Highlights 
The basic purpose of this study of the timber situation in the 
South is to determine what kind of forest is evolving, what 
kind of forest will be of greatest benefit to the society, and 
how can it be economically achieved. 
Given these broad objectives, the study is primarily con- 
cerned with recent and prospective trends in the timber 
resource; the economic, social, and environmental implica- 
tions of these trends; and the opportunities to manage and 
use the forest resource in ways that will sustain the forest 
sector of the economy while protecting and enhancing the 
forest environment. The study also describes the forest re- 
source base, the economic importance of timber and the for- 
est industries, and the policies and programs that have been 
effective in regenerating forests in the South. 
1. There is a very large forest resource in the South. 
There are over 182 million acres of forest in the South 
classified as timberland suitable and available for growing 
crops of trees. Timberland is the predominant land use: it 
accounts for 2 to 3 out of every 5 acres in all of the South- 
ern States, including eastern Texas and Oklahoma. 
Southwide, there are more acres in timberland than in crop- 
land and pasture combined. The 85 million acres of tim- 
berland in the Southeast region represent 58 percent of that 
region’s land area and more than twice the area of crop- 
land and pasture. In the South Central region, including east- 
ern forested parts of Texas and Oklahoma, there are 97 mil- 
lion acres of timberland and 65 million acres of cropland and 
pasture. Fifty-three percent of the land area in the South 
Central region is timberland. 
The South’s timberland is composed of a diversity of forest 
management types. Approximately one-third of the area is 
covered by pine types—41 million acres in natural pine 
stands and another 21 million acres in planted pine. Lob- 
lolly pine is by far the most abundant species. It occurs in 
natural stands in most sections of the Coastal Plain and 
Piedmont, where it has frequently seeded in on idle crop- 
land and pasture. These stands usually contain substantial 
numbers of hardwood species as well. 
Across much of the South, pine stands represent a transi- 
tional stage in natural succession to hardwood forest types. 
Mixed pine—-hardwood stands occupy 27 million acres, or 15 
percent of the timberland in the South. Typically, these 
stands are 50 percent or more oak and 25 to 50 percent pine. 
Hardwood forest types occupy over half the timberland area 
in the South, 93 million acres. Two-thirds of this area is 
classified as upland hardwoods. A typical upland hardwood 
association includes oaks and hickories, with gum, yellow- 
poplar, elm, and maple. 
There are 30 million acres of bottomland hardwoods in the 
South, about 17 percent of the timberland. Over half of 
these bottomland forests are located along the alluvial flood- 
plains of the major rivers in Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, 
and Mississippi. Oak-gum-—cypress is the typical association 
on these sites, with such species as willow, water, laurel, 
swamp chestnut and cherrybark oaks; water tupelo; blackgum 
and sweetgum; and baldcypress. 
2. Of the timberland in the South, 90 percent is pri- 
vately owned. 
Some 164 million acres, or 90 percent, of the timberland in 
the South is in private ownership. The bulk of this area, 
122 million acres, is in ‘‘other private’? ownerships—other 
than forest industry. This category is diverse: it includes 
farmers and all other individuals, and corporations that do 
not run wood-processing plants. Corporate owners include 
a variety of organizations holding timberland property as an 
investment, recreational area, or for other purposes, such 
as utility companies, railroads, realty firms, hunting clubs, 
insurance companies, and banks. 
Farmers own 40 million acres of timberland, corporate own- 
ers 16 million acres, and other private individuals 66 mil- 
lion acres. These acreages represent approximately one- 
fourth, one-tenth, and one-third, respectively, of all the tim- 
berland in the South. 
Forest industries hold 42 million acres, slightly less than 
one-quarter of the total area of timberland. This category in- 
cludes companies or individuals that operate primary 
wood-using plants and either own timberland or hold a 
long-term lease on such land. 
About 60 percent of the 18 million acres of publicly owned 
timberland in the South is in national forests. The rest is in 
State forests and wildlife refuges and other Federal, State, 
and municipal county lands. 
3. There are large timber inventories in the South. 
In 1985 the softwood timber inventory in the South was 102 
billion cubic feet. This inventory was about equally divided 
between the Southeast and the South Central regions. There 
was an additional 119 billion cubic feet of hardwood 
timber, which was also about equally divided between the 
regions. 
