OPPORTUNITIES FOR INCREASING TIMBER SUPPLIES, 



111 



mize volumes of timber or timber-growing profits 

 but rather to produce a variety of outputs under 

 multiple-use management. On other public lands 

 in military installations or in local government 

 holdings, some intensive timber management is 

 found but a diversity of land management objec- 

 tives limits efforts to accelerate timber culture. 

 In this initial study public lands as well as industry 

 lands were excluded from detailed analysis. 



Rates of Return on Investments 



Rates of return from specified practices were 

 calculated in turn from data on costs, yields, 

 and values. A listing of treatment opportunities 

 ranked in order of rates of return is presented 

 in table 90 for farm and miscellaneous private 

 lands in the Southeast. 



Results of this study indicated that of the 8 

 million acres of land in farm and miscellaneous 

 holdings classified as having intermediate cutting 

 opportunities and the 19.6 million acres where 

 regeneration is needed to increase productivity, 

 investments in intensified management would 

 return more than 5.0 percent on some 8.1 million 

 acres suitable for growing pine. With a 4-percent 

 minimum rate of return, an estimated 14.5 million 

 acres would be suitable for intensification. 



Short rotations of 30 years were assumed in 

 this analysis in calculating yields and rates of 

 return. Increases in mean annual increment of 

 pine resulting from added forestry investments 

 and 30-year rotations were estimated at about 

 1.3 billion cubic feet, including 1.6 billion board 



feet of sawtimber (table 90). The cost of such 

 a program at 1970 price levels was estimated at 

 $724 million, or an average of about $50 per acre. 



If such a program were spread over a 10-year 

 period it would involve more than a doubling of 

 the 1970 rate of timber cultural practices within 

 the farm and miscellaneous private ownership 

 class. The higher the goal the more likely that 

 available labor, equipment, planting stock, or 

 number of cooperating landowners would become 

 limiting factors. Implementation of any major 

 program for this owner category also would 

 undoubtedly require some form of cost-sharing 

 arrangement or other incentives to help motivate 

 the landowners involved. 



Because timing of yields is of critical importance, 

 potential increases in softwood timber harvests 

 from the farm and miscellaneous private class are 

 shown in table 91 by the decade when such in- 

 creased cuts are estimated to occur. These projections 

 indicate very limited opportunity for increasing 

 cuts during the first decade or two. In the third 

 decade increases in yield are estimated at 1.3 

 billion cubic feet, including 1.6 billion board feet 

 of sawtimber. This would represent an increase of 

 48 percent above the projection of available 

 softwood harvests under 1970 levels of management 

 shown in table 85. 



It is apparent from this analysis that identifying 

 opportunities for increasing prospective timber 

 supplies requires a wide range of input data that 

 involves most forestry disciplines. Essential inputs 

 include a reasonably accurate measure of the 



Table 90. — Areas, costs, and increased yields from intensified management on farm and miscellaneous 

 private lands in the Southeast, by estimated rate of return on investments 



Management class 



Treatment 



Rate 

 return ' 



Area 



Cumu- 

 lative 

 cost 

 totals 



Cumulative incre ase in 



annual volume of pine 



harvests 





By 



class 



Cumu- 

 lative 



Growing 

 stock 



Sawtimber 



Pine plantations . .. 



Natural pine stands 



Pine plantations 

 Nonstocked forest. . 



Commercial thin 



do 



Precommercial thin.. 

 Planting 



Percent 



OO 



OO 



7. 8 

 7. 8 

 7.3 

 7. 1 

 6.9 

 6.7 

 6. 3 

 6.3 

 5. 7 



4. 



Negative . 



Thousand 



acres 



27 



429 



37 



127 



1,471 



2,205 



205 



139 



136 



3,112 



261 



6,305 

 178 



Thousand 

 acres 



27 



456 



493 



620 



2,091 



4,297 



4,501 



4,640 



4,776 



7,887 



8,148 



14,453 

 14,631 



Million 



dollars 



0. 2 



4.6 



5.0 



8.4 



39. 6 



153.4 



158. 8 



161. 7 



164. 9 



334. 8 



348.2 



723.9 

 727. 2 



Million 

 cu. ft. 



1 



20 



21 



32 



141 



323 



340 



345 



349 



655 



681 



1,319 

 1,320 



Million 

 bd.ft. 



4 

 53 

 56 

 72 



Idle cropland. _ . _ 



do . 



252 



Natural pine stands. . 



Conversion 



469 



Pine plantations . 

 Oak-pine stands 



do 



TSI 



476 

 483 



Natural pine stands 



Oak-pine stands. ._ 

 Nonstocked forest. 

 Upland hardwood 

 stands. 



Precommercial thin.. 

 Conversion 



do 



do 



Commercial thin 



497 

 768 

 801 



1,552 



Oak-pine stands ... 



1,564 



1 Within each management class rates of return vary above or below these averages, depending on local factors 

 influencing costs or yields. 



