Timber industries have traditionally been attracted to it because it is fast-growing and can be grown from cuttings. Recently, Eastern cottonwood has been identified as the most promising tree species in the eastern United States for biofuels production. Sam Land, forest geneticist in MSU's Forest and Wildlife Research Center, has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Forest Service, and the pulp and paper industries to study these trees. The work was prompted by the DOE's Biofuels Feedstock Development Program. This is a classic tree improvement program.
Cottonwoods are a hardwood, but softer than most.
They are also very fast-growing, reaching 8 to 9 inches in diameter and 40 to 50 feet tall in five years. They are uniform trees and can make a profitable farm crop. In the 1970s, the U.S. Forest Service at Stoneville began researching cottonwood genetics and released some new varieties. They closed this project in 1981, and Land salvaged what he could of their material and began collecting his own samples. My objective was to get a collection of Eastern cottonwoods from throughout their natural range in the southeastern United States.