Demands on U.S. timberlands are expected 
to rise from 14.6 billion cubic feet in 1984 
to 20.3 billion in 2030. Demand goes up 
for both softwoods and hardwoods; 
however, in line with recent trends, it goes 
up more rapidly for hardwoods. 
and not reserved for other uses—are major determinants of 
changes in timber supplies, net annual growth, inventory, 
and other components of the timber resource. Changes in 
area by ownership, forest management type, and site are also 
important. 
Past Changes in Timberland Area—Although data for 
some States where forest surveys had been completed were 
available in the 1930’s, there were no statistically accurate 
estimates of area of timberland in the South prior to 1952, 
the year when data from surveys of all Southern States 
were first compiled. The general trends in timberland area, 
however, are fairly clear. Originally, nearly all of the South 
was forested. As settlement spread and increasing areas were 
cleared for crops, pastures, and a variety of other uses such 
as cities and roads, area in timberland declined (Healy 
1985). 
This decline accelerated in the late 1800’s, when large 
sawmills moved into the South and began harvesting the 
old-growth forests. By the early 1920’s, nearly all the 
old-growth forests had been cut, and programs to protect 
and regenerate forests were getting underway. About the 
same time, an agricultural recession and the effects of the 
boll weevil on cotton, the region’s main cash crop, led to 
the abandonment of much cropland and pasture. These 
developments led to a reversal of the long downward trend: 
the area of timberland began to increase. 
In the depression years of the 1930’s and after World War 
II, additional large areas went out of use for crops and 
pasture. Protection programs, especially those against fire, 
were also expanding and becoming more effective. Given 
protection from fire and animals, extensive areas of idle 
cropland and pasture came back to trees, the natural climax 
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