The geographical distribution of plantation forests and land resources potentially available for pine plantations in the U.S. South

In this paper, we provide an assessment of plantation forests and private land resources potentially available for pine plantation development in 11 southern states of the United States. After a sustained growth for 50 years, plantation forests (softwood and hardwood on both private and public lands) amounted to 18 million ha or 24 percent of all timberlands in these states in 2007. The vast majority of the plantation forests were established on private lands with fast-growing loblolly pines and slash pines. While purposeful hardwood plantations were rare, there were hardwood stands growing on failed pine plantation sites. Using a two-stage Markov land use transition model, we forecast that private forest land in these states will decline about 7 percent or from 66 million ha in 1997 to 61 million ha in 2027, primarily due to urbanization, and that private pine plantations will rise nearly 40 percent from 11 million ha to 16 million ha. Further, growth in pine plantations will decline in coming decades, and states with low population and population growth have the greatest increase in plantations. These plantations, along with other woody biomass, are expected to play an important role in the emerging bio-energy sector.