Foreword 
The original forest, the one that stretched without end across 
the South when settlement began, was harvested by the 
early 1900's. The ‘‘second forest,’’ the one that supplied the 
wood from the 1930’s through the 1960's for the rapidly 
growing pulp and paper industry and for the other wood- 
using industries, has almost entirely been cut. Now the 
‘third forest’’ is being harvested. Timber from this 
forest is the most important agricultural crop in the South. 
The forest industries using this timber lead all other 
manufacturing industries in numbers of employees and in 
wages and salaries paid to workers. 
The third forest will continue to be the source of the timber 
harvested in the South during the rest of this century. The 
forest that will come after that—the South’s ‘‘fourth forest’’ 
—can take almost any form desired. 
The changes now taking place in the third forest are cause 
for great concern. Our most recent surveys of forest 
resources show that net annual timber growth, after rising 
for decades, has begun to decline. Softwood timber 
removals are above net annual growth over large areas, and 
inventories are beginning to decrease. A similar situation 
is developing for hardwoods. If these recent trends continue, 
the forest resource and the economic importance of the 
forest industries in the South will surely decline. 
But this need not happen. The development of the fourth 
forest can be managed. There are opportunities to double 
current softwood growth and sustain employment and income 
in the forestry sector. 
Achieving this goal will require increased investment in 
programs of forest management, protection, technical 
assistance, research, and education—the same kind of 
programs that led to the great improvements of the past. 
Many opportunities for increased investment result in 
benefits greater than the costs. And if we make the 
investments, the South will continue to have an abundant 
supply of timber, to the great benefit of the economy and 
society. 
Hblele Cechoter. 
F. DALE ROBERTSON 
Chief 
