group of timberland investment options. These 
treatments, taken together, exist on 14.5 million 
acres of nonindustrial private forest land. These 
stocking control treatments cost an average of $47 
and gain about 40 cubic feet of merchantable vol- 
ume annually per acre. About $1.16 invested in 
stocking control is needed to produce an annual 
volume increment of 1 Cubic foot. 
Economic opportunities exist in all Southern 
States. By forest type, the greatest opportunities are 
on upland hardwood sites, with 21.5 million acres. 
Economic treatments exist on 10.3 million acres of 
natural pine stands, 7.4 million acres of pine- 
hardwood, and 7.6 million acres of bottomland 
hardwood. There are 2.5 million nonstocked acres 
that could earn at least 4 percent. Most pine planta- 
tions are already highly productive, and only about 
1 million acres have economic opportunities for im- 
provement through management. 
Most, but not all, economic opportunities have 
the potential to increase timber supplies. Some of 
the treatments identified in this study will be done. 
Financial returns for many treatments, such as re- 
generation, are due to increased total production. 
For some others, such as intermediate cultural 
treatments, financial returns come from gains in 
product quality, acceleration of timber rotations, or 
elimination of unmerchantable competing vegeta- 
tion. Although treatments such as timber-stand im- 
provement and commercial thinning may not pro- 
duce much more biomass, the cost is modest, and 
they can focus growth on higher valued crop trees, 
effectively increasing timber supplies. For overma- 
ture stands with slower growth rates, replacement 
with a more vigorous forest is highly productive. 
Marginal crop and pasture lands offer perhaps 
the greatest opportunity to augment timber supplies 
in the South. Acres that are highly erodible or 
marginal for agricultural crops are candidates for 
tree planting. Although the estimate of how much 
cropland area could be converted to trees depends 
on whom you ask, perhaps as many as 20 million 
acres would earn more from timber than from crops. 
These are some of the most cost-effective acres to 
treat. Not only can we gain timber supplies, but tree 
planting on these acres is likely to produce more 
income than crops and can reduce soil losses. 
While returns from planting agricultural lands to tim- 
ber are generally very high, the problems of a long 
production period and an asset that does not pay 
off annually still exist. 
The Conservation Reserve Program has been 
very effective in converting croplands to timber in 
28 
most Southern States, and enrollment rates favor 
tree planting over grass by as much as four to one 
in some places. Although | have not seen published 
data, informal reports from forest economists sug- 
gest that the average return from planting an acre to 
trees under the Conservation Reserve Program can 
easily exceed 100 percent, with even modest pay- 
ments. Even if cropland acres cannot qualify for this 
program, the low cost of establishing pine planta- 
tions on many cropland sites can yield a 15-percent 
return above inflation in some active market regions 
of the South. Of all the economic opportunities to 
increase timber supplies, converting marginal agri- 
cultural lands is by far the best. In some areas, 
equivalent net annual earnings are as high as $65 
per acre--not a bad return when some bare land can 
be had for less than $500 per acre. 
Compared to other regions of the United States, 
there is relatively little land owned by States or other 
government entities. State and other public lands 
make up only about 4 percent, or about 7 million 
acres, of the timberland base in the South. There 
are treatments capable of earning 4 percent on 
about 2.9 million acres of other public lands. The 
patterns described above hold for these lands, too. 
If other public acres were treated, the total cost 
would be $285 million, and an additional 122 million 
cubic feet could be added annually. 
Why Do These Opportunities Exist? 
The many opportunities to increase timber pro- 
ductivity in the South on nonindustrial private and 
State forest lands exist for several reasons. Timber 
stumpage prices have increased substantially and 
faster than inflation in many parts of the region. 
Because higher stumpage prices can be expected, 
higher investment returns are likely. Another reason 
for economic opportunities is that the productivity of 
our forests has been reduced by past management, 
and stands are now in a condition where major 
productivity gains can be made. In places where 
timber stands are already highly productive, few 
additional opportunities exist, regardless of the po- 
tential returns. Unfortunately, there are few areas 
where economic opportunities are lacking. 
As timber stumpage prices increase, landown- 
ers generally do not respond by planting and grow- 
ing additional forests. This market failure is often 
cited as the cause, but there are several valid rea- 
sons why landowners do not respond to market 
