planting to trees all of the cropland and pasture that would 
yield higher rates of return in pine plantations. As described 
in that chapter, either of these alternatives would have ma- 
jor impacts on the timber resource-situation in the South. 
Projected Changes by Ownership—Private owners have 
controlled most of the southern timberland base for several 
centuries. The land-use and management decisions of these 
owners have had a great impact on the southern timber 
situation. 
Currently, approximately 90 percent of the South’s timber- 
land is privately owned. This percentage has changed lit- 
tle since the first surveys of the South’s forest resources. 
Area changes among the major groups of owners—forest 
industry and other private ownerships (which includes 
farmer, corporate, and other individual ownerships)—have 
been substantial (table 3.10, fig. 3.11, app. tables 
3.1-3.14). Around 21 million acres, or 15 percent of the 
area in other private ownership, has been converted to 
other uses or transferred to other owners since 1952. Most 
of this area reduction has occurred on farmer ownerships. 
Farmer ownership of timberland has declined for several 
reasons. Many owners of timberland who were farm opera- 
tors sold or passed on their land holdings to new owners 
who did not secure their primary source of income from 
farming. In addition, many farmers increasingly secured their 
livelihood off farms and were subsequently classified as 
“‘other individual’’ private owners, i.e., all owners of pri- 
vately held timberland except forest industries, farmers, and 
corporations. Conversion to other uses has also reduced 
farm forest area. 
The timberland area in farmer ownership is projected to de- 
cline 13 million acres by 2030. The projected addition of 
approximately 3 million acres of planted pine under the 
Conservation Reserve Program, particularly in Georgia, 
Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, is not nearly 
enough to stem or reverse the overall projected decline in 
farm forest area. The projected reductions result in part 
from the continuing overall drop in the number of farms, 
caused by an economic shakedown in the farm economy. 
This trend is consistent across the South and in line with his- 
torical trends. 
Other individual and corporate private owners have ac- 
quired many of the timberland acres once owned by farmers. 
Corporate owners include insurance companies, banks, and 
other institutional owners; but to be classified as such, they 
cannot own facilities that process timber. 
Data that allow separate identification of corporate and 
other individual ownerships are available since 1977 only. 
Corporate private owners now hold 16 million acres of 
timberland in the South and have added approximately 2 
million acres of this total since 1977. This acquisition 
was spread across all five forest management types—pine 
plantations, natural pine, mixed pine—hardwoods, upland 
hardwoods, and bottomland hardwoods—but the largest in- 
creases (28 percent) were in pine plantations and upland 
hardwoods. 
Corporate ownership is projected to increase in size by ap- 
proximately 6 million acres, or by 38 percent of its cur- 
rent size. Part of the land is expected to be acquired through 
investment in southern pine timberland. As a result, pine 
plantation area in corporate ownership will more than triple 
by 2030. 
It is uncertain how these corporate lands will be managed 
in the future. It remains to be seen whether some corporate 
owners will divest themselves of timberland after harvest- 
ing the current rotation’s crop, or if they will invest 
in practices in line with longrun management of these 
timberlands. In this study, it has been assumed that these 
lands will be managed more intensively than land in other 
private ownerships. 
Individual owners, the remaining component of the other 
private ownership group, are the largest ownership class. 
This diverse set of owners holds over one-third of the south- 
ern timberland base, equal to 66 million acres—four times 
as much as corporate owners. 
Unlike the corporate class, individuals in the other private 
owner group are projected to reduce their holdings of tim- 
berland in the future. The projected reduction is approxi- 
mately 4 million acres, or 6 percent of the area in this 
ownership, by 2030. 
Forest industry has steadily acquired timberland in the 
South since 1952. In 1985, industry owned or had under 
long-term lease 42 million acres of timberland in the South, 
9 million acres more than in 1952. Most of industry’s ac- 
quired acres have been in the South Central region, but the 
trend is upward across all the Southern States. 
Timberland acreage in the forest industry category in this 
study includes land under long-term lease from other pri- 
vate owners. Leased acreage is included with industry’s acre- 
age because leased lands are generally managed similarly 
(e.g., intensive forest management practices are applied). 
119 
