Tennessee Timber Highlights 



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TIMBER PRODUCTS ARE A MAJOR 

 SOURCE OF INCOME IN TENNESSEE. 

 In 1950, the value of timber products represented 

 about 6 percent of the total income payments in 

 Tennessee. The contribution of Tennessee's forests 

 to the recreation industry and to other values — water, 

 soil, wildlife — although not easily expressed in mone- 

 tary terms, also looms very large. 



PRIMARY WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES 

 COMPRISE NEARLY 3,000 PLANTS. Most nu- 

 merous are sawmills, which number some 2,700. In 

 addition, there are 5 pulp mills, 14 veneer mills, 38 

 cooperage plants, and 139 miscellaneous plants 

 (principally handle stock mills). Most of the wood 

 used by these plants is cut from nearby forests, but 

 much of the pulpwood travels up to 200 miles from 

 woods to mill, and about half is shipped out of the 

 State, chiefly to mills in Mississippi, the Carolinas, 

 and Virginia. 



FORESTS COVER ALMOST HALF OF THE 

 STATE'S LAND AREA. The most heavily tim- 

 bered part is the Cumberland Plateau and eastern 

 Highland Rim section. West Tennessee is the least 

 forested. 



MORE THAN NINE-TENTHS OF THE COM- 

 MERCIAL FOREST LAND IS PRIVATELY 

 OWNED. The remainder is almost entirely in State 

 and Federal ownership. 



TENNESSEE'S TIMBER SUPPLY TOTALS 5.7 

 BILLION CUBIC FEET. This volume includes 

 16.2 billion board-feet of sawtimber. The trees are 

 chiefly hardwoods, mainly the oaks, hickories, gums, 

 and yellow-poplar that once made Tennessee the 

 Nation's foremost producer of hardwood lumber. 

 Softwoods, found largely in the Cumberland Plateau 

 and eastern Tennessee, are mostly southern pines, 

 but also include redcedar, cypress, white pine, and 

 hemlock. 



NEARLY THREE-FIFTHS OF ALL THE 

 FOREST IS WELL STOCKED. That is, it has 

 enough trees of all kinds, sizes, and qualities to 

 utilize the growing capacity of the soil. Many of the 

 trees, however, are still too small or too poor in 



quality to be of much commercial use, and the volume 

 and quality in sawtimber trees is much less than it 

 could be under good forest management. The 

 equivalent growing space of about one acre in six is 

 wasted because it is occupied by cull hardwoods — 

 trees too rotten or limby to be considered merchant- 

 able. The best stocking of good trees and the fewest 

 cull trees are found in the forests of the Unaka and 

 Smoky Mountains and the Great Valley. 



TIMBER GROWTH IN CUBIC FEET EX- 

 CEEDS CUT. The net growth of all merchantable 

 trees in 1949 totaled 286 million cubic feet. Logging 

 removed less than this — about 252 million cubic feet. 

 Growth on all merchantable timber thus exceeded the 

 total cut by 13 percent. 



BUT SAWTIMBER-SIZE TREES ARE BEING 

 OVERCUT. The harvest of sawtimber-size trees in 

 1949 totaled 1,013 million board-feet, whereas growth 

 on trees of this size was only 877 million board-feet. 

 Softwoods are being more seriously overcut than 

 hardwoods. 



TO IMPROVE FOREST CONDITIONS CALLS 

 FOR THE FOLLOWING CONSTRUCTIVE 

 MEASURES: 



1. Protection. — Improve fire fighting facilities in 

 areas presently protected and extend protection to 

 counties that still lack it; initiate protective measures 

 against insects, disease, and grazing damage. 



2. Cull Hardwood Removal. — Return more than 

 2 million acres of growing space to the production of 

 useful wood products by utilizing, girdling, or other- 

 wise eliminating cull hardwoods. 



3. Forest Planting. — In the next 20 years, plant 

 about 940 thousand acres of poorly stocked and 

 denuded forest land. 



4. Better Utilization. — Use each tree cut for the 

 most valuable products it will yield; extend practice 

 of multiple-product harvesting and marketing. Im- 

 prove operating efficiency of the several thousand 

 circular sawmills. 



5. Improved Harvesting Practices. — Harvest tim- 

 ber conservatively so as to build up the volume and 

 quality of the timber stands. 



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