Z 

A FOREST SURVEY PROGRESS REPORT 

J. 1. Cruikshank, Chid 

Division of Forest Economics 

- 

FOREST SURVEY RELEASE NO. 22 SEPTEMBER 1, 1947 

SOUTHERN FORESTS AS A SOURCE OF PULPWOOD 

by 

J. W Cruikshank 

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOREST SERVICE 

Southeastern Forest Experiment Station 

I. T. big, Director 

Asheville, N. C. 
PREFACE 

Through the McSweeny-NcNary Act of 1928, Congress authorized the 

Secretary of Agriculture to conduct a comprehensive survey of the forest resources of the United States. The Forest Survey was organized by 

the Forest Service to carry out the provisions of the Act, and each of 

the 11 Regional Forest Experiment Stations is responsible for the work 

in its territory. In the Southeastern States the Forest Survey is an 

activity in the Division of Forest Economics of the Southeastern Forest Eqeriment Station, Asheville, North Carolina. 

The work of the Survey is divided into five major phases: 

1, Inventory. Determination of the extent, location, and 

condition of forest lands, and the quantity, species, 

and quality of timber on these lands. 

2. Growth. Determination of the current rate of timber 

growth. 

3. prain. Determination of the amount of industrial and 

domestic wood used, and the total loss resulting from 

fire, insects, disease, suppression, and other causes 

4 Requirements. Determination of the current and probable 

future requirements for forest products by all classes 

of consumers. 

5. Policies and plans. Analysis of the relation of these 

findings to one another and to other economic factors as 

a basis for public and private policies and plans of 

forest land use and management. 

This progress report summarizes information on the timber resources of the South, with particular emphasis upon pulpwood, and 

points out ways by which the pulp and paper industry can help in assuring a permanent supply of raw material.. 
SOUTHERN POIZESTS AS A SOURCE OF PULPWOO& 

by 

James W. ~ruikshad 

THE FZCGIONAL TIMBER RFSOURCE 

The South, as discussed here, includes the coastal states extending from the Potomac south to Florida and west to the plains of Texas, 

plus the inland states of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Within its 

boundaries lie almost the entire commercial range of the southern yellow 

pines and a large part of the Nation's supply of hardwoods. It contains 

183 million acres, or 40 percent, of the commercial forest land in the 

United States and 1.9 billion cords, or 28 percent, of the timber. Practically all is easily accessible by water, rail, or good roads. Even more 

important from the long-range view, its soils and climate favor rapid timber growth, and year-round logging seasons facilitate ti-nber harvesting. 

These advantages are not news to the pulp and paper industry. Today 

there are 51mills manufacturing wood pulp with a total daily capacity of 

12,900 tons of sulphate fiber, 400 tons of sulphite fiber, 375 tons of soda 

fiber, and 2,434 tons of semichemical pulp and ground wood. This is onehalf the total U. S. pulp mill capacity. The annual wood requirement of 

these southern mills is now more than 8 million standard cords, and the demand for pulpwood is constantly increasing as present plants and new plants 

come into production. 

In view of this large and growing demand for pulpwood it is timely 

to consider the characteristics of the timber resource upon which your 

industry depends. First let us consider the kinds of timber and their 

general location. Bordering the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from South Carolina to east Texas is the longleaf-slash pine forest (fig. l) of the flat 

coastal plain, the source of all our gum naval stores. Altogether it 

covers nearly 35 million acres, two-thirds of which are in Florida and 

south Georgia. In the Carolinas and Virginia, the loblolly pine is the 

Presented at the fall meeting of the Technical Association of 

the Pulp and Paper Industry, Detroit, Mich., Sept. 26-28, 1946. hblished in Pulpwood - Stands, Procurement, and Utilization (TAPPI Monograph Series No. 4). 1946. 

Chief, Division of Forest Economics, Southeastern Forest 

Experiment Station. 

leading species of the coastal plain with shortleaf pine the dominant tree 

farther inland on the Piedmont. The scrubby and short-lived Virginia pine 

spreads across all three states in the foothills of the Appalachians and 

on into north Georgia and Alabama. The separation between loblolly and 

shortleaf pine is less distinct in the deep South; and the rolling hills 

of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas are clothed with a 

mixed loblolly-shortleaf-hardwood forest. Southwestern Arkansas runs 

heavily to loblolly pine in mixture with hardwoods, but in the mountainous section of the State loblolly is replaced by shortleaf. Tennessee 

is chiefly a hardwood state, although scattered shortleaf pine is found 

in the Tennessee Valley, and a narrow belt extends along the western edge 

of the Appalachians into Kentucky. Altogether, there are nearly 70 million acres of this loblolly-shortleaf-hardwood forest in the region. 

Other forests, somewhat less inportant from a pulpwood standpoint, are 

the Appalachian hardwoods of western North Carolina, Virginia, and north 

Georgia, the scattered stands of upland hardwoods that break up the continuity of the pine timberlands, the bottomland hardwoods that occur along 

all of the major rivers, and the broad expanse of Delta hardwoods that 

occupy the IPLssissippi flood plain. 

When we think of Southern forests, we are almost sure to think of 

the pines for which it has been famous since earliest colonial times, so 

it may be somewhat of a surprise to learn that of a total stand of 1.9 

billion cords, over 55 percent is hardwood, Softwoods, chieflythe several southern yellow pines, total about 833 million cords. The preponderance of hardwoods is primarily in the smaller tree sizes; hardwood 

saw timber totals only 144 billion board feet compared to 194 billion 

feet of pine. 

Compared to an annual pulpwood requirement of about 8 million 

cords, these timber volumes appear very reassuring, apparently indicating a considerable supply of timber for the present and for some time 

to come. However, pulpwood accounts for only 10 percent of the total 

cut, and pulpwood producers must compete with other industries for wood. 

Also, even though 55 percent of the wood in the South is in hardwood 

species, less than one-tenth of the pulpwood is cut from hardwoods. 

Major changes in pulping processes, plant equipment, final product, and 

wood-procurement practices will be necessary before hardwoods enter 

strongly into the supply picture. 

What we are really concerned with is how much timber can we grow 

in the South. Present timber volumes give us some indication how we 

have weathered the transition from virgin timber to second-growth, and 

they influence the kind and extent of industrial utilization, but for 

the long pull sound industrial development must be based upon using not 

more than the annual growth of wood. For the South as a whole, the annual growth totals approximately 50 million cords of softwoods and 44 

million cords of hardwoods. Thus, we are growing about one-half cord 

per average acre per year, but only one-quarter of a cord of the desired 

softwoods. This is ~i.uch less than the land is capable of producing, and 
Table 1. - Total quantity of timber in the South, 1945 

Softwoods: 

Loblolly pine 

Shortleaf pine 

Longleaf pine 

Slash pine 

Cypress 

Others 

Species group 

Total 

Hardwoods: 

Red oaks 

White oaks 

Sweetgum 

Tupelo, blackgum 

Yellow-poplar 

Beech, birch, maples 

Others 

Volume 

Total 

Air-dry weight 

Million Percent I us 1 Million 

tons - 

Percent 

Note: Cord volumes derived from inside-bark cubic-foot voluies 

on the basis of 70 cubic feet of softwoods or 65 cubic feet of 

hardwoods per cord. Species distribution based on sawlog volumes 

only. 

All species 1,949 100 2,486 100 
is also much less than we need if the South is to contribute its share 

of the wood requirements of a prosperous nation. There is every reason to believe that a major part of the pine land in the South can grow 

.a cord of wood per acre per year. This can eventually be accomplished, 

but, even ~th an aggressive forestry program, it will take a nwnbe~ of 

decades to achieve if we continue at the same time to meet the needs of 

the forest industries. 

One of the major problems to be solved before we can make substantial progress toward increasing the annual yield of wood is to control thber losses from such destructive agencies as fire, insects, and 

disease. Such losses now amount to 13 million cords annually--60 percent more than the entire cut of pulpwood. Fire is the most Important 

causal agency, and the one most susceptible to control. Forest insects 

and tree diseases take a toll of both softwoods and hardwoods, but widespread outbreaks are rare. At present, the greatest threat TO the softwoods, aside from fire, is the so-called "little-leaf disease" of the 

shortleaf pine, Already hundreds of thousands of cords of timber have 

died, and the mortality rate continues unchecked despite the efforts of 

skilled pathologists seeking the cause and cure. Our objective should 

be to reduce these fire, insect, and disease losses as rapidly and completely as possible, and use the wood to satisfy the needs of southern 

people and industrTes. During recent years there has been a definite 

and steady industrial development in this region, and there is every 

indication that this trend will continue at an accelerated rate. This 

development is reflected in the drain upon the timber stands, which 

has fncreased by at least 15 percent during the last decade. In 1944 

the total amount of wood cut from southern forests amounted to about 

46 million cords of softwoods and 36 million cords of hardwoods, distributed by commodities as follows: 

Table 2. - Dis~ribution of commodity drain 

in the South, 1944 

Commodity 1 Total I Softwoods I Hardwoods 

Lumber 

Fuel wood 

Pulpwood 

Hewn ties 

Venee~ 

All other 

Total 

Percent 

51 

.21 

10 

6 

-3 

9 

100 

Percent Percent 
What effect have these heavy annual drains had upon the forest 

growing stock? Th& latest statistics show that both softwood and hardwood saw timber have decreased about 10 percent in the last decade, the 

entire softwood growing stock has declined about 3 percent, while the 

small hardwoods, chiefly of the poor-quality species, have increased 

considerably faster than they are being utilized. This trend is confirmed by the growth and drain balance for 1944 (table 3), which shows 

that softwoods decreased by 2.5 million cords while the hardwoods increased by 1.7 million cords. Those whose knowledge of timber conditions extends back over a period of years realize that the change in 

total volume is only part of the story. Past cutting practices, which 

selected the better trees of the better species, have resulted in a progressive deterioration in the quality as well as quantity of growing 

stock. Thus, each year's cut is replaced by inferior growth. 

Table 3. - Comparison of annual growth and drain in the South, 1944 

Annual growth 1 94.5 / 50.3 1 44.2 / 19,9491 12,923 / 7?026 

Item 

Total 

Ellion - 

cords 

Drain: 

All trees 

5~0" d.b.h. & larger 

Softwoods 

Million 

cords 

Saw-timber trees 

Fire, disease, 

etc. 

Cutting 

Hardwoods 

Million 

-- cords 

Total 

r 

12,9 

82"& 

Net change 

Total 

Nillion 

bd.ft. 

95.3 

6.8 

46.0 

-0.8 

Softwoods 

Million 

bd.ft. 

I 1 I I I 

52.8 

Hardwoods 

Million 

bd.ft. 

6.1 

36.4 

42,5 / ~4~90215,638 1 9,264 

-2.5 

2,275 

- 22,627 - 

11.7 

1,561 

14,077 

-1,953 

714 

8,550 

-2,715 -2,238 
COFPETITION FOR AVAILABLE TIMBER 

Is there a connection bet~een the declining timber resource and 

present wood costs and procurement difficulties? I believe there is. 

Pulpwood procurement men how that theirs is a job which is becoming 

increaskgly difficult. Some can think back 10 years when yellow pine 

stumpage sold for 75 cents a cord, and pulpwood delivered to the mill 

cost $4. Stumpage now averages about $2.25 and the OPA pulpwood price 

ceiling applicable to most parts of the South is $9, Ten years ago 15 

miles was considered the longest distance over which it was practical to 

truck pulpwood. Today, 15 miles is just an average haul. Thy have these 

changes occurred? 

The immediate answer, of course, is competition. In 1936, there 

were only 30 pulp mills in the South. Wood fiber production totaled 

only 1-1/2 million tons. Since that time, 21 new plants have been added, 

and most of the original ones have expanded. Production this year is 

expected to exceed 4-3/4 million tons. In other words, your industry has 

kcreased its output, and presumably its wood requirements, by 320 percent 

in 10 years. Reference to a map (fig. 2) showing pulp mill locations discloses another cause of intensified competition for wood within the industry, It is the tendency to concentrate plant construction in certain 

localities favored fortheir supplSes of good water and power, nearness 

to chemical centers, or availability of barge transportation. There are, 

for example, six wood pulp mills within 65 miles of riobile, five in the 

Jacksonville area, and five east or south of Xchmond. Along the ArkansasLouisiana line are seven more, somewhat less closely grouped. Of 12 to 

1k new sites proposed, about half either fall in areas already crowded 

or will create sxlar problem areas elsewhere. Thus, although some 

pulpwood is cut in nearly every county of the South, the demand is, and 

will remain, particularly intense %n a few localities. In most cases, 

it is aggravated by serious over-cutting and consequent reduction of timber stocks, 

So much for the eompetizion generated within the pulp and paper industrg itself. Of increasingly greater importanee is the competition of 

other forest products industries, Poremost is lumber, which comprises 50 

percent of all the drain on the forest resource, Theoretically, pulp and 

lumber should complement each other, the former preferring trees 8 to 12 

inches in diameter or below desirable sawlog size. In recent years, however, this balance has been disturbed. Saw timber is becoining increasfngly 

scarce. Ehcept for periods of business depression, overcutting has continued year after year since the first decade of the century. During the 

past 10 years alone, the volume of the average pine saw-timber tree has 

been reduced 25 percent in central Mississippi, 20 percent in southwest 

Georgia, and 35 percent in central Georgla and northeast Florida. At present, few sizable stands of large timber remain, and portable sawmills moving from one small tract to another account for most of the production. 

As available tracts become smaller and more scattered, and as the average 
LEGEND 

n j"I" MISS. UEXTENT OF SOUTHERN REGION 

ALA. GROUNDWOOD 

II SULFITE 

0 SULFATE 

0 SODA 

a SULFATE F3 OTHER 

a SEMICHEMICAL 

A DEFIBRATED WOOD 

Figure 2. - Distrii~ution and types of pulp mills in the South, 1946. 
tree sue is reduced, the distinction between saw timber and cordwood 

is gradually losing sign5ficance. With a boom market for ail types of 

construction lumber (including low-grade 2x4's), lumbermen are contracting, in some cases, for yellow pine tirber to a six-inch minimum 

diameter. At prevailing saw-timber prices, this is competition which 

pulpwood men are unable to meet. Others offerlng competition in some 

localities are the producers of small pcles, excelsior, and staves for 

nail kegs. 

A LOOK AHEAD 

No new developments in the pulpwood supply situation are anticipated for the immediate future. Growing stock changes occur slowly; 

the decline already mentioned has been in progress for many years. The 

present brisk demand for all forest products may persist many more years. 

While it lasts, there will be stiff competition for wood between your 

and other wood-using industries. Indeed, should the lumber market hold 

up another ten years, the small operators may take an appreciable share 

of the better quality timber stands you expect to draw upon. Within the 

pulp and paper industry, competition for wood will be intensified by expansion of existkg plant facflities and by new construction. 

This problem of gradually tightening competition for a raw material that steadily shri~ks both in volume and quality should be a vital 

concern to all of you with Interests in the South. You represent an 

industry with a large fixed hvestment in plants. Unlike the small sawmill operator, it cannot afford to pick up those plants and move to 

fresh territory. Furthermore, the continued success of your industry 

hinges upon maintaining the adirantage of low pulpwood and manufacturing 

costs it now enjoys over other producing regions, And it is fortunate 

for the South that this is so, for you and your industry are in a position to take the lead, not only in solving your own wood procurement 

problems, but in attacking the forest problems of the region. Because, 

in a real sense, the two are the same. 

Your plan of attack might loglcaily include three phases: (1) 

intensified research, chemical and economLc, in the utilization of wood 

material not now in general demand; (2) forest land acquisition; and 

(3) a highly organized reglon-wide program to promote better cutting 

practices and forest protection, and to increase the productivity of 

forest land. 

The first phase--intensified research in the economic and technical aspects of utiiizlng hardwoods, cull trees, and logging and manufactwing waste--would be a step toward assuring yourselves an ample 

supply of raw material at a price little affected by competition. There 

is, for instance, nearly t~wo million cords per year excess of hardwood 

growtn over drain, mostly in krees of convenient size for pulping. Also 
available are 330 million cords of souad materiai in hardwood cull trees. 

Practically its only present use is for fuel. About 950,000 cords of 

hardwoods per year are now pulped or use in high-tonnage products such 

as kraft paper and paperboard, in herdboard, insuiation board, roofing, 

and in finer grade papers. Nearly 400j000 of this is dead chestnut in 

the form of spent chips from tannin extract plants, but some kraft mills 

introduce as much as 10 percent of tflfvetl hardwood fiber into high-strength 

paper and board. Other mills have abandoned hardwoods after unfortunate 

experiences with poorly controlled ratios of pine and hardwood pulps or 

with promiscuous muctures of hardwood species. The greater cost of cutting and processing has been a further handicap. However, hardwood pulps 

tend to give improved surface, formation, and other properties often desirable in corrugating and liner boards. The International Paper Company 

now has a hardwood plant for this purpose under construction at Georgetown, South Carolina. Company foresters hope that mch of the wood will 

come from Improvement cuttings in mixed pine-hardwood stands, thereby 

increasing the future ,vield of pine. 

The other possible source of pulpwood--logging and manufacturing 

waste--is fn many respects the most promising, In the South, each cubic 

foot of forest products ready forthe consumer or remanufacturer represents 1*6 cubic feec of sound timber removed from the forest growing 

stock, Waste produced by logdng and primary nanufacturing operations 

in the three states of Virginia, North Cerolina, and South Carolina alone 

amounts to 680 mjLllion cubic feet a year. Eventually, a little is salvaged for pulpwood and a ia~ger portion for fuelwood, but the equivalent 

of 6 million cords is never utilized. The lmused logging waste alone is 

sufficient to satisfy the demand for pulpwood in these states. 

The o3stacles to the fuller utilization cf waste are largely 

economic. Perhaps the most important of these is the cost of handling 

and transportat,ion. Much of the waste is small material widely scatteped through the forest GI- in smll concentrations at great nwnbers of 

remote plants. Mosf of tha.t. accessibly located is already being used 

for some purpose; However, certain areas with a heavy concentration of 

forest bdustries and good rail and highway communication seem favorable to plant integration, and mechanization might solve many of the 

problems of handling. 

On the second phase, namely forest, land acquisition, an excellent 

start has already been n!ade, Pulp company holdings now total over 6 mil-- 

lion acres, If need be, they could provide over a third of your current 

needs without over-cutting. in this come:tion, the qlestion arises as 

to whether you should attempt to b-cy enough land to fill 109 percent of 

your needs. Theoretically, at least, the answer appears to be "no." In 

the first place, the old warnfng against Itall your eggs in one basket" 

has no better application than to logging. The wider your cutting operations are scattered, the less chance there is of havbg your wood supply 

cut off by weather, iabor troubles, and other temporary hindrances. In 

the second place, there is considerable evidence that it is good business 
to integrste pulpwood production with the production of higher value 

material--sawlogs, poles, piling, etc.--sales of this material covering 

a major share of timber-growhg costs, And from the standpoint of encouraging better forest practices, the presence of the pulp industry as 

a ready market for the products of thinnimgs and stand-improvement cuttings on non-company lands is most desirable. However, land acquisition 

is a logical safeguard, and the scientific management practiced thereon 

can serve as an example to other landowners. 

Acqufring land and utilizing substitute woods are both projects 

which could produce positive and easily measurable results dthin a few 

years. The third phase of the attack on the wood-supply problem is, by 

comparison, more complicated and must be sustained for a relatively long 

period to accomplish its purpose--that is to say, increased production of 

quality wood on forest land tributary to your mills. To assure a worthwhile increase, the following minimum management requirements must be met: 

(1) protection from fire, (2) harvest cuttings which reserve mature trees 

in sufficient number to reseed the area cut over, and (3) intermediate 

cuttings in young stands to increase their yield. Omitting any one of 

the three steps will largely nullify the others. 

Some progress has already been made in the fields of forest pro- 

'tection and management. For instance, 53 percent of our forest land has 

been brought under organized protection, and public appropriations for 

this purpose are being enla~ged. Two southern states, South Carolina 

and Virginia, can now boast 100-percent coverage. Public and private 

agencies have also planted some two million acres of denuded land. Your 

own holdings offer an excellent exvnple of the application of management 

practices. For the most part, they are well cared for. Similar examples 

of good management are to be found on some lumbercompany and other private lands as well as on public forests, but well-managed tracts still 

comprise.only a small portion of forest lands. The area meeting the minimum standards of protection and management probably does not exceed 20 

percent of the total, 

A potent factor impeding the wider application of management principles is the complex ownership paLtern* Nearly 70 percent of the forest 

is in a million and a half private ownerships of less than 5>000 acres 

each. It is difficult to reach so vast a number of owners and to convince 

them that present gain should be deferred in favor of ultimately greater 

and perpetual profitso Few look beyond the present, and few are financially able to do so. As a resldt, cutting practices are determined 

largely by a desire for -che maximum immedtate return. Generally, they 

result in heavy over-cutting with haphazard restocking, and, frequently, 

conversion to low-grade hardwoods. 

Since it is not probable that the existing ownership pattern will 

change materially for some time to come, the pulp industry has a considerable stake in the better handling of these small ownerships. In 

recent years, various public and private agencies, including your own 
Southern Pulpwood Conservation Association, have been guiding and assisting woodland owners in proper management practices. However, progress 

has been too slow to prevent continued depletion. These activities must 

be greatly expanded to obtain increased yields on an ever larger proportion 

of the forest. They should be supplemented by legislation establishing 

the minimum standards of cutting needed to prevent further deterioration 

on those lands not. brought under management. 

To sum up, the forest resources of the South are gradually deteriorating both in volume and quality. This deterioration is sufficiently 

advanced to be reflected in sharper competition for wood, and consequently, 

in rising wood costs. To meet this situation, your industry has already 

embarked on a land acquisition program. This is a logical step, but it 

is probably not feasible to seek complete self-sufficiency in this way. 

As an added safeguard, you should investigate the possibilities of supplementing supplies of pine with wood material less in demand. However, in 

the final analysis, the problem of pulpwood supply is one phase of the 

over-all forest problem of the region--namely, to prevent further depletion on a million and a half small ownerships while bringing as many as 

. possible into greater productivity through management such as you practice 

on your own lands. Since the interests of your industry correspond to 

those of the general public in this matter, will you lend your full support to such a program?