Chapter 14: Intensive Timber Management Practices 327 Chapter 14: What are the status Intensive Timber and trends of forest management practices Management Practices in the South? Jacek P. Siry Department of Forestry, North Carolina State University production potential of forests changes Growth-and-yield analysis was Key Findings accordingly. Planting genetically the first step in the evaluation of the improved stock and applying fertilizer impact of forest investment on forest TIMBER ■ Forest management in the South and herbicide will increase growth, conditions and productivity. Capital has intensified over the past two yield and long-run timber supply. budgeting analysis, which discounts the decades, and this trend is expected This chapter assesses the status of cash flow of investments, was used to to continue. forest management in the South. It develop financial indicators such as net ■ describes both the types and extent present values (NPVs), soil expectation Intensive planted pine technology of silvicultural treatments in the region. values (SEVs), and internal rates of nearly doubles growth-and-yield It also analyzes costs and returns from return (IRRs). These measures were rates and offers superior investment intensive management practices. used to determine whether intensive returns compared to more traditional forest management generates attractive management composed only of site returns. This step was supplemented preparation and planting. Methods with results of surveys of forest owners. ■ Planted pine management Forest industry (FI), timberland intensity is expected to continue Applied approaches included management organizations (TIMOS), to grow as forest industry and statistical data analysis, growth- and nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) timberland management organizations and-yield analysis, capital budgeting owners were asked about their current increase investment on their land. analysis, and literature review. The and future management approaches. ■ Hardwood forests are managed first step in assessing the status and Results permitted inferences about less intensively in natural stands. trends of forest management practices likely future management intensities in the South involved analysis of forest and their impact on forest conditions ■ Intensive management is difficult inventory statistics. Effects of particular and productivity. and more expensive on smaller tracts; plantation management practices on increasing fragmentation of forests productivity were estimated from a in the South will exert downward forest industry survey, which served Data Sources pressure on management intensity. as a baseline for the development ■ Forestry incentives programs have of planted pine growth-and-yield Reports from USDA Forest Service supported tree planting, management tables. The survey’s results were Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) planning, and improvement of forest used to develop five planted pine units, State forestry organizations, management practices, substantially management-intensity classes. literature, industry associations, increasing planted pine area, timber Management treatments included and research cooperatives were the production returns, and environ- site preparation, planting of genetically primary data sources for the analysis. mental benefits. improved seedlings, applications of Two most recent rounds of FIA fertilizer and herbicide, and thinning. surveys (with the exception of Introduction The TAUYIELD model was used to Kentucky, where only 1988 FIA evaluate effects of these management survey data were available) were treatments on growth and yield. used to determine the status and Timber harvests in the South have TAUYIELD is a stand-level growth- trends of specific forest management taken advantage of a substantial and-yield model for unthinned and practices that can be observed and accumulation of forest-growing stock thinned loblolly pine plantations recorded on sample plots. For all States, and considerable investment in timber (Amateis and others 1995). The model except Kentucky, the latest FIA survey growing over the past four decades. estimates number of trees, average measurement year is in the 1990s. As some forest owners adopt more height, basal area, and volume by The earlier of the FIA surveys were intensive forest management, the diameter at breast height (d.b.h.) class. conducted between 1982 and 1989. 328 Southern Forest Resource Assessment Average measurement years for the in both site preparation and burning In particular, the North Carolina latest and earlier rounds of the FIA categories. This situation raises some State Forest Nutrition Cooperative surveys are 1993 and 1986, concerns with double counting in site (2000) provided information about respectively. preparation and burning categories and fertilizer application. Forest owner Management practices represented the confusion of prescribed burning surveys by the Southern Forest by FIA data include clearcutting, with wildfires. In Kentucky, burning Resources Assessment Consortium partial cutting, thinning, timber stand disturbance was recorded without (SOFAC) and the American Forest improvement (TSI), site preparation, notation of purpose, and no thinning, and Paper Association (AF&PA) burning, planting, and natural regen- timber stand improvement, or site provided information about manage- eration. Because there were some preparation information was noted. ment intensities on FI, TIMOS, and differences between the Southeast Finally, adjustments had to be made NIPF timberlands (Moffat and others region (Florida, Georgia, North in developing Southwide planting and 1998, Siry 1998, Siry and Cubbage Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia) natural regeneration estimates. In the 2001, Siry and others 2001). and the South-Central region Southeast, FIA recorded information The surveys and literature review (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, about planting, afforestation, and provided information on multiple- Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, natural regeneration. The same use intentions and outcomes, “no Tennessee, Texas) and between information was not available for active management” approaches, particular States in defining manage- the South Central. Planting and and forestry incentives programs. ment practices and data collection natural regeneration rates there were Where possible, information was standards, some adjustments had to developed using stand origin and age provided by ownership group. FIA TIMBER be made to develop Southwide forest variables. This approach yielded only data provided information for management practices categories. approximate results because FIA used public (PB), forest industry (FI, In the Southeast, partial cutting, regression results to assign stand ages includes company and leased land), seed-tree cutting, and salvage cutting to sample plots that originally were miscellaneous corporate (MC), and categories were merged into one in a mixed-age category. These NIPF owner groups. SOFAC and partial cutting category that corre- problems and assumptions indicate AF&PA surveys provided information sponds to the South Central’s partial that the results based on FIA data for FI, TIMOS, and NIPF owners. cutting category. Similarly, in the South are only moderately accurate. Central, thinning, commercial thinning, Since FIA data provide no infor- Results and precommercial thinning categories mation about the use of genetically were merged into one thinning category improved stock, fertilizer and that corresponds to the Southeast’s herbicide application, or uneven- Forest management in the South has thinning category. aged silviculture, other information intensified over the past two decades. Practices associated with intensive In the Southeast prescribed burning sources had to be used. These data sources include industry associations, forest management are used more was classified, depending on purpose, frequently and on larger areas than as site preparation or other prescribed research cooperatives reports, and forest owner surveys. ever before. These practices include burning, whereas in the South clearcutting, partial cutting, TSI, Central burning could be included Table 14.1—Current status and trends in annual use of forest management practices by forest type based on FIA data Forest management type Change Planted Natural Upland Bottomland Not between Treatment pine pine Oak-pine hardwood hardwood stocked Total FIA surveys - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Thousand acres per year - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Percent Clearcut 435.1 188.4 347.4 778.4 266.9 6.4 2,022.7 9.5 Partial cut 344.4 577.2 663.2 1,322.3 395.8 6.2 3,309.2 12.4 Thinning 308.2 179.8 97.6 46.7 10.5 0 642.8 2.5 TSI 285.1 362.7 163.2 116.5 12.4 1.5 941.5 74.4 Site prep. 709.0 66.4 195.7 179.5 28.8 3.4 1,182.7 1.0 Burning 667.7 761.2 409.2 392.1 53.5 4.8 2,288.5 -3.5 Planting 1,237.1 NA 226.0 165.7 12.4 2.0 1,643.3 25.2 Natural regen. NA 300.2 319.1 815.7 242.9 23.5 1,701.5 18.0 TSI = timber stand improvement. Chapter 14: Intensive Timber Management Practices 329 planting and natural regeneration, and larger hardwood component are TSI operations are carried out on chemical applications. Thinning and classified as oak-pine. If this indeed about 940,000 acres annually. This area site preparation experienced smaller is the case, then planted pine clearcut has increased by about 74 percent increases, while burning became less area would be similar to upland hard- between the FIA surveys. The largest common.