Southern forests: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

In the 20 th century, southern forests changed dramatically. Those changes pale, however, when compared to what happened to the people of the region. In addition to growing over fourfold in numbers, the South’s population has urbanized, globalized, and intellectualized in 100 years. Rural and isolated in the 19 th century, they are today urban and cosmopolitan. One result has been a complete change in the approach to forestry. No longer an industrial process harvesting what nature has grown, it is now a scientifically based management process that produces a wide variety of goods and services. Thus what is happening in today’s southern forest is unlike anything that would have been imagined 100 years ago. A large part of that is due to the advances in forest science and its wholesale adoption by industrial corporations, nonindustrial forest owners, and public agencies. As the human population has grown and urbanized, however, a new threat to forest management has arisen. Urban pressures not only convert land from forest to other uses, they also pressure forest managers to eliminate practices that offend the sensibilities of urban people. This “proximity pressure” threatens to take far more forest out of sustainable management than actual land use conversion will take. In some southern areas, it may eliminate forest management entirely in the coming century. Forest science is, thus, challenged to find new ways to manage forests and communicate the values of that management in ways acceptable to urban neighbors. If they do not, they will face the reality that knowing how to manage a forest well is of little value unless there are forests where management can occur. INTRODUCTION The story of the southern forests is a rich one, told in many ways by many people. This brief review will touch on three aspects of that story—land, forests, and people. It will feature two snapshots in time—1900 and 2000—spanning a century of great change to illustrate insights that could be of some value as we enter this 21st century. The main events that shaped the land, forests, and people of the South in the last century are well known. They include: • The decline of agriculture and mining in the region, and the legacies these activities left behind on the land • The movement of the timber industry to the region • The development of professional forestry