Southern Forest Resource Assessment highlights: The Southern Timber Market to 2040

Abstract

Timber market analysis of the South's predominantly private timberland finds that the 13 southern states produce nearly 60 percent of the nation's timber, an increase from the mid-1900s. Projections with the Subregional Timber Supply model show that, despite a 60 percent increase in the area of pine plantations, the South will experience a 1 percent decline in private timberland area as other forest types shrink. Because of expected productivity gains for plantation forests and conversions of some agricultural lands to natural forests, the South's industrial wood output is projected to increase by more than 50 percent between 1995 and 2040.