The Opportunities To Increase Timber Supplies 



There are economic opportunities (those that would yield 4 

 percent or more net of inflation or deflation on the 

 investments necessary to implement them) to greatly increase 

 net annual timber growth on 70 million acres of timberland 

 in the South. If utilized, these opportunities would increase 

 growth by 3.2 billion cubic feet, a volume equal to 57 

 percent of current net annual softwood growth (fig. 10). 



Almost three-quarters of the opportunities to increase timber 

 growth in the South — 2.3 billion out of 3.2 billion cubic 

 feet — are on the other private ownerships. There are, 

 however, opportunities on all ownerships, including 0.6 

 billion cubic feet on forest industry ownerships. The 

 relatively small potential on the public ownerships — 0.3 

 billion cubic feet — reflects the fact that little timberland is 

 publicly owned in the South. 



Just over half — 1.8 billion cubic feet — of the opportunities 

 to increase timber growth are in the South Central region. 

 The opportunities in the Southeast region total 1.5 billion 

 cubic feet. There are economic opportunities to increase 

 timber growth by over 0.2 billion cubic feet a year in every 

 State in the South except Oklahoma and South Carolina. 

 The largest potential — 0.5 billion cubic feet — is in Alabama. 



There are economic opportunities to 

 increase net annual timber growth on 

 timberland in the South by 3.2 billion cubic 

 feet, a volume equal to 57 percent of 

 current net annual softwood growth. Nearly 

 half of the opportunities for increasing 

 growth involve regenerating nonstocked or 

 cutover timberland sites. 



Billion cubic feet 



Current net annual softwood growth 5.7 



Economic 

 opportunities 3.2 



Total current growth plus opportunities 8.9 



Figure 10 — Economic opportunities to increase current net annual growth on timberland in the South 



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