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FYI
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In the 1990s, the value of
landowner Texas timber has gone from $250 million to $500 million in 1992 to the 1997 value of $667 million and down to $538.5 million in 2000.
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Source: txforestservice.tamu.edu
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According to Texas foresters, in the early 1800s most of East Texas, from the Red
River to the Gulf coastal plain, was covered with yellow pine, hickory, elm, sweetgum, oaks, and bottomland hardwoods. By the late 1800s, the forests in the
northeastern United States had been ravaged, and lumber companies, looking for new supplies of timber, moved to the South and to Texas, specifically to the
Beaumont-Orange area. They found in Texas not only a supply of raw timber but also a growing population in need of lumber to build cities. This combination of
factors resulted in the harvesting of most of Texas's old-growth forests by 1915. According to Roger Lord, former staff forester for the Texas Forest Service, this depletion of forests led to legislation creating the Texas Department of Forestry in 1923.
By 1930 the timber industry and wildfires had taken their toll: thousands of acres of virgin forests had been logged
over, timber supplies were depleted, and the Texas lumber industry was finished.* In the 1940s and 1950s, the
introduction of fire-management practices and new technology that allowed the use of southern pine pulpwood as newsprint, combined to create a new market for Texas timber.* In the 1980s, the state experienced yet another
resurgence in demand for Texas timber, resulting in part from federal restrictions on timber harvesting in the national forests of the Northwest. These federal restrictions, which were passed to protect the habitat of the northern spotted
owl and other endangered wildlife, affected 75 percent of the nation's timber supply and caused lumber companies to
search out new unregulated supplies on private lands, specifically in the Southeast. In recent years, both the Texas
Forest Service and the timber industry have become concerned that, over the long term, demand for timber will
outpace the growth of trees. With the growing demand for timber, there is an increasing concern for the growth of pine
plantations--monocultures--called "wildlife deserts" by forest professionals.
Not only do forests provide major habitat for a wide range of species, but they also provide most of the water in the
country, contributing two-thirds of all precipitation runoff in the 48 contiguous states. They play a major role in preventing floods, and protecting watersheds from pollution.
The Texas forest industry's contribution to the state's economy is significant according to the Department of Forest
Science at Texas A&M University. The Service states that forests yield more value annually than corn, sorghum or wheat. The forest industry employs 90,000 people annually.*
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DEFINITIONS RELATED TO FORESTLANDS
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Clear-cutting:
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the felling of all trees in a designated area in one operation
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Deforestation:
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conversion of forest to other uses, such as cropland or urban development.
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Forest:
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a plant formation that is composed of trees, the crowns of which touch, so forming a continuous canopy; or, the
trees that make up a forest area.
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Old-Growth or virgin forests:
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forests that have developed over a long time without "catastrophic disturbance." Old-growth forests can have
trees that are from 300 to 1,000 years old. These forests are considered more complex in species composition and in function than young forests. In the United
States, old-growth forests are nearly all destroyed, except for those in national parks and wilderness areas.
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Temperate deciduous forest:
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deciduous summer forests are dominated by broad-leaved hardwoods. Most of the temperate forests are found in
parts of North Africa, the Russian Federation, Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States.
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Tropical rain forests:
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tropical rain forests are forests of the permanently wet tropics. The trees are evergreen, at least 30 meters
tall, rich in thick-stemmed lianes (woody, free-hanging, climbing plants) and in woody as well as herbaceous epiphytes (a plant that uses another plant, typically
a tree, for its support but not for food, such as bromeliads or orchids). Tropical forests are found in Central America, Mexico, South America, Africa, and
Southeast Asia.
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Major sources: Michael Allaby. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of
Ecology [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994]; Stephen Whitney. Western Forests: National Audubon Society Nature Guide [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997].
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Forest experts and biologists are concerned that increased demand for wood products will turn the natural
forests of East and East-Central Texas into rows of man-made pine plantation monocultures altering the ecosystem of the entire region. In fact, biologists are concerned with
the rapid replacement of natural forests with industrial, monoculture plantations throughout the southeastern United States as well as in Southeast Asia, Mexico, and
Central and South America. Pine plantations can be very profitable enterprises.
Natural forests, unlike man-made tree plantations, are biologically diverse and therefore have a great
deal of wildlife value. On the other hand, monoculture tree farms also referred to as "sterile forests" or "wildlife deserts" offer very little habitat or forage opportunities for
wildlife. Tree plantations, because they lack biological diversity, are much more susceptible to pests and disease, which in turn requires the need to use pesticides.*
- In 1975 East Texas had about 550,000 acres of pine plantation, in 1986 it had 1.2 million acres, and in 1992 it
had 4.2 million acres.*
- In 1997 Texas ranked fifth in the nation, with 3,726 private tree farms.
Even as concerns regarding monoculture plantations are being voiced, state and federal cost-share incentives are
encouraging private landowners to help increase wood fiber supplies by developing pine tree plantations. For example,
state legislation HB 1723 passed in 1997 allows open land that is converted to timber production to continue to be
appraised as open land for the next fifteen years. In addition, since 1973, the Forestry Incentives Program, created by
Congress, provides cost-share incentives to private landowners to grow pine trees in designated counties, as does
USDA's Agricultural Conservation Program. In addition to these programs, the Texas Reforestation Foundation, a
privately funded program, provides the same type of cost-share incentives to private landowners in designated Texas
counties. These programs allow the landowner to determine what trees to plant, and the majority of landowners will
plant pine trees, resulting in a monoculture forest. This type of private timber production can be very profitable.
There is some indication that private Texas landowners are looking to produce timber in a more sustainable way --to
integrate wildlife managegement with forest plantations--by shifting from monoculture to more diverse plantings.
The Southern Forest Resource Assessment released in 2001 reported that southern forests will experience a 20 to 50
percent growth reduction in pines due to ozone pollution.* In analyzing the Assessment's meaning for Texas forests,
the Texas Forest Service (TFS) concluded that "expected [hardwood and softwood] production increases combined
with growth reduction [caused by ozone] and inventory reductions caused by urbanization in Texas and the
urbanization of the southeast states have the potential to put a significant strain on our [Texas] forest resources.* In
addition,the TFS examination of the Assessment pointed out that the increase in demand for forests products will
result in a decrease of "sensitive" forest communities, such as wetlands, bottomland, pine and longleaf forest,
imperiling species that depend on these habitats.*
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FYI
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One-fifth of all wood harvested in the world ends up in paper; in Texas, in 1997,
89 percent of the timber harvested, including 90 percent of the pine and 80 percent of hardwood was used to manufacture wood products.
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The Southern Forest Resource Assessment also took a look at water quality issues
related to silviculture. Sediment from forest roads and trails are leading causes of non-point source pollution around the country; however, the Assessment concluded
that between 1988-1998 no Texas rivers or streams were impaired by silvicultural activities.
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FEDERAL, STATE, AND PRIVATE FORESTLAND - 1997
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Source: USDA, Natural Resource Inventory
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