1.4. Introduction: East Texas Forests

US Timber Production

The United States has vast forest resources, allowing it to produce more timber than any other country in the world. The US has 749 million acres of forest land (FAO 2007). There are 200 million forested acres in the US South, consisting of 13 states spanning from Texas to Virginia (Conner and Hartsell 2002). The US South alone produces more timber than any other country in the world, and is particularly dominant in terms of pulpwood production (Adams et al. 2006, FAO 2007).

Table 1.4.1. Percentages are the share of US production of timber by region based on roundwood equivalents for 2002*.

*Data Source: Adams et al. (2006). Values may not sum to 100% due to rounding. Southeast includes TX, OK, AR, LA, MS, AL, GA, FL, TN, SC, NC, KY, VA; Northeast includes WV, MD, DE, PA, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, ME; Midwest includes ND, SD, NE, KA, MO, IA, MN, WI, IL, IN, OH, MI; Rockies includes ID, MT, WY, NV, UT, CO, AZ, NM; Pacific Northwest includes CA, OR, and WA.

Figure 1.4.1. Pulpwood production in the US and the US South in 2005. Percentages above each bar indicate proportion of hardwood versus softwood production. Percentages in white at the bottom of each bar indicate the share of US production accounted for by the South. Data Source: Howard (2007).

Figure 1.4.2. Sawtimber production in the US and the US South in 2005. Percentages above each bar indicate proportion of hardwood versus softwood production. Percentages in white at the bottom of each bar indicate the share of US production accounted for by the South. Data Source: Howard (2007)

Forests of the US South

Southern forests are relatively evenly balanced between hardwood and softwood dominated cover types. Forest area has remained relatively constant over the last 50 years following reforestation of cut over agricultural lands. The most significant change in southern forests over the last 50 years has been the replacement of many naturally regenerated pine stands with artificially regenerated pine plantations.

Figure 1.4.3. Change in the acreage of common forest cover types across the US South. Reproduced from Conner and Hartsell (2002).

Forests of the East Texas

East Texas covers approximately 22.4 million acres. Most of the region is part of the coastal plain physiographic province, and the forests found here are not too dissimilar from those that are found along the coast all the way to North Florida and the Carolinas. Approximately 54% of East Texas, or 12.1 million acres are productive forest lands that are almost entirely privately owned (Bentley 2009). Forest communities are found in approximately the same proportion in East Texas as the southwide average shown above. The main exception is the increased proportion of the forest managed in plantations (21%) compared to the rest of the south (15%) (Bentley 2009, Conner and Hartsell 2002).

Figure 1.4.4. East Texas includes 43 of Texas' 255 counties, and almost all the state's productive timberlands.

Figure 1.4.5. Land ownership patterns of forests in east Texas. Total area of forestland is 12.1 million acres. Data Source: Bentley (2009).

Figure 1.4.6. Forest covertype distribution in east Texas. Total area of forestland is 12.1 million acres. Data Source: Bentley (2009).

Data on growing stock, growth, and removals reveal a more detailed picture of the forests of East Texas. In terms of volume softwoods are slightly more dominant than hardwoods. Of the softwoods, loblolly pine is the most dominant. While federal lands represent a small percentage of the land area, they represent a disproportionate amount of the growing stock. This is attributable to the older stands dominated by larger pines commonly found in the National Forests of East Texas. The surrounding privately owned forests tend to have younger stands with correspondingly smaller trees.

Figure 1.4.7. Total growing stock of 16 billion cubic feet is roughly equivalent to 544 million tons of wood, which would fill 18.1 million truck loads at 30 tons / load. Data Source: Bentley (2009).

Figure 1.4.8. A typical older (70 years) loblolly pine stand found in a National Forest in East Texas. Prescribed fires every 2 to 3 years keep the understory low and dominated by American beautyberry. Photo Credit: Jeremy Stovall

Figure 1.4.9. A typical older (50 years) lowland hardwood stand dominated by willow oak found in East Texas. Photo Credit: Jeremy Stovall

While growing stock is relatively well balanced between softwoods and hardwoods, growth and removals are both dominated by pine. Growth exceeds removals for both softwoods and hardwoods, indicating a sustainable level of timber harvest. The rapid growth and corresponding removals in loblolly pine is largely attributable to the substantial plantation land-base. Young, intensively managed plantations grow more rapidly than naturally regenerated pine or hardwood stands.

Figure 1.4.10. Total growth per year of 930 million cubic feet is roughly equivalent to 31.6 million tons of wood, which would fill 1.1 million truck loads at 30 tons / load. Data Source: Bentley (2009).

Figure 1.4.11. Total removals per year of 720 million cubic feet is roughly equivalent to 24.5 million tons of wood, which fills 816,000 truck loads each year at 30 tons / load. This level of removals would result in approximately 204,000 acres being clearcut each year assuming mean stocking of 120 tons per acre and that all harvests are clearcuts. Despite how large this sounds, it amounts to less than 2% of the forest land in East Texas. Data Source: Bentley (2009).

Figure 1.4.12. A high-quality loblolly pine plantation later in the 25 year rotation. Competition has been very effectively controlled with forest herbicides, allocating almost all of the site resources to crop trees. Photo Credit: Jeremy Stovall

Figure 1.4.13. A younger pine plantation (4 years old) early in the rotation on a very productive site. Photo Credit: Jeremy Stovall

Plantation Silviculture

Because of the importance of plantations to timber production in East Texas, more details on plantation forestry in the US are included here. Forest plantations are stands that are planted and tended in an agronomic fashion. They are usually managed on short rotations after establishment. This may vary from about 25 years for loblolly pine in the US South to 45 to 70 years for Douglas-fir in the Pacific Northwest (Vance et al. 2010). Competition control and fertilizer application are common tools that seek to eliminate competing vegetation and allocate more resources to the crop trees.

There is a vast plantation resource in the US South, with an estimated 32 million acres currently planted in loblolly and slash pine plantations (Conner and Hartsell 2002). For comparison, the state of Louisiana is 33 million acres, and Mississippi is 31 million acres. Other less common plantation species in the South include longleaf, shortleaf, and Virginia pines, and eastern cottonwood. The second most common plantation species in the US is Douglas-fir, with an estimated 4 million acres currently planted in the Pacific Northwest (Floyd and Kutscha 2000). Other less common plantation species in the Pacific Northwest include red alder, ponderosa pine, western hemlock, and hybrid poplars (Vance et al. 2010). In the Midwest there are approximately 25,000 acres of short rotation woody crop plantations dominated by poplars and willows planted in Minnesota (Vance et al. 2010). There are few operational plantation resources in other parts of the country, although there remain scattered white, red, and Scots pine plantations in the Northeast.

Despite the extent of plantation forests in the US, they account for only 5.6% of all forest land (FAO 2007). Even in the South, plantations only comprise 15% of total forest land (Conner and Hartsell 2002).

Forest plantations grow rapidly, with peak mean annual increments (MAI) for both loblolly pine and Douglas-fir of approximately 4.5 dry tons per acre per year (Vance et al. 2010). This can be contrasted to natural stands with peak MAI's of about 1.2 to 3.5 dry tons per acre per year (Paquette and Messier 2009). Put simply, over a given time period intensively managed plantation forests can produce twice as much wood as extensively managed naturally regenerated stands.

Advantages

Plantations are often a simpler ecological system.
- Agronomic model
- More predictable
- More data available
- Easier to teach
Plantations take advantage of rapid growth early in the development of a forest.
- Affordable to apply more treatments
  - Site preparation
  - Planting
  - Competition control
  - Fertilizer
- Greater economic returns due to shorter rotations

Figure 1.4.14. An economic analysis of silvicultural intensity for loblolly pine showed that as silvicultural intensity increased, so did net present value. A seed-tree deferment option actually resulted in a loss of value in this example because the seed trees are not harvested. While a seed-tree system or a plantation (clearcut system) with mechanical site preparation (MS) would both be profitable, they were not nearly as valuable as plantation systems with either chemical site prep (CS), or very intensive silviculture (INTS) with chemical site prep and herbaceous weed control. Data Source: Clason (2002).

Disadvantages

Plantations are oversimplified compared to natural stands.
- Less biodiversity
- Limited stand structures
- Limited number of cohorts
- Limited wildlife habitat at times
- Herbicide application alters ecosystem
- Less carbon stored in younger stands

Arguments supporting Plantations

Because plantations are a common point of contention among environmental advocates who may be less informed about forestry and silviculture, it is important to keep in mind several key arguments supporting the use of plantation forests. Most of these arguments focus on clarifying misconceptions about what a plantation forest is, and what services it can provide.

Production Arguments
- Plantations are an agricultural model intended to produce a widely-demanded commodity as efficiently as possible.
- More wood from less land (plantations) alleviates timber production pressures on our remaining forests.
- Wood products are a sustainably produced raw material that can be used as a building material, energy source, heat source, and feed-stock for numerous chemicals.
- Forestry is a key component of the economy in many states, accounting for billions of dollars of production and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Ecosystem Services Arguments
- Forests, even plantations, provide more ecosystem services than many alternative land uses (urban, agriculture).
- Plantations produce clean water.
- Plantations produce clean air.
- Plantations improve soil quality if managed correctly.
- Plantations sequester carbon in:
  - live trees,
  - structural materials in use, and
  - disposed paper and wood products in land-fills.
Successional Arguments
- On a landscape scale plantations provide early-successional habitat.
- Mid-rotation plantations may be attacked as biological deserts, but older or younger stands offer distinct habitats utilized by many species.

Spurious comparisons are often made between the structures and functions of plantations versus old-growth forests. Almost all the plantation acreage in the US South today resulted from reforesting abandoned and often degraded marginal agricultural lands, not from clearing old-growth forests. Plantations are thus more similar to the pre-settlement ecosystem (i.e. forests) and offer more ecosystem services when compared to realistic competing land uses such as agriculture or urban development.

Overall it should be remembered that plantation forests are neither morally right or wrong. They are one solution for intensive timber production that may be either appropriate or inappropriate in a given situation depending on the site, species, management objectives, economics, and other factors. A healthy forest requires a mixture of various stand types to meet all the demands we place on the forest. Plantations are currently an important component of our forests, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

References

Adams, D. M., R. W. Haynes, and A. J. Daigneault. 2006. Estimated timber harvest by U.S. region and ownership, 1950-2002. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PNW-GTR-659, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, OR. http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/21682

Bentley, J. 2009. Forest inventory and analysis data tables for East Texas: Report year 2008. USDA Forest Service; Southern Research Station; Spatial Data Services, Asheville, NC. https://www.fs.usda.gov/srsfia/states/texas.shtml

Clason, T. R. 2002. Cost effectiveness of natural regeneration for sustaining production continuity in commercial pine plantations. Pages 287-290 in Proceedings of the eleventh biennial southern silvicultural research conference. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–48. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/4774

Conner, R. G. and A. J. Hartsell. 2002. Forest area and condition. in D. N. Weir and J. G. Greiss, editors. Southern Forest Resources Assessment. USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Asheville, NC. http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/sustain/report/index.htm

FAO. 2007. State of the world's forests 2007. 144 pages. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0773e/a0773e00.htm

Floyd, S. L. and N. P. Kutscha. 2000. Development of softwood plantation timber in the United States. Forest Products Journal 50:20-24.

Howard, J. L. 2007. U.S. timber production, trade, consumption, and price statistics 1965 to 2005. Research Paper FPL-RP-637. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.2737/FPL-RP-637

Paquette, A. and C. Messier. 2009. The role of plantations in managing the world's forests in the Anthropocene. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 8:27-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/080116

Vance, E. D., D. A. Maguire, and R. S. Zalesny. 2010. Research strategies for increasing productivity of intensively managed forest plantations. Journal of Forestry 108:183-192. https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/36465

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