, managing it from 
stand establishment until harvest. We estimate that 
some of our forests will reach their long term 
sustained-yield capacity within 50 years. For others, 
it may take longer. 
In fiscal years 1981 and 1985, our annual timber 
sales averaged 203 million cubic feet. Our studies 
indicate that the land could produce over 650 mil- 
lion cubic feet per year by the year 2030 if we were 
concerned only with timber production, and if we 
enjoy adequate markets (especially for hardwoods) 
and adequate capital investments such as access 
roads. Clearly, we are only capturing about one- 
third of the land's capacity to produce timber. 
We will never reach the land's full capability for 
timber production because, by law, we manage the 
national forests for multiple use and consequently 
do not maximize the production of any single re- 
source. However, our new forest plans do call for an 
annual sale quantity for the next 10 years of close to 
258 million cubic feet. That is a respectable 
27-percent increase over recent years. 
How are we going to sustain that increase and 
capture more of the land's productive capability 
over time? 
Four main areas provide opportunities for in- 
creased production: insect and disease control, re- 
forestation and timber-stand improvement, genetic 
tree improvement, and hardwood marketing. 
Reducing the damage from insects and dis- 
eases Offers one of our greatest opportunities to 
improve productivity. As the timber study cited, the 
pine mortality rate has almost doubled over the peri- 
od 1976-84, going from 19 percent of growth to 36 
percent. 
The primary culprit is the southern pine beetle 
(SPB). We treated 25,000 acres of national forest 
land for SPB last year. This pest affected 272 million 
board feet; we were able to salvage about 75 per- 
cent of that volume. Because of other resource 
needs, such as endangered species and wilder- 
ness, we tend to have longer rotations and older 
stands. Older trees are more susceptible not only to 
SPB but to disease. 
We have recently developed both long- and 
short-term strategies to reduce losses to the SPB. 
The strategies spell out many opportunities for both 
management and research. For example, we have 
the opportunity to manage stand density to in- 
crease vigor and lower susceptibility to the beetle. 
46 
There are just under a million acres of national forest 
land in need of thinning over the next decade. There 
is also a need to manage species composition. 
Mixed stands, as you know, are less susceptible to 
SPB and at the same time more valuable for wildlife 
and esthetics. We have a special need to develop 
mixed stands adjacent to wilderness areas to pre- 
vent the spread of the beetle from the older stands 
contained in many wildernesses to adjacent, man- 
aged stands. 
These silvicultural practices, plus more inten- 
sive detection and treatment even during periods 
when the beetle is not epidemic, coupled with addi- 
tional research, could help us reduce our losses. 
We have also proposed setting up several demon- 
stration areas in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 
Georgia to display the best available technology for 
prevention and control of the SPB. 
In the area of hardwood protection, we are bat- 
tling the gypsy moth, which is moving into Virginia, 
Tennessee, and North Carolina from the North. 
There is also a problem of oak decline. Once we 
know the cause of this decline, there may be man- 
agement opportunities to reverse the trends toward 
lower growth rates. 
The second opportunity to increase timber pro- 
ductivity is through reforestation. To produce the 
258 million cubic feet of timber to be cut annually, 
we need to increase our reforestation to 110,000 
acres annually, compared with about 88,000 acres 
in 1986, and we need to increase our timber-stand 
improvement to about 64,000 acres per year. 
We need to do a much better job of getting into 
our stands about every 10 years in order to control 
stand density. In the past, the SPB and sometimes 
the lack of funding have prevented us from getting 
into the stands of our Coastal Plains forests as fre- 
quently as we should. In the mountains, we need to 
concentrate our improvement work on the better 
sites. That is where a great deal of the 27-percent 
increase in timber harvest that | mentioned earlier 
will come from. 
Additional effort in the area of tree improvement 
also offers a great opportunity to increase timber 
yields. Currently, nearly 100 percent of our regener- 
ation is done with improved planting stock from 
seed orchards. These seedlings are more resistant 
to disease and grow to maturity in a shorter time. We 
are now in our second generation of genetic im- 
provement. Much more could be done to accelerate 
this effort. This single program could result in a 15- 
to 25-percent increase in productivity. 
