Price index (1984 = 100) 
300 
250 
200 
150 
100 
50 
1925 1940 
1880 1895 1910 
Southeast 
yo 
South Central 
1955 1970 1985 2000 2015 2030 
Figure 4.1—Softwood sawtimber stumpage price indexes in the South, 1880-1985, with base projections by region, 1990-2030 
declining. Between 1984 and 2000, for example, softwood 
sawtimber prices rise at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the 
South Central region. After 2000, as inventories begin to 
rise, the rates of increase slow down. Between 2020 and 
2030, increases in the South Central region average only 0.5 
percent per year. 
The rates of increase in the Southeast are somewhat 
different. Stumpage prices rise more rapidly than in the 
South Central region until 2000 (4.4 percent per year) and 
then more slowly until the last decade of the projection 
period. In terms of actual dollar prices, the southern re- 
gions will have the highest prices of all timber-producing re- 
gions until late in the projection period, when stumpage 
prices in the Pacific Northwest—Westside become the highest. 
Projected rates of softwood stumpage price increases in 
most other regions are greater than in the two southern 
regions. Stumpage prices in the Pacific Northwest— 
Westside are expected to go up at roughly 2.8 percent per 
year for the next four and a half decades. Prices there rise 
most rapidly after 2000. Stumpage prices in the Rocky 
Mountain section increase at roughly 5.8 percent per year 
and those in the North at 2.3 percent a year. Prices will in- 
crease most rapidly between now and 2000, although prices 
in the North will continue to go up rapidly through 2010. 
Softwood pulpwood stumpage prices in both the South- 
east and South Central regions rise at about the same rate 
as sawtimber stumpage in the first part of the projection pe- 
riod until 2000 (fig. 4.2, app. table 4.1). They increase 
slowly during the next two decades, but by the decade from 
2020 to 2030, pulpwood stumpage prices are rising at 4 
3.5-percent annual rate in the South Central region. 
Hardwood sawtimber stumpage prices show trends much 
different from those for softwoods. Prices for hardwoods 
decline in both the southern regions until 2000 (fig. 4.3, 
app. table 4.3). They show similar trends in the northern 
regions (app. table 4.4). These trends reflect the availabil- 
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