Some did, however, and the early 1900’s marked the begin- 
ning of what became the South’s second forest—the for- 
est that supplied the wood for the expansion of the pulp and 
paper industry in the 1930’s and on into the 1960's. 
As the second forest was developing, changes in land use 
began to have major impacts on the forest situation. By the 
early 1920's, the use of land for crops and pasture peaked 
and started to decline. Concern among forest industry and 
government leaders about timber supplies and the lack of 
regeneration of large areas of cutover lands led to (1) the de- 
velopment of programs of fire protection, technical and fi- 
nancial assistance, research, and education; and (2) the 
establishment of managed public, industry, and other pri- 
vate forests. Fire protection and the educational programs 
associated with fire prevention were particularly effective, 
and a large part of the cutover and idle cropland and pas- 
ture regenerated naturally to pine and mixed pine—hardwood 
stands. Research that led to ways to protect, regenerate, and 
manage forests and utilize southern pine timber for prod- 
ucts such as pulp and plywood also had major impacts on 
the resource and forest industries. 
These same forces continued to affect the timber situation 
for several decades. The programs of protection, technical 
and financial assistance, research, education, and manage- 
ment of private and public forests expanded, sometimes 
rapidly, from the 1940’s through the 1970’s. The area of 
land used for crops and pasture continued to drop through 
the 1950’s, sometimes at rapid rates, and much of this land 
regenerated naturally. 
This combination of events led to what is surely a great 
achievement in the history of forestry, the regeneration and 
the growth of the South’s third forest. This forest is the 
source of the wood used by the forest industries that are 
now such a important part of the economy of the South. It 
will continue to be the source of timber harvests until 
around the end of the century. 
7. Although great progress has been made, the situa- 
tion is changing. Net annual timber growth has begun 
to decline. 
Although the timber situation in the South has shown great 
improvement, there are now changes underway that are of 
great significance. The most recent surveys of forests con- 
ducted by the Forest Inventory and Analysis research units 
in the South show that net annual timber growth for soft- 
woods and hardwoods, after rising for decades, has begun 
to decline. 
There are four major causes of the decline in softwood 
growth. One important factor since the 1960’s has been the 
lack of adequate regeneration of pine stands after harvest 
on lands in other private ownerships. The natural succes- 
sion after harvest in most of the pine stands in the second 
and third forests is to mixed hardwoods and pine or to 
hardwoods. Many of the other private owners have been 
accepting whatever species nature provides. As a result, the 
latest cycle of forest surveys shows a 30- to 50-percent de- 
cline in the numbers of pine saplings on these ownerships. 
This decline has been going on long enough to be reflected 
in net annual growth. 
A second factor acting to reduce net annual softwood growth 
is an increase in volume of mortality and cull trees. Over 
the last 10 years, for example, annual pine mortality in the 
South has about doubled. Roughly 15 percent of the gross 
annual growth of pine is now lost to mortality, compared to 
9 percent 10 years ago. Much of this increase in mortality 
can be attributed to epidemics of pine bark beetles. Suppres- 
sion of overtopped trees because of increasing stand den- 
sity has been another important factor. Much of the increase 
in cull volume is attributable to increasing stand age. 
The third important factor affecting net annual softwood 
growth has been a drop in radial growth on natural stands 
in the Piedmont and Mountain regions of Georgia, South 
Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. In these regions, 
average annual radial pine growth has been some 20 to 30 
percent lower during the last 10 years than in the preceding 
10-year period. There is also evidence of decline on the 
Coastal Plain. 
The fourth factor, affecting both hardwood and softwood net 
annual growth, has been the conversion of timberland to 
cropland and pasture and urban or other nontimber uses. 
Since the early 1960’s, the area of timberland in the South 
has declined from 197 million acres to 182 million. Approxi- 
mately one-third of the loss can be attributed to the conver- 
sion of hardwood bottomlands to cropland, particularly in the 
Mississippi Delta. Most of the loss, however, was from 
pine stands in other private ownerships. 
All of these factors affecting net annual growth are the re- 
sult of forces not easily or quickly changed. And even 
when they are changed, it will take time for the effects to 
show as a measurable increase in net annual growth. The 
effects of regeneration after harvest on the other private 
ownerships, for example, would not show up for a decade 
or so; it would take that long for the trees to reach 5 inches 
in diameter at breast height, the minimum tree size used 
