An Analysis of Forest Dynamics in the Northern Georgia Piedmont

Abstract

An analytical approach to the study of regional forest dynamics is described and applied to the northern Piedmont of Georgia. The technique utilizes U.S. Forest Service Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) remeasurement data. Results show that if conditions remain similar to those during the survey period (1961-72), the areal extent of the loblolly pine forest type will markedly increase while shortleaf pine will decrease rapidly. Urbanization is a major factor causing the dramatic decline in shortleaf pine during the survey period. The other forest types show lesser shifts in area. However, by concomitantly reducing the rate of old-field abandonment and increasing harvest intensity, the long-term trend of increasing loblolly pine in the region will be reversed, and the decline in shortleaf pine accentuated. Increasing harvest rates uniformly across all types leads to a reduction in the area of the pine types suggesting that stand treatment and planting after harvest are not sufficiently ubiquitous or intense to discourage hardwood conversion. With decreasing reversions and an increase in harvesting, the 1961-72 trend of increasing area of loblolly pine can only be continued by markedly increasing management intensity. Patterns and rates of succession calculated from a set of undisturbed plots resemble those found by other workers using different methodologies. Although compositional dynamics are heavily dominated by man, the projected areas of most forest types follow the trends of natural succession. Forest Sci. 22:307-322.