Most roundwood fuelwood is used for residential heating 
because industries generally rely on wood plant byproducts 
rather than roundwood for fuel. Unlike industrial products, 
a substantial amount of fuelwood 1s self-cut by households 
and comes from nongrowing stock sources that do not 
otherwise produce industrial timber (Skog and Watterson 
1983, Rudis 1986). In addition, the market for fuelwood 
is extremely diversified. Prices vary widely, depending upon 
the vendor, species mix, seasoning, time of year, quantity 
purchased, availability of self-cut wood, point of delivery, 
and numerous other factors. 
Fuelwood is an important use of hardwoods, but softwoods 
dominate the market for industrial roundwood in the South. 
Southern pines supplied twice the volume of pulpwood and 
three times the volume of sawlogs and veneer logs com- 
pared to hardwood species. 
In 1984, softwood industrial products had a stumpage value 
of $2.7 billion and a value at local delivery points of $4.4 
billion. These amounts constituted 90 percent of the stump- 
age value and 80 percent of the delivered value of all indus- 
trial roundwood output in the South in that year. 
The predominance of softwoods in the value of industrial 
roundwood reflects not only the larger quantities of soft- 
woods harvested but also the higher proportion of the 
hardwood harvest that goes into lower valued products such 
as pulpwood. Of hardwood industrial roundwood, 54 
percent was classified as pulpwood in 1984, compared with 
44 percent for softwoods. Prices for hardwood roundwood 
products also tend in general to be lower than the same 
products from softwoods. Per-unit delivered prices for pine 
sawlogs, veneer logs, and pulpwood often run 40 percent 
higher than corresponding prices for hardwoods, and the 
price differential for standing timber is substantially greater 
(see app. tables 2.33—2.35). It should be noted, however, 
that the hardwood resource in the South is extremely 
diverse. Prices for scarce or high-quality hardwoods may be 
several times the average prices for mixed hardwood spe- 
cies of woods-run quality. 
Relative Importance of Regions and States 
In general, roundwood output from individual regions and 
States reflects the distribution of timberland and forest man- 
agement types across the South. In 1984, States in the 
Southeast region produced 3.6 billion cubic feet of indus- 
trial products and fuelwood, about 48 percent of the 
Southwide total. These products had a stumpage value of 
$1.4 billion and a value at local points of delivery of $2.9 
billion. The South Central region accounted for 3.9 billion 
cubic feet of output, 52 percent of total production, with 
a value of $1.6 billion as standing timber and $3.2 billion 
delivered. 
Although softwoods dominated industrial production in both 
regions, the South Central region derived a slightly higher 
proportion of its total output from hardwood species than 
did the Southeast region. In particular, the South Central re- 
gion produced 600 million cubic feet of hardwood 
pulpwood, over 60 percent of the South’s total for this 
product. The Southeast region led in the production of soft- 
wood pulpwood with 1.2 billion cubic feet, compared with 
1.1 billion cubic feet for the South Central region. Saw- 
log output followed a similar pattern. Hardwood sawlogs 
from the South Central region totalled 430 million cubic 
feet, compared with 330 million cubic feet from the South- 
east region. Both regions harvested over a billion cubic feet 
of softwood sawlogs, with marginally higher output in the 
South Central region. For hardwood veneer logs, the South- 
east region was the primary producer; for pine veneer logs, 
the South Central region. 
Softwood sawlogs and veneer logs together were the source 
of about two-thirds of the returns to landowners for 
roundwood products in both the Southeast and South Cen- 
tral regions in 1984. In the Southeast region, this stump- 
age value amounted to $760 million for softwood sawlogs 
and another $170 million for softwood veneer logs. The 
South Central region had a higher proportion of stumpage 
values in veneer logs, with $380 million attributed to ve- 
neer logs and $750 million to sawlogs. Hardwood sawlogs 
and veneer logs added to stumpage values another $110 mil- 
lion in the Southeast region and $150 million in the South 
Central region. 
Pulpwood represented 23 percent of the total stumpage 
value in the Southeast region and 16 percent in the South 
Central region, but it held a much larger share of the 
value of roundwood products after harvesting and transpor- 
tation to local delivery points (fig. 1.4). Delivered values for 
pulpwood in the Southeast region were $950 million (32 
percent of the total value of production) and in the South 
Central region, $910 million (29 percent of total output). 
Softwoods accounted for 81 percent of this value in the 
Southeast region and 73 percent in the South Central region. 
