There are large opportunities to increase 
net annual timber growth in the South by 
harvesting and regenerating mature timber 
stands and stands damaged by fire, insects, 
disease, and other destructive agents. 
Precommercial and commercial thinning of stands could 
increase net annual growth by about 260 million cubic feet. 
The bulk of these opportunities are in natural pine stands 
on the other private ownerships. Most of the gain from these 
treatments results from shifts of timber volume to merchanta- 
ble growing stock and more intensive management of subse- 
quent rotations. 
Investment Opportunities To Increase Net Annual 
Growth 
Implementing the economic treatment opportunities would 
require a capital investment of $6.9 billion (1984 dollars) 
(app. table 5.1). Investors would earn a minimum 4-percent 
rate of return measured in constant dollars net of inflation 
or deflation. This rate approximates the longrun average re- 
turn on capital invested in the private sector of the economy. 
The investment opportunities in the Southeast amount to 
a little over $3 billion; those in the South Central region, 
$3.8 billion (app. tables 5.2 and 5.3). The investment oppor- 
tunities in the States go up from $301 million in Oklahoma 
to $864 million in Alabama (table 5.6). In most States they 
range between $400 million and $600 million. 
Nearly three-quarters of the investment opportunities are on 
the other private ownerships. Only a limited part of these 
opportunities may be implemented. These owners have 
widely diverse objectives and attitudes; limited technical 
knowledge of the ways timber stands should be harvested, 
regenerated, and managed; and a varying willingness and 
capacity to make investments in management practices. 
Ownership tenures are typically short, and most owners are 
in the older age groups. Thus, for most treatment oppor- 
tunities, especially regeneration, where the time between 
investments and harvest is long, there is little likelihood 
that direct benefits, such as income from timber harvest, will 
accrue to current owners. 
In 1978 there were some 3.5 million other private owners. 
Ninety-two percent of these owners had holdings of less than 
100 acres. However, the remaining 8 percent, some 276,000 
owners, held 73 percent of the timberland in the South. 
Although no data have been compiled by size of ownership, 
most of the economic opportunities are undoubtedly on these 
larger ownerships. 
About 16 percent, some $1.1 billion dollars, of the invest- 
ment opportunities are on the forest industry ownerships. 
Most of these investments and those on public ownerships 
are likely to be made. 
The largest part of the investment opportunities, about three- 
fifths of the total, are for stand regeneration (fig. 5.8). This 
in part reflects the high cost of regeneration with site prepa- 
ration: $134 per acre. The associated increase in net annual 
growth is 48 cubic feet per acre. 
Nearly a quarter of the investment opportunities are for 
harvesting and regeneration of mature stands and stands 
needing salvage. The average cost to harvest and regenerate 
mature stands is $98, that for salvage and regeneration i: 
$115 per acre. Most of the needed harvest investments, like 
the investments for all treatment opportunities, are on the 
other private ownerships. 
243 
