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THE TIMBER SUPPLY
SITUATION in
: Florida
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FOREST SERVICE
United States Department of Agriculture
Forest Resource Report No. 6
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance received from
C. H. Coulter, State Forester, and his staff in facilitating the survey of
the timber resource and in providing additional men to collect forest
industry data in the field.
The Division of Forest Economics is under the immediate direction
of James W. Cruikshank. The timber inventory work in the field was under
the supervision of Mackay B. Bryan. Photo interpretation work was done
by N. F. Force, R. C. Aldrich, and R. W. Cooper. Sample plot work was
under the direction of Fritz Lorentzen, E. W. Vetter, M. W. McClure,
W. A. McCarty, H. W. Allen, E. A. Schluter, Ben Juskie, and F. S. Hill.
The drain survey was under the supervision of James F. McCormack.
Field work was done by M. B. Bryan, N. F. Force, R. C. Aldrich, Fritz
Lorentzen, and several members of the Florida Forest Service.
Office compilation of the data was under the direction of Miss Agnes
Creasman, assisted by Mrs. Christine Paxton, Miss Priscilla Walker, and
Miss Camilla Young.
SVErLeED SHtATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
FOREST RESOURCE REPORT NO. 6 WASHINGTON, D. C., 1952
EThe Timber Supply Situation
In Florida
77? ° KE
ROBERT W. LARSON, forest economist
SOUTHEASTERN FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION
FOREST SERVICE
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE * WASHINGTON « 1952
SAI Se aA eg DA en AT ree NN PE
FOR SALE BY THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS, WASHINGTON, 25, D. C., PRICE 70 CENTS
Preface
HROUGH the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928, Congress authorized the Secre-
[2 of Agriculture to conduct a comprehensive survey of the forest resources
of the United States. The Forest Survey was organized by the Forest Service to carry out
the provisions of the Act through the Regional Forest Experiment Stations. In the South-
eastern States the Forest Survey is an activity of the Division of Forest Economics of the
Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, Asheville, N. C.
The five-fold purpose of the Forest Survey is (1) to make a field inventory of the
present supply of standing timber, (2) to ascertain the rate at which this supply is being
increased through growth, (3) to determine the rate at which it is being reduced through
industrial and domestic uses, fire and other causes, (4) to determine the present consump-
tion and the probable future trend in requirements for forest products, and (5) to interpret
and correlate these findings to aid in the formulation of private and public policies of
forest land management.
Results of the Forest Survey are published in a series of reports that supply information
needed for planning a long-time program for timber production and some localized infor-
mation of use in guiding forest industry development. In this report no attempt is made to
fully evaluate the use of forests for wildlife, recreation, or grazing; these uses are discussed
only as they affect the timber supply.
Florida was inventoried by the Forest Survey in the period 1934-36 and reports
presenting the findings have been published. Since then, cutting, forest growth, better fire
protection, better forest management, changes in land use, and other factors have caused
changes in the forest growing stock that can only be measured accurately by on-the-ground
surveys. [he information presented here is based upon a resurvey of the State, made
between June 1948 and July 1949. It furnishes the background for an understanding of
the present forest conditions in Florida and focuses attention upon the principal forest
problems and what needs to be done to solve them.
Il
Contents
YYY— ; KKK
Page Page
Summary. Of Sutveys HNGings 27.6 coe ecee a ieiese sid» acotee deities 1 Reasons why forest conditions are poor—continued
What:forests:mean' to Florida. 226. ec ieee oe ee 5 Grazing-and: timber: growing ...14 6. Give lees « oaks 39
Forests support a 200-million-dollar industry........ 5 Gum production and timber yields................. 41
Pulp and paper industry growing................... B) Cutting practices and forest conditions............. 43
Use of timber in Florida. co.6...00 00sec cue cee 7 ge Pe Terese Page Hers ae es Ge
eimbercusedforslumbersss ei. at eds ones see wens 7 What meedsto:bedone sires. aac. salou cimoes 46
imber*usedstor. pulpwoods 2. vigor ei coe chess 10 $ :
ieednee ced orolice wood produce = 2 = WW Ihiterature .citedie Soe oa aes Pak he bean eee a eA: 51
Timber used for naval stores............0:.00000005 13 Appendixisnaiceinions ena ty oman See a iceauie neni 52
Blorida‘s-timber -supplys.2c wert oes eee ahs ce ete oe 16 Survey mICinOds BetGey setinee et aoe anes eR eT 52
Drainvin-relationctossupply-. sce sk wie ee este es 16 ne Ses te Seal oe eee Oia eee ae eer a2
; 5 Volume estimates canciones cee he ee eee 52
rends-n:the-timber supply- 222. .)cete aib oe os bet 18 ;
Timber supply for naval stores ..............--0000. 20 prowen See Re aA aa Seek ay eager ere anaes me
Draimsestimates sc ee ia ae eis yea en 53
Forest land can grow much more timber.............. 23 Piublicdand ownership es egos ays ee ee 54
Two-thirds of land is forested..................0... 23 Definitions -of=terms used 2.2/5.5.) ases ee a ees 54
‘Pine-forests-most-abundant:<.... fei ee sweetie ees 24 Wand=tise classesisnn ncn sh ck wiceien «cine serra noes one 54
Half the forest land fair to good quality ............, 26 FOreststypesinttssie oe an ori ate eee Aes eee ainange es 55
Timber yields could be greatly increased............ 29 Standesize classes. 4a). 5 esc Miocene ale 55
5 es : Diameterss is ee oss Mario ge ieee ace aa eae aes 55
Horesis imepoor condition ‘to stow timber Re aes ae cee 30 Mreevclassificationiss yee gone va eee ee ae 55
More than half the forest land is poorly stocked..... 30 Species shone es 56
ploreuhanes tind ef the live (trees are culls 2-25 30 Volume estimates: i455 2202s ee oe eee as BS 56
Saoase of large timber See es pete ee ae 31 Gumi naval, stores: conditions <0) \e sisi liie este ois elle 56
Fine types decreasing, hardwoods increasing... ..... 32 Stocking) aan eee s seine bre tan wintesen eee ess 56
Harge number of worked-out trees.......-....+..--: 34 Growth andvdrain 25a Se ae en es es eee 56
Reasons why forest conditions are poor................ 35 Common and botanical names of principal tree species 57
Fire—the number one problem..................... 35 Forest: survey: standard: “tables fide ines Saisie cco cate 58
I!
Summary of Survey Findings
YMY—
Florida’s forests are among the State’s top-ranking
sources of income. In 1947, they provided the base
for the leading group of manufacturing industries
in the State, and were the most important source of
industrial employment.
Since the time Florida’s timber resources were first
inventoried during the years 1934 to 1936, the timber
supply and the dependent forest industries have un-
dergone a number of significant changes. These are
high lighted by a new survey, completed in 1949.
KKK
iSALES OF FINISHED |
FOREST PRODUCTS
VALUED AT
$200 MILLION
PRIMARY
FOREST PRODUCTS
VALUED AT
$56 MILLION
FLORIDA'S
FORESTS
GROSS PROFITS
AMOUNTING TO
$30 MILLION
24 THOUSAND
JOBS
The decline in production of
several forest products in Florida
is especially noteworthy. Between
1936 and 1948, lumber produc-
DECREASE IN COMMODITY DRAIN : :
tion dropped a third. In 1948,
DRAIN ON SAW-TIMBER SIZE TREES DOWN 36 PERCENT
EET:
RE Tae
LIO
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
the production of veneer logs and
bolts, hewn ties, fence posts, and
fuel wood was also below that of
1936. On the other hand, during
this period, pulpwood production
increased nearly sixfold, and that
of poles and piling more than
doubled. However, these in-
creases failed to offset the de-
creases in other products; the net
result was a decrease in commod-
ity drain on both all timber 5.0
inches and larger and saw tim-
ber. Also, the production of gum
naval stores declined during this
period.
PERCENT DECREASE IN
VOLUME OF SAW TIMBER
IN FLORIDA BETWEEN
1934-36 AND I949
CYPRESS-|I8
HARDWOODS - 36
DECREASE IN ©
TIMBER MORTALITY
BETTER
FIRE
DOUBLING OF THE
NUMBER OF 2- AND
4-INCH PINES
PROTECTION
IMPROVED
| TURPENTINING | ==
| PRACTICES
31 PERCENT
INCREASE IN
THE NUMBER OF
POLE SIZE: TREES
BETTER
CUTTING
PRACTICES 24 PERCENT
INCREASE IN THE
NUMBER OF
IO-INCH PINES
At least partially responsible for this decrease in
the production of several forest products was the
decline in timber volume which took place between
surveys. These volume losses were confined almost
entirely to the larger and better-quality timber.
Practically all of the decrease in pine volume took
place in the central and southern parts of the State,
and, to a large extent, is attributable to clearing for-
est land for crops and pasture. The volume of pine,
hardwood, and cypress pole timber increased, but not
enough to offset the decline in saw timber. All in all,
the 1949 survey revealed a 9-percent drop in the
volume.of all timber 5.0 inches and larger.
The amount of young timber increased, largely
as a result of improved forest practices. However, a
large part of this increase took place on a relatively
small area, much of which was already well stocked.
At the same time, losses due to timber mortality
dropped. Better fire protection has permitted large
areas to restock. The smaller number of trees worked
for gum, the virtual elimination of the practice of
working trees under 9.0 inches, and the utilization of
small worked-out timber for pulpwood have reduced
pine timber mortality to 14 percent of what it was
in 1936.
Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
Although growth has increased, a large share of it
is concentrated on trees under 12 inches; the larger
size timber is still being cut faster than it is being
_ replaced by growth. Also, a large part of this growth
_is on widely scattered trees in stands too thinly
_ stocked to be logged profitably.
This increase in growth, coupled with the reduction
in commodity drain, appears to have arrested, tem-
porarily at least, the downward trend in timber vol-
ume. A surplus of growth over drain was achieved in
1948, but at a very low level of forest productivity.
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
INCREASE
IN
YOUNG TIMBER
DECREASE IN
TIMBER
MORTALITY
DECREASE IN
COMMODITY
DRAIN
12 MILLION
ACRES OF
POORLY STOCKED
AND UNSTOCKED
FOREST LAND
TWO MILLION
ACRES OF
SCRUB OAK
14 PERCENT
DECREASE
IN PINE TYPES
SHORTAGE OF
LARGE TIMBER
LARGE NUMBER
OF WORKED-OUT
TURPENTINE
TREES
LARGE VOLUME
OF CULL
HARDWOODS
DOUBLING OF
GROWING-STOCK
GROWTH
70 PERCENT
INCREASE IN SAW-
TIMBER GROWTH
SURPLUS
OF GROWTH
OVER DRAIN
IN 1948
AVERAGE ANNUAL
GROWTH PER
ACRE OF ONLY
65 BOARD FEET
OR 0.3 CORD
oo
| REDUCTION IN
FIRE DAMAGE
+
GRAZING
INTEGRATED
WITH TIMBER
PRODUCTION
NAVAL STORES
INTEGRATED
WITH TIMBER
PRODUCTION
IMPROVE D
CUTTING
PRACTICES
STEPPED UP
PLANTING
PROGRAM
METHOD OF
RESTOCKING
POOR-QUALITY
LAND
BETTER USE
OF AVAILABLE
TIMBER
GUIDED
DEVELOPMENT
OF FOREST
INDUSTRIES
ae
GREATER
PROSPERITY
FOR FLORIDA
Florida has 21.5 million acres of commercial forest
land, but because of poor forest conditions, present
growth on this area is only a fraction of the timber-
growing capacity. Florida could easily grow 150
board feet per acre per year, or 0.6 cord.
Perhaps even more important than past changes
and the present poor condition of the forest stands is
this—many of the factors that produced the poor
conditions are still active. In spite of the improve-
ment in forest practices since the first survey, indis-
criminate and careless burning of the woods, poor
naval stores practices, and poor cutting practices are
still prevalent enough in Florida to perpetuate many
undesirable forest conditions. Continuation of these
practices threatens to retard further progress. Correc-
tive action along the lines suggested in the chart
needs to be stepped up.
Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture |
What Forests Mean to Florida
YHY—
LORIDA’S FORESTS are among. the
State’s top-ranking sources of income. In
value, primary forest products rank with the
leading farm products and supply the main source of
income to many small communities. In 1948, the
gross cash income of Florida farmers from livestock
and livestock products was 105 million dollars; from
truck crops 89 million, and from citrus crops 72 mil-
lion (7).1 The value of primary forest products was
56 million dollars.
These forest products represent an array of commod-
ities with sawlogs, pulpwood bolts, and gum for naval
stores products heading the list in value (table 1).
Other important commodities include veneer logs and
bolts, pine stumps, fuel wood, piling, poles, hewn ties,
and fence posts.
TasLe 1.—Value of primary forest products, Florida, 1948
Product Value
Million dollars Percent
WA WO LSM a ea ye ee 19 34
Bulpwoodsbolts=== f= sss 2s Soe 15 27
Gum-for naval stores==——— === --2--2 7 13
' Veneer logs and bolts___-___-_-_--_- 4 7
Pine stumps ss) ee 3 5
pee bititeliw ood ieee ee ae a Se 3 5
©ther‘forest: products: === ===. == 2 = 5 9
TiO Gall See th eh a ee 56 100
"Forests Support A 200-Million-Dollar
Industry
Forests provide the base for the leading group of
manufacturing industries in the State. The wholesale
manufactured value of the principal forest products
in 1948 amounted to 200 million dollars, and ac-
counted for about a fifth of the sale value of all
manufactured products.
1Ttalic numbers in parentheses refer to Literature Cited,
p. dl.
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
KKK
Industries entirely or partially dependent upon
forests for raw material are the most important
source of industrial employment. In 1947, about 3
out of every 10 manufacturing workers were em-
ployed in forest industries. The 24 thousand jobs
(25) they provide furnish the major means of liveli-
hood to at least 85 thousand people.
In 1948, the wood-using industries outranked all
others in number of firms, payrolls, income, and
profit (/2). Only in sales value and plant equipment
value were the forest industries topped; in this they
ranked second only to food and kindred products.
Of the 1,104 wood-using firms in 1948, 913 manu-
factured lumber and allied products. This group of
industries headed the list of forest industries in plant
and equipment value, number of employees, payrolls,
profits, income, and sales. The pulp and paper indus-
try, with only 31 firms, ranked a close second, and
in wholesale manufactured value of products it ex-
ceeded the lumber industry.
Pulp and Paper Industry Growing
Between 1939 and 1947, the value added by the
manufacture of forest products tripled. In spite of
this gain, their relative importance among all indus-
tries did no change, since other industries made com-
parable gains. However, the make-up of the forest
changes. Chief
among these was the growing importance of the pulp
and paper industries and the decline of the lumber
industries (fig. 1).
industries underwent _ significant
The rise of the pulp and paper industry has not
only meant more jobs, but better-paid jobs. The
average yearly earnings per employee in 1947 in the
manufacture of paper and allied products was $2,726,
compared, to $2,146 for all industries and $1,642 for
the lumber industry (table 2).
Although a complete shift to pulpwood production
at the expense of lumber production would not be
desirable or probable, the pulp and paper industry
FOREST
INDUSTRY VALUE ADDED BY MANUFACTURE
LUMBER AND PRODUCTS
10
PERCENT
Ficure 1.—Percentage of the total value added by all man-
ufacture, by major forest industry, Florida, 1939 and
1947. (Source: Bureau of the Census.)
in Florida does provide a desirable stabilizing influ-
ence in the forest industries, which neither the old
large “‘cut-out-and-get-out” band mills nor the pres-
ent small sawmills have been able to give.
TaBLE 2.—Number of employees, salaries and wages, and
average yearly earnings per employee for selected manu-
facturing industries, Florida, 19471
Salaries |Average yearly
Industry Employees and earnings per
wages employee
Million
Thousands| Percent | dollars Dollars
Food and kindred products__ 19.6 25 43.0 2,197
Lumber and products____-_~_ 15.7 20 25.8 1,642
Tobacco manufactures _____ 8.7 11 13)-2 1,510
Paper and allied products___ Said! 7 15.5 2,726
Furniture and fixtures______ Drak 3 4.7 2,296
All other industries________-_ 26.9 34 66.6 2,476
All-industries= =o 25 = 78.7 100 168.8 2,146
1 Data from Bureau of the Census.
6 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
Use of Timber in Florida
YHY
LORIDA’S forest industries make heavy de-
mands upon the timber resource. Some 684
sawmills, distributed from Pensacola to the
Keys, cut more than one-half billion board feet of
lumber annually, 8 large pulp mills consume at least
a million cords of wood each year, veneer plants use
nearly 100 million board feet of logs to make crates
and boxes for citrus and truck crops, and wood naval
stores plants in Florida and adjoining States annu-
ally harvest nearly three-fourths of a million tons
of old-growth stumps. Nearly 14 million trees are
chipped for their gum, Millions more are cut for
hewn cross ties, poles, piles, fence posts, and fuel
wood. All together, the production of these various
forest products resulted, in 1948, in the cutting of
937 million board feet of saw timber and 2.7 million
cords of wood from trees 5.0 inches d.b.h.* and larger,
including saw timber.
Z ec definition of terms used in this report, see appendix
Sawlogs and pulpwood are the principal products
(fig. 2). These, together with veneer bolts and hewn
cross ties, accounted for 94 percent of the total vol-
ume of wood cut in 1948 from sound trees. Of the
timber cut 81 percent was pine, 8 percent was cy-
press, and 11 percent various species of hardwoods.
The amount of wood cut from Florida’s forests
has decreased since 1936, largely as a result of the
decline in the lumber industry. In spite of tremen-
dous wartime demands for lumber, the total cubic
volume of timber cut in 1944 was 2 percent less than
in 1936. By 1948 the volume cut had dropped to 14
percent below 1936. This is in sharp contrast to some
of the other Southern States. In South Carolina, for
example, commodity drain in 1942 was 42 percent
above 1936 and still was 25 percent above the 1936
level in 1946.
Timber Used for Lumber
In spite of the decline in the lumber industry,
timber cut for sawlogs is still the biggest item of
| pRobucT AGE SPEGIES PINE
SAWLOGS
PULPWOOD
VENEER LOGS
HEWN TIES
POLES & PILING
FUELWOOD
OTHER
PERCENT
PERCENT
Ficure 2.—Distribution of commodity drain in Florida, by forest product, 1948. (Percentages based on cubic-foot volume.)
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
7
commodity drain upon. Florida’s forests. Sawlog
drain for the production of lumber amounted to 515
million board feet in 1948, or 55 percent of the
commodity drain upon sound live saw timber.
In 1948, 684 sawmills in Florida (fig. 3) produced
571 million board feet of lumber, including sawn
cross ties. Practically all of this lumber was cut from
sawlogs harvested within the State, but about 34
million feet of logs were imported from Alabama and
Georgia. Some lumber was also cut from the top
portion of the bole that was not considered as of
sawlog quality by the survey.
A rather high proportion of the lumber was cut
by medium-size and large mills (fig. 4); more than
a third of all the lumber produced in 1948 was sawn
by 17 mills cutting 5 million board feet or more.
Forty mills cutting 3 million or more produced more
than one-half (table 3). This is in contrast to many
of the other Southern States. In South Carolina, for
instance, mills cutting 3 million feet or more in 1946
accounted for only 27 percent of the total cut.
A large number of the small sawmills (annual
production less than 5 million feet) together produce
very little lumber; 400 small mills cut only 6.2 per-
Ne ge! e soa ee ao ee
PRODUCTION
IN
THOUSAND BOARD FEET
1948
Idle
1 to 999
1,000 to 2,999
3,000 to 4,999
5,000 to 9,999
10,000 or more
x Bae
tent 3
aATESS.
Ras
Figure 3.—Location and size of Florida sawmills, 1948.
8 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture \1
TaBLe 3.—Lumber production by mill-size class, Florida, 1948
Mill-size class Active : : S 4
(ied dice per wean) atts Pine Cypress Cedar Hardwoods Total
Thousand Thousand Thousand Thousand Thousand
Number bd. ft. bd. ft. bd. ft. bd. ft. bd. ft. Percent
e200 meee Sc ree BaP ane a 404 29,710 3,620 84 2,069 35,483 6.2
B00-A99 Marwan SRO Sg 68 21, 266 1,919 520 1,582 25,287 4.4
BO0-999 scene aerate tere 68 40,677 3,221 45 1,706 45,649 8.0
MOOS 2109 Osea SES MN gu cet a ces 104 152,858 14,297 186 5,348 172,689 30.3
Bi OOO-AyO9O waza Ea 23 66,441 1,574) os eS aes 5,095 83,110 14.6
B.000\and overs. 222 58S 17 137,376 54,781 15 16,356 208, 528 36.5
qo tal ee enstie oy Sonnet 684 448,328 89,412 850 32,156 570,746 100.0
cent of the total. The trend, however, is toward 1909, accounted for 55 percent in 1942 and 63 per-
more of these smaller mills (table 4). As the old- cent in 1948.
growth timber is cut out, the remaining small and The number of larger mills has not changed much
‘scattered timber is more suitable for small portable- in the past few years, but the mortality rate of big
mill operation. The result is that the small mills, mills was particularly high during the early forties.
which as a group sawed 30 percent of the lumber in Between 1942 and 1948, four plants which had an-
F — 433870
Figure 4.—Medium-size and large sawmills cut a relatively high proportion of Florida’s lumber in 1948. More than a third
was produced by 17 mills.
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida 9
Taste 4.—Number of Florida sawmills by size for
selected years
Annual production
OMe Ba fED | 1909 1942 1948
Number Number Number
Under5:;'000 2225-3 Se 396 391 667
5000-105 0002-25 es see eee 40 9
OverslOF000S22 22a e aes 35 11 7
shotalt sen ee be ee 471 411 684
nually produced 10 million feet and more closed
down. These were among the last survivors of the
group of large band mills built for the purpose of
cutting out a particular body of old-growth timber.
In 1909, there were 35 such mills; in 1948, there
were 7.
The increased number of small sawmills has not
been able to offset the loss of production resulting
from the shutting down of several of the larger mills.
Lumber production rose rapidly around the turn of
the century, and reached a peak of 1.2 billion board
feet in 1909. Production held around a billion board
feet a year until 1929; since then the general trend
has been downward. In 1930, with a large part of
the old-growth timber cut out and a major depression
well under way, lumber production dropped abruptly
and in 1932 reached a low of only 420 million board
feet. A gradual recovery was made until, in 1936,
860 million board feet was produced (fig. 5). This
has remained the high point in spite of the intense
demands of World War II and the postwar construc-
tion boom, which in neighboring Georgia and Ala-
bama sent production soaring to almost double the
prewar level. During the war years the trend in
Florida was steadily downward. Some recovery was
evident by 1946, but both the 1947 and 1948 cuts
were again lower.
The bulk of the lumber cut in Florida has always
been pine. Pine lumber production has varied from
more than 90 percent of the total cut during the
first decade of the 20th century to less than 70 per-
cent in 1931 and during the late thirties. For the
most part, however, the proportion has: remained
close to 80 percent. In 1948, it was 78 percent.
Florida is the Nation’s leading producer of cy-
press lumber. In -1947, Florida cut 28 percent of the
total cut in the country, compared to 16 percent by
the second ranking State, Louisiana.: Prior to 1912,
cypress lumber production accounted for about 8
percent of the total lumber cut in the State. In gen-
eral, the proportion has varied between 10 and 20
MILLION
BOARD
FEET
aed cee)
2,000
10}
1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948
YEAR
Figure 5.—Total lumber production in Alabama, Florida,
and Georgia, 1936-48.
percent since that date, although it did top 20 per-
cent during the middle twenties and again during
the late thirties. In 1948, lumber sawn from cypress
accounted for 16 percent of the total.
Hardwood lumber has always made up a very
small part of the total lumber cut. Up until 1928,
lumber cut from hardwood timber accounted for
only | or 2 percent of the total. Since then the pro-
portion has varied between 5 and 10 percent; in 1948
it was 6 percent.
In 1948, Taylor County ranked as the number-one
producer of lumber, accounting for 13 percent of the
total production in the State. Escambia County was
second with 5 percent, followed by Duval, Polk,
Marion, Alachua, and Hillsborough, each with slight-
ly more than 4 percent. These seven counties pro-
duced two-fifths of all the lumber sawn in Florida.
Timber Used for Pulpwood
The first Florida pulp mill went into production
in 1931, followed by three more in 1938 and increas-
ing to a total of eight mills distributed across northern
Florida in 1948 (fig. 6). Since 1936 the amount of
timber cut for pulpwood has increased nearly sixfold’
and in 1948 nearly equalled the amount of timber
cut for sawlogs (fig. 7). Annual pulpwood produc-
tion more than doubled in the period 1939 through
1948, and in 1948 totaled 1,221,000 cords (fig. 8).
10 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
* ORL a
LEGEND
Pulp mills
Veneer plants
Cooperage plants
Treating plants - pressure
Treating plants - other
Wood naval stores plants
Other plants
ge iste at
XX
JEP comes N A | Mw
>)
a
\ *
CHARLOTTE
ie
Lee
J
Figure 6.—Location of primary wood-using plants in Florida, excluding sawmills, 1948.
To a large extent, the pulp mills compete directly
with the sawmills for the available supply of timber.
All but a fifth of the pulpwood cut in 1948 was from
trees of saw-timber size, i.e., pine trees 9.0 inches and
larger, and half of it was from trees 11.0 inches and
larger—the size of timber from which 90 percent of
the sawlog volume is cut.
An increasing number of tops formerly left in the
woods following logging operations are being used
for pulpwood; in 1948 tops accounted for 15 percent
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
of the total pulpwood production. In Florida, virtual-
ly all of the pulpwood is cut from pine.
Timber Used for Other Wood Products
Such products as fuel wood, fence posts, and farm
timbers, which, for the most part, are cut on the
farm for use by the farmer, constitute a very small
drain on the forest. Although fuel wood accounted
for 10 percent of the total volume cut for primary
forest products in 1948, it accounted for less than
1]
Fo Lastlhen tice nemrpronainmmonncinecemnentneunctne
F—430115
Ficure 7.—In 1948, timber cut for pulpwood in Florida accounted for 38 percent of the commodity drain on the forest,
nearly equalling the amount cut for sawlogs.
2 percent of the commodity drain on the forest. The
reason for this is that only 13 percent of the 352,000
cords of fuel wood was cut from sound live trees of
commercial species. Almost one-half was from dead
material, mainly pine stumps, fallen branches, and
dead trees. One-fourth of the fuel-wood production
was from cull trees and scrub oak.
Wood is still the most used fuel for heating rural
homes, but the use of other fuels is becoming in-
creasingly common. Also, in recent years most of the
tobacco farmers have converted to oil for tobacco
curing. As a result, production of fuel wood in 1948
was only 27 percent as great as in 1936.
The production of all other wood products ex-
a : : eal cept pulpwood, poles, and piling followed the down-
(9)
1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945° 1946 1947 1948 ward trend of lumber. Between 1936 and 1948, the
YEAR a ;
production of veneer logs and bolts from Florida
Figure 8.—Pulpwood production, Florida, 1939-48. timber dropped 28 percent, the production of hewn
12 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
ties by 56 percent. Fence-post production fell off 39
percent. 7
The production of poles and piling has more than
tripled since 1936, mainly because of the accelerated
demand for poles in the construction of rural electric-
transmission lines and the greater use of smaller
poles.
Timber used by 27 miscellaneous plants in making
a wide variety of products, such as handles, laths,
shingles, and shuttle blocks, accounts for about 1
percent of the commodity drain on the forest.
Timber Used for Naval Stores
The production of naval stores does not constitute
a commodity drain on what is normally regarded as
the timber supply. However, this industry is an im-
portant part of Florida’s forest products industries,
to be considered in the over-all picture. Further-
more, naval stores operations greatly affect both
growth and quality of pine timber in the State, as
well as forest practices in general, and in this way
indirectly influence the timber supply.
Naval stores include two primary products, tur-
pentine and rosin. In the past, these were obtained
entirely from the crude gum of slash pine and long-
leaf pine (fig. 9) and from pitch-soaked pine wood,
including old-growth stumps. However, in fairly re-
cent years an increasing quantity of sulfate turpen-
tine is produced as a byproduct of the pulping proc-
ess. In the naval stores season ending March 1950,
48 percent of the turpentine in the United States
was produced from crude gum, 30 percent from
pine stumps and lightwood, and 22 percent from
pulpwood (19). About 46 percent of the rosin is pro-
duced from crude gum and the remainder from
dead pine wood (1/9).
a7
F — 426184
Ficure 9.—The trend in gum production in Florida is downward. In the 1948-49 season only 14 million trees were being
| worked, compared to 36 million in 1936.
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
13
Tall oil, a byproduct of the sulfate (Kraft) pulp-
ing process and a substitute for rosin, especially in
the manufacture of soaps and in the processing of
molds for metalworking, is an important recent addi-
tion to the family of naval stores products. Since
1944, the national production of tall oil has amount-
ed to about 10 percent of the weight of rosin pro-
duced. An important part of this tall-oil production
comes from the Kraft pulp mills in Florida (22).
The total annual production of turpentine and
rosin in the South has remained fairly constant since
1900. However, the amount produced from crude
gum has steadily declined. In 1920, more than 90
percent of the turpentine and rosin produced in the
United States was derived from crude gum (26).
In the late thirties the proportion dropped to less
than 80 percent, and in the 1946-47 season it was
below 50 percent. In Florida the production of tur-
pentine from crude gum dropped from 8.3 million
gallons in 1922 to 3.0 million in 1950 (26, 19).
This decline in production is reflected in the re-
duced number of trees being worked for turpentine.
EACH DOT
REPRESENTS AN AVERAGE
OF 100,000 FACES
cele aes .
Ficure 10.—Distribution of working naval stores faces, Florida, 1949-50.
14 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
In 1934-36, 36 million trees were faced in Florida;
by the 1948-49 season, only 14 million trees were
faced. During this period production has declined
less in Northeast Florida (fig. 10) than in other sec-
tions of the State. Three-fourths of the working trees
are now located there, compared to two-thirds at
the time of the first Forest Survey.
Several factors contribute to the decline in gum
production. One is the competition of the wood
naval stores industry with the gum naval stores in-
dustry for relatively limited markets. Improvements
in processing techniques along with the development
of highly mechanized methods of extracting stumps
have made it possible for the wood naval stores indus-
try to market products approximately comparable in
price and quality with products made from crude
gum. At the same time, the cost of producing gum has
gone up—especially the cost of labor, which accounts
for two-thirds of the cost of making a barrel of gum
(21). To keep laborers from seeking work in the
growing industrial sections, it has become necessary
for gum producers to pay higher wages for a shorter
working day. Also, the production of gum naval stores
is not easily adapted to the alternate periods of over-
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
supply and undersupply accompanied by extreme
price fluctuations which characterize the naval stores
industry. As wood naval stores industries captured a
larger and larger share of the market, the production
of crude gum became increasingly less attractive as
a financial venture. In view of these developments,
which have taken place in the past two decades,
many gum producers decided to reduce their crops
or turn to other occupations. The result has been a
steady decline in the number of faces worked.
Two types of plants use old-growth longleaf and
slash pine stumps, and other pitch-soaked wood. De-
structive-distillation plants produce pine tar, pine oil,
charcoal, and a small amount of turpentine by plac-
ing the wood in retorts and subjecting it to intense
heat. Steam-distillation plants use chips from stumps
and resinous stem wood, which is first steamed to
remove the turpentine and other volatile oil and
then boiled in solvents to remove the rosin. In 1948,
there were three destructive-distillation plants and
one large steam-distillation plant in Florida. These
and plants outside the State used more than 700,000
tons of pine stump wood.
15
Florida’s Timber Supply
KKK
DY
Drain in Relation to Supply
LL TOGETHER, Florida has more than 140
million cords of live timber 5.0 inches and
larger (table 5). Not all of this volume,
however, is equally well suited to filling rather spe-
cific timber needs of the forest industries. Almost a
third of it has little or no commercial value, because
more than half of the hardwood volume and a fourth
of the cypress volume is in cull trees and in the top
portion of saw-timber trees. This material may have
a potential use for fibre or chemical products, but at
present it is suitable mainly for fuel wood. Ninety-
four percent of the live timber used for primary
forest products in 1948 came from pole-timber trees,
the sawlog portion of saw timber, and the upper
stems of pine saw timber.
Pines are most heavily cut in relation to the sup-
ply. In 1948, the commodity drain on sound, live
pine timber 5.0 inches and larger amounted to 4.5
percent of the growing-stock volume measured in
cubic feet, compared with 1.6 percent for cypress
and cedar and 1.3 percent for hardwoods.
The supply of large timber of all species is espe-
cially low in relation to the demand. Fifty-five per-
cent of the commodity drain is on trees 13.0 inches
and larger, but this size of timber makes up only a
fourth of the inventory volume. Commodity drain on
timber 13.0 to 19.0 inches was 6.2 percent of the
volume of this size of timber, and on timber 19.0
inches and larger, 11.5 percent, compared to 3.1
percent for all growing stock 5.0 inches and larger.
Much more large timber would be cut if it were
available.
Much of Florida’s saw timber is small and widely
scattered. The largest remaining block of old-growth
timber is in the cypress swamp in Collier County,
and this area is being rapidly cut over. Of the total
20.6 billion board feet in Florida (table 6), two-
thirds occurs in saw-timber stands. Only 13 percent
of the total volume is in large saw-timber stands,
which average around 5,500 board feet per acre.
More than half of the saw timber is in small saw-
timber stands averaging 4,000 board feet per acre
and the remainder (a third) occurs as single trees or
in small groups of trees scattered throughout the
pole and sapling stands and poorly stocked areas
(fig. 11).
Sixty-two percent of the saw timber is pine, 15
percent cypress, and the remainder, various hard-
wood species including water oak, sweetbay, black-
gum and sweetgum. Most of this remaining hard-
TaBLe 5.—Volume of all live trees on commercial forest land by species group and kind of material, Florida, 1949
Kind of material Pine Cypress and cedar Hardwoods All species
Million Million Million Million
Saw-timber trees: cords Percent Percent cords Percent cords Percent
Sawlog: portion. ==. -2-- see 27.9 46 58) 33 10.2 16 44.4 31
Upper‘stem=*2>- 4s a- e 6.6 11 -6 8 2.4 4 10.6 7
Pole-timbertrees2s— Us saa eee 24.2 40 a) 42 15.2 24 47.3 33
Cull trees:
Sound lao 22s ee a. a Seen 1.2 uS) 7 22.7 36 252 18
Rottens2: =. SSS Mee ST se eee 2 1 8 10 13.0 20 15.0 11
otale=o2e2 2 oe ae 60.1 100 9 100 63.5 100 142.5 100
1 Includes hardwood limbs.
16 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
TaBLe 6.—Net volume} of live saw timber by species group and stand-size clase, Florida, 1949
zs ; Poorly stocked
a : Large Small Pole- Seedling and
Species group ? saw-timber stands | saw-timber stands timber stands sapling stands pounds ane > All stands
Million Million Million Million Million Million
bd. ft. bd. ft. bd. ft. bd. ft. bd. ft. bd. ft.
Pine are Bee eRe 1,128 6,291 1,973 684 2,615 12,691
Cypress and cedar________ 244 2,292 373 95 182 3,186
Soft hardwoods-_-_--__---_ 821 1,639 349 167 106 3,082
Hard hardwoods-_________ 455 647 280 109 144 1,635
Total, all species___ 2,648 10,869 2,975 1,055 3,047 20,594
Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent
IA speciess=soae 2 = Sas 3 53 14 5 15 100
1 Log scale, International 14-inch rule.
2 See appendix for species included in group, p 56.
wood timber is low quality. Average lumber-grade
yields by log grades for common Florida hardwoods
Figure 11.—A third of Florida’s saw timber is in trees scat-
tered singly or in small groups throughout 18 million
acres of sapling and pole stands and poorly stocked areas.
(Photo courtesy Florida Forest Service.)
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
are shown in table 7. Only 12 percent of the hard-
wood volume is in select and Grade | logs. A third
of it is in Grade 3A logs which will yield mainly
poor-quality lumber, and over another third is in
Grade 3B logs which are primarily suitable for cross
ties and construction timbers.
Florida’s timber supply is concentrated in the
northern part of the State. With 63 percent of the
commercial forest area, Northeast and Northwest
Florida together have 80 percent of the State’s saw
timber and 78 percent of all growing stock.
The intensity of commodity drain on the timber
supply likewise varies in different parts of the State.
In 1948, it varied from 8.1 percent of the growing
stock 5.0 inches d.b.h. and larger in Suwannee
County to less than 1.0 percent in several counties—
mainly in the lightly timbered counties in the south-
ern part of Florida (fig. 12). Five counties, Suwan-
nee, Duval, Pasco, Hillsborough, and Marion, with 8
percent of the growing stock in the State sustained
18 percent of the commodity drain.
TaBLe 7.—Florida hardwood lumber grade yields
Log grade
Lumber grade
Select 1 2 3A 3Bl
Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent
OAS Sees eae a 35 30 11 213 | a
No. 1 Common___-_ 33 30 34 1951 | eietn ster
No. 2 Common__-_-_ 15 7) il a 27 39 63
No. 3 Common__-_- 7 19 28 40 37
whotal Sse ss 100 100 100 100 100
1It is expected that Grade 3B logs will be cut into ties, timbers,
blocking, construction boards, etc., and not into standard grade lumber.
17
‘
cS
zs WE: <a
\
--——--
PERCENT2OF
GROWING STOCK REMOVED
=~ =—-s-
Ficure 12.—Percent of the growing stock (trees 5.0 inches d.b.h. and larger) removed as commodity drain in Florida, by
county, 1948.
Trends in the Timber Supply
In general, timber volumes by major species groups
decreased throughout the State after the first Forest
Survey in 1934-36 (fig. 13). The total volume of
growing stock 5.0 inches and larger declined by 9
percent, saw-timber volume by 17 percent.’ In spite
° Excludes volume of 12-inch hardwood trees, which were
not considered saw timber at the time of the first Forest
Survey.
of the intensive use of pine in relation to the supply,
pine volumes in general have not suffered as much
as cypress and hardwoods. For the State as a whole,
total pine volume dropped only 4 percent compared
to 14 percent for cypress and 15 percent for hard-
woods. Pine saw-timber volume declined 9 percent, ©
while cypress decreased 18 percent and hardwoods
36 percent.
Pine saw-timber volume in Northeast and North-
18 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
NE Bee en
P| 1934-36 (KK:; KK <<
MMMM
SS
1949
HARDWOODS
10
BILLION BOARD FEET
le
COE
dddddda
\
1949/7 MMII.
HARDWoopDs | | [|
1934-36
ape LL la
|
1934-36 |
1949
|
BILLION CUBIC FEET
Ficure 13.—Volume of growing stock 5.0 inches d.b.h. and
larger in Florida, by species group, 1934-36 and 1949.
west Florida has not changed much. The volume of
growing stock 5.0 inches and larger has remained
about the same in the Northeast, but increased by
10 percent in the Northwest. Practically all of the
decrease in pine volume occurred in the central and
southern parts of the State. In these areas combined,
“pine saw timber dropped 36 percent; all pine timber,
| 25 percent. Undoubtedly, an important part of this
drop in pine volume is the result of clearing forest
land for pasture, citrus orchards, and other agricul-
tural crops in Central Florida.
_ Cypress volumes decreased markedly in all parts
| of the State except in the central part, where both
| the total volume and the saw-timber volume in-
creased by 20 percent. This increase is due in part
to the rapid growth of small timber into commercial
sizes during the 12-year period between surveys.
These small second-growth trees do not, of course,
yield the durable high-grade lumber usually desired
when cypress is specified as a construction material.
Hardwood volume, like cypress, showed large de-
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
|
creases in all parts of the State except in the central
part, where the volume has remained about the same.
Although timber volumes have decreased mainly
because of heavy cutting, the increase in defective
timber has also contributed to the decline of cypress
and hardwoods. Many trees which qualified as sound
trees at the time of the first survey have since become
culls. The volume of hardwood culls has increased
by 82 percent, cypress cull volume by 45 percent
(17). More hardwood cull volume is due, in part, to
an increase of nearly 200 million cubic feet in the
volume of scrub oaks, species which at the present
time are used for very little except fuel wood. An-
other 200 million cubic feet can be attributed to the
increase in volume of sound cull trees of other spe-
cies. However, more than half of the increase was
the result of more volume in rotten culls; many trees
which contained some rot during the first survey have
since become too rotten to qualify as sound trees.
Growth has also increased the volume in cull trees.
In contrast to the reduction in timber which took
place between surveys, a comparison of growth and
commodity drain showed that during the year 1948
the saw-timber and pole-timber volume of pine, cy-
press, and hardwoods increased for the State as a
whole (fig. 14). Growing-stock volume increased by
about 2 million cords, and saw-timber volume by 188
million board feet. However, in certain areas com-
modity drain exceeded growth. Pine volume contin-
ued to decline in Central and South Florida and in
Duval, Gilchrist, Holmes, and Suwannee Counties
of North Florida (fig. 15). Commodity drain in ex-
cess of growth in Central Florida was partly a result
of large-scale land clearing for citrus orchards and
improved pastures; elsewhere it merely represented
harvesting in excess of growth. While these growth
and commodity drain comparisons are for a single
year, they do suggest a reversal, temporarily at least,
of the downward trend in timber volume.
This improvement in the growth and commodity
drain balance is the result of an increase in the
volume of growth coupled with a reduction in com-
modity drain (fig. 16). Between 1936 and 1948,
annual saw-timber growth increased by 70 percent,
and growing-stock growth more than doubled.
Most of the increase in growth took place in the
pines. The large increase in pine growth was prin-
cipally the result of a big increase in young pine
timber. The number of 2- and 4-inch pines doubled
between the two surveys; the number of pole-timber
19
PINE
JAN. |, 1948
JAN. 1, 1949]
HARDWOODS
JAN. |, 1948
JAN. 1, 1949
GYPRESS
JAN. |, 1948
|, 1949
|
| | |
SAW TIMBER
PINE
JAN. |, 1948
JAN. 1,1949)
HARDWOODS
JAN. |, 1948
JAN. 1, 1949]
GYPRESS
JAN. 1, 1948
JAN. 1, 1949 [|
BILLION BOARD FEET
oe
ce
25
30 35 40 45
MILLION CORDS
Figure 14.—Change in net volume of saw timber and all growing stock in Florida, by species group, during the year 1948.
trees increased 31 percent, and the number of 10-
inch trees increased 24 percent. The importance of
this increase in young timber is indicated by the fact
that in 1948, 30 percent of the total pine saw-timber
growth came from the recruitment of pole trees into
saw timber; i.e., timber which at the beginning of
the year had been pole timber was saw timber at the
end of the year.
Also contributing to the increase in pine growth
was the reduction in pine mortality stemming from
better fire protection, turpentining fewer small trees,
and better utilization of worked-out trees. In 1934—
36 there were nearly 20 million worked-out trees
compared to about 8 million in 1949. Pine mortality
in 1948 was only 14 percent of what it was in 1936.
Between surveys, commodity drain on saw timber
dropped 36 percent and commodity drain from grow-
ing stock decreased 14 percent. Commodity drain on
the primary growing stock declined less than saw-
timber drain because of the increased use of small
timber for pulpwood and poles.
Even though Florida is now growing more timber
than is being cut, a large part of this growth is on
trees which are not readily available to the industry.
20
A fifth of the board-foot growth is on saw-timber
trees scattered throughout seedling and sapling stands
and poorly stocked areas. Saw-timber volume on
these areas averages less than 500 board feet per
acre. Another 16 percent of the saw-timber growth
is on scattered saw-timber trees in pole-timber stands,
which average around 800 board feet per acre. Tim-
ber in most of these stands is too scattered to be
profitably logged at the present time. Also, while the
greatest demand is for trees 12 inches and larger,
most of the growth is on trees below this size. Finally,
although the little-used hard hardwoods provide only
2 percent of the commodity drain, growth of these
species accounts for 8 percent of the total growth.
Thus, in spite of the large increase in growth, there
is limited opportunity for immediate expansion by
the forest industries.
Timber Supply for Naval Stores
The timber supply now available for the produc-
tion of gum far exceeds any foreseeable demand for
turpentine and rosin from the processing plants
dependent upon Florida’s forest resources. Exclusive
Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
Ficure 15.—Florida counties in which commodity drain of pine 5 inches d.b.h. and larger exceeded growth during the year
of South Florida, where the turpentine trees are
generally too scattered for naval stores operation, the
State has 11.6 million acres of turpentine pine type.*
Only 5 percent of this area, 629,000 acres, was being
worked for naval stores in 1949. Resting timber, i.e.,
front face worked out and back face not yet started,
occupied an additional 514,000 acres. Another 1.5
‘million acres were stocked with stands of 15 or more
_ *Areas on which 25 percent or more of the number of
dominant and codominant trees are longleaf or slash pine.
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
1948.
round turpentine pines of working size per acre,
in which no turpentining had been started. In these
stands there are about seven times as many round
pines of turpentine size as were being worked in 1949,
The remainder of the large acreage in the turpen-
tine pine type consists of 458,000 acres of worked-out
and abandoned timber and 8.5 million acres without
enough turpentine pines of working size to make the
stands operable. Some of these stands will become
operable when the younger trees grow larger. How-
21
SAW TIMBER
MILLION BOARD FEET
a7 wae
Ve ZU, L 7) Gi
1936 194
1936 1948 1936 1948
HARDWOOD CYPRESS
GROWING STOCK
MILLION CUBIC FEET
1936 194 I936 1948 1936 1948
PINE HARDWOOD CYPRESS
y
VY, NET GROWTH COMMODITY DRAIN
Figure 16.—WNet growth and commodity drain for saw tim-
ber and all growing stock in Florida, by species group,
1936 and 1948.
ever, large areas have little but scrub oak on them —
and will not produce stands suitable fer naval stores
operations for many years, if at all, unless artificially
reforested.
The future wood-supply outlook for the wood
naval stores industry depends a great deal upon
whether small stumps from second-growth trees and
other less resinous wood can be used eventually. The
old-growth stumps in Florida totaled nearly 30 mil- |
lion tons in 1949. Not all of this supply is available
to the industry. Two percent is in inaccessible areas,
5 percent is unworkable at present because of the
density of timber on the land, and another 4 percent
is regarded as marginal, i.e., the stumps are on areas
less than 25 acres in size or the areas have already
been partially worked for stumps. Of the remaining
27 million tons of merchantable stump volume, only
two-thirds is recoverable under existing practices.
Thus only 18 million tons are readily available to the
industry, or a 24-year supply at the present rate of
use.
Considering all sources of naval stores products,
such as pine trees, stumps, and pulping waste, there
seems to be little danger of a shortage of raw ma-
terials in the foreseeable future. However, shifts in
the importance of these various raw material sources
will undoubtedly continue.
22 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
Forest Land Can Grow Much More Timber
YD)
NE of the most significant facts revealed by
the 1949 survey of Florida was the 70-per-
cent increase in annual saw-timber growth
and a doubling of the growing-stock growth com-
- pared to 1936. This increase in growth, coupled with
(
the reduction in commodity drain, appears to have
reversed the downward trend in volume; in 1948,
growth of both saw timber and growing stock ex-
ceeded drain. The excess of growth over drain for all
timber 5.0 inches and larger was 2.2 million cords. The
expansion under way in pulping capacity is expected
to add around 1,116,000 cords to the commodity
drain. Even with this anticipated increase in drain,
there will still be a substantial margin of growth over
drain. This growth and drain picture is in sharp con-
trast to what it was in 1936 when drain on all sizes of
timber exceeded growth by 68 percent and drain on
saw timber was more than double the growth.
It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that
all of the remaining surplus growth is available for
expansion in timber use at this time. For one thing,
as pointed out before, much of the growth is on
young and scattered timber which will not be ready
for harvesting for many years. Also, the turn for the
better in Florida has taken place at a very low level
of forest productivity, so that much of this surplus
growth is needed to build up Florida’s badly depleted
stock of timber.
If adequately stocked with timber, Florida’s forest
land could grow 2! times as much timber as it
is now growing. In 1948, the annual growth per acre
of commercial forest land was 65 board feet of saw
timber, or 0.3 of a cord of all timber. Even though
a large part of this land is rather poor from a timber-
producing standpoint, with only a moderate im-
provement in forest practices, the annual growth
could easily be increased to 150 board feet, or 0.6 of
a cord per acre.
Two-Thirds of Land is Forested
In 1949, 62 percent, 21.5 million acres, of the
| total land area in the State was classed as commer-
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
KKK
CLASSES OF LAND
MILLION
ACRES
COMMERCIAL
FOREST LAND FOREST
COMMERCIAL 2123
NONCOMMERCIAL lS,
AGRICULTURAL
ACTIVE 3.3
IOLE kee
ALL OTHER 7A
TOTAL LAND AREA 345
COMMERCIAL
FOREST LAND
AGRI.-IDLE
Ficure 17.—Land area of Florida, by broad use class, 1949.
cial forest land (fig. 17). An additional 4 percent,
1.5 million acres, was called noncommercial because
it was too infertile or too wet to grow timber of com-
mercial size. Only 10 percent was in active agricul-
tural use. Land previously cultivated but now idle or
abandoned amounted to 1.1 million acres. About 416,-
000 acres of this is in Northeast Florida where tim-
ber-growing sites are good enough to justify planting
to pine. By far the largest part of the remaining land
in the State is marsh, some of which is used for
cattle grazing.
The northern part of the State is most heavily
forested (fig. 18). All but 8 of the 37 counties in
this area have 75 percent or more of their area in
commercial forest land. A number of counties, Baker,
Liberty, Flagler, Clay, and Calhoun, are more than
90 percent forested.
Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, and Orange Counties of
Central Florida also contain a high proportion of
commercial forest land. Southward, in the vicinity
of Lake Okeechobee and along the east coast, com-
mercial forest land is replaced, in large part, by tree-
less prairies and marshes and by nonproductive for-
ests composed of stunted trees and shrubs. Only 28
percent of the area south of Lake Okeechobee is
commercial forest land and most of it is basically
low in productivity; present conditions of repeated
burning make the land even less productive.
The area of forest land has changed very little
23
est
PERCENT OF COUNTY
LAND AREA
[Jo - 2
Ficure 18.—Percent of land in commercial forest in Florida, by county, 1949.
since the 1934-36 survey. For the State as a whole,
commercial forest land decreased by 2 percent. In all
but the central part changes have been less than 2
percent. Here the 7-percent decrease—almost a half
million acres—in commercial forest land is partially
the result of land clearing for citrus, pasture, and
other agricultural uses. In view of the growing de-
mand for frozen citrus products, it is reasonable to
expect a further reduction in forest acreage in Cen-
tral Florida. The natural and artificial restocking of
idle land in the Northeast could easily compensate for
this loss, however, so no significant change in the —
total commercial forest area of the State is probable
in the near future.
Pine Forests Most Abundant
Florida has many different kinds of forest ]and —
covered with a wide variety of forest types, but M
nearly three-fourths of the forest is pine (table 8),
with longleaf and slash the leading types. Potentially, —
these pine lands can grow much greater quantities _
24 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture —
of pine pulpwood, poles, and sawlogs for the raw
material of industfy.
More than one-half of the forest land is flatwoods,
low, level, poorly drained areas chiefly confined to
broad belts flanking the Atlantic Ocean and the
Gulf of Mexico. The flatwoods are dominated by
slash pine and longleaf pine and are dotted with
many small cypress ponds. Inward from the flatwoods
are the low rolling uplands, extending across north-
western Florida and as a central ridge down the
peninsula nearly to Lake Okeechobee. These uplands
are covered principally with longleaf pine and scrub
oak in pure and mixed stands. Both slash and longleaf
pine occur on the wetter parts of the rolling uplands.
Good stands of hardwoods, often mixed with pine,
grow on the sandy-loam areas, such as those north
of Tallahassee and near Gainesville. Both the flat-
woods and the rolling uplands are broken by numer-
ous streams, swamps, and shallow ponds. These low-
lands are the habitat of cypress, and a variety of
hardwoods, including sweetgum, black and water
tupelo, sweetbay, magnolia, and numerous species of
LEGEND
SITE QUALITY
GOOD
75 FEET AND TALLER
Y SO YIISFUTE.
“YG | gy
Es Z
HEIGHT OF TREES
AT 50 YEARS
54 FEET AND SHORTER
SS FEET TO 64 FEET
65: FEETATO 74 FEET.
Ficure 19.—Site quality of the pine land in Florida.
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
25
Tasie 8.—Area of commercial forest land by forest type
and location, Florida, 1949
Forest type ! Northeast | Northwest} Central | South loride
Million Million Million | Million | Million
acres acres acres acres acres
Longleaf pine_ -_---- 2-3 2.4 225) 0.1 Ue}
Slashypine= === 22225 1.9 3 ed 7; 6.0
Loblolly pine ?______ oo a | a es a ee oe ae.
Pond pinesss=- =- +. a2 a) | eo Uh besa -4
Sarid«pines=. == 232 - ay 1 be Ee ae 4
Cypress: 2s) ==>2- == -6 sil 3 a) 153
Lowland hardwoods_ el -8 8 1 -8
Upland hardwoods_- 5) ail P74) Mere aes .6
Crib oaks=--72 22-5 nef -6 260 |2eessooe Lcd,
Ralms= 23 tessa = os | So RS Aa Se ee 1, |SS2ee |
All types___-- 76 5.9 5.8 2.2 2125
1 See description of forest types in appendix, p. 55.
2 Includes 29,100 acres of shortleaf pine type and 20,600 acres of
redcedar type.
oak. The low prairie lands east and west of the
Everglades support still another kind of forest. Open
stands of slash pine grow on the higher and usually
better-drained flatlands, while cypress dominates the
many ponds and swamps.
Half the Forest Land Fair to Good Quality
About one-half of Florida’s commercial forest land,
10.7 million acres, is rated fair to good for timber-
growing purposes (table 9, fig. 19). Fair sites are
capable of growing pine trees 55 to 64 feet high in
50 years, and hardwood trees with two merchantable
16-foot logs when mature. On good sites, pines will
attain a height of 65 feet or more in 50 years, and
hardwood trees will have at least three merchantable
logs when mature.
Two-thirds of the fair and good timberland sup-
ports pine forests. Over half of this land is rated
good timber-growing land. In 60 years this kind of
land, when fully stocked, will have a stand of about
17 thousand board feet per acre. This is an average
annual yield of 280 board feet (fig. 20). On the
average, the remaining fair-quality pine land will
yield about 10 thousand board feet per acre in 60
years, an annual yield of about 160 board feet. Po-
tential pulpwood yield in 40 years varies from three-
fourths of a cord per acre per year on fair sites to
about one cord on the good sites.
Three and a half million acres of fair and good
land support hardwood and cypress forests. About a
third of this area is rated good quality. Here the
mature trees normally have a merchantable length
TaBLe 9.—Quality of commercial forest land by forest
types, Florida, 1949
Quality of forest land
Forest type Area
Poor Fair Good
Million
acres Percent Percent Percent
Longleaf pine_--=-_ = =-=— 7.3 55 25 20
Slashipine== =!222 222525 6.0 47 24 29
Loblolly-pine:!=:—s>==—= = ail 5 15 80
‘Pondépines=2-- = ee a: (?) (?) @)
Sandtpines=e .a ene 4 (2) (2) 2)
Cypréss=ee Ses 133 18 52 30
Lowland hardwoods- ---_- 2.8 17 57 26
Upland hardwoods---_--- .6 66 32 2
Scrubroak:=s2s5= ss 169 2) 2) @)
Palms es Se ere ail () (2) ?)
Allitypes-=sss2- 2155 43 31 26
1Includes 29,100 acres of shortleaf pine type and 20,600 acres of
redcedar type.
2 Land not classified, but generally is poor-quality forest land.
F—459794
Ficure 20.—Florida has 3.8 million acres of good pine tim-
berland which, when well stocked, can grow about 280
board feet per acre per year on a 60-year rotation.
26 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
oO
a
<<
PERCENT OF
COMMERCIAL FOREST LAND
IN COUNTY
THAT RATES FAIR AND GOOD
24
49
74
Ficure 21.—Distribution of fair and good timber cropland in Florida, by county, 1949.
of at least three logs. Such sites are usually found on forest land is rated fair and good, and in Hamilton
bottoms or well-drained deep soils such as are fre- | and Union Counties over 95 percent.
quently used for agricultural purposes, but good On the other half of the commercial forest land
stands of cypress and water tupelo often occur in in the State, possibilities for growing timber are
the deepest and wettest swamps. more limited under present conditions. Approximate-
The most productive forest land occurs in the ly half of the longleaf and slash pine types are on
northeastern part of the State (fig. 21). Here the poor-quality forest land. This is land which is not
quality of a large part of the forest land compares capable of growing pine trees taller than 54 feet in
favorably with the best in the South. In a group of 50 years (fig. 22). Growing saw timber on these sites
11 counties, 75 percent or more of the commercial is a slow process; even when well stocked it takes
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida 27
Ficure 22.—About 7 million acres of slash and longleaf pine in Florida are on poor-quality forest land, which has limited
timber-growing possibilities. (Photo courtesy Florida Forest Service.)
about 100 years to grow 10 thousand board feet per
acre on the best of these areas. This amounts to a
mean annual growth of only 100 board feet. Many
areas are not so productive as this; areas such as the
dry oak ridges and some of the poorly drained flats
with an underlying hardpan are so poor that even
old-growth trees seldom exceed 12 to 14 inches in
diameter.
The prospect of growing pulpwood timber on a
short rotation on these poor sites is better. Pine on
many of these sites makes fairly rapid growth for the
first 30 or 40 years. When fully stocked they could
be expected to grow from 15 to 20 cords of pulpwood
per acre in 40 years or, on the average, nearly a half
cord per acre per year. The big problem is to keep
these poorer sites stocked with timber.
More than half of the area of slash pine type
growing on poor-quality forest land is in South
Florida; another 19 percent is in the central part of
the State. Four-fifths of the longleaf pine on poor
sites is on dry, sandy ridge land in Northwest and
Central Florida.
In addition to the longleaf and slash pine on poor
land, there are 770,000 acres of pond and sand pine
which, in general, have rather low timber-growing
potentialities. Also, nearly two million acres of dry,
sandy ridge land are covered with scrub oak (fig. 23). —
A large part of this area once had fair stands of
longleaf pine. If some way could be found to elim-—
inate the scrub oak cheaply, the land could be plant-
ed and much of it could be expected to grow from
a fourth to a half cord of pulpwood per acre per
year and a limited amount of small sawlogs.
Less than a fifth of the cypress and lowland hard-_
wood types is on poor-quality forest land. This is
land on which mature hardwood trees on the aver-
age do not have more than one merchantable 16-foot
log in them.
In addition to the commercial forest land, in 1949
Florida had more than a million acres of idle agri-
cultural land. Some of this, of course, soon may go
back into agricultural production, but a substantial —
part will never be cultivated again and is available
for timber production. Much of this abandoned
cropland has good timber-growing possibilities. Many
13- to 15-year-old slash pine plantations in Florida
show an average growth of more than 2 cords per
acre per year.
28 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
——
F — 433920
Ficure 23.—Much of the nearly two million acres of Florida’s scrub oak land could be made to produce pine again if a way
could be found to eliminate the scrub oak cheaply.
Timber Yields Could Be Greatly Increased
In spite of the fact that so much of Florida’s ¢om-
mercial forest area is poor quality, the State has tre-
mendous timber-growing possibilities. It has 7 mil-
lion acres of fair- to good-quality pine land which,
if fully stocked, is capable of growing 1,600 million
board feet a year. Current pine growth is only 837
million. Looking at it another way, this area alone
is capable of growing enough additional pine timber
to double the amount used for both lumber and
pulpwood production in 1948.
This potential growth leaves out entirely the pos-
sible growth on 7 million acres of poor longleaf and
slash pine sites, the growth on nearly 800 thousand
acres of sand and pond pine land, and on 2 million
acres of poor upland hardwood and scrub oak Jand.
If fully stocked, this area could grow as much as 900
million board feet of pine sawlogs, or 4.5 million
cords of pulpwood a year. Of course, per-acre yields
on much of this land probably would not justify the
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
intensive management that would be required to keep
this land fully stocked. Yet, even if this land averaged
only 50 percent stocked, it could be expected to con-
tribute a fourth of a billion feet of sawlogs, plus a
million cords of pulpwood to Florida’s annual timber
needs.
In addition to this pine-producing land, the State
has 3.5 million acres of fair to good land supporting
hardwood and cypress timber which is estimated to
be capable of growing annually 750 million board
feet. This is 2% times current growth and 3% times
current use.
In short, Florida could grow two to three times as
much timber as it is now growing. Producing near
capacity, the State’s forest land could grow enough
timber to support 170 additional medium-size saw-
mills (annual production of 5 million board feet) or
20 additional medium-size pulp mills, plants with
capacity of 100,000 tons of pulp a year. Further, the
hardwood-using industry could be expanded 4 or 5
times its present size.
29
Forests in Poor Condition to Grow Timber
DD
More Than Half the Forest Land is Poorly
Stocked
HE poor condition of the forest growing
stock, rather than a lack of productive
capacity of the forest land, keeps Florida
from growing more timber. The main reason why
timber growth is so low in Florida is that so much
of the forest land is lying idle when it could be grow-
ing trees. In 1949, 12.4 million acres, 58 percent, of
the forest land was either unstocked or poorly stocked
with sound trees of commercially valuable species.
Some of this land, of course, is recently cut-over
land and other land which can be expected to restock
naturally in a reasonable time if protected from re-
peated wildfires. However, 7.1 million acres do not
have enough seed trees to insure reasonably prompt
natural restocking. Four-fifths of this large area
without adequate seed trees is poor-site land (fig.
24); 3.7 million acres is pine types and 1.9 million
is upland hardwood and scrub oak types. Virtually
all of the land without enough seed trees on the fair
and good sites, 1.5 million acres, is slash and long-
leaf pine land.
FOREST LAND
MILLION ACRES
Y UPLAND HARDWOOD AND
jen tres YY) caus oak TYPES
Figure 24.—Distribution of poorly stocked land without
adequate seed trees, by site quality and forest type, Flor-
ida, 1949.
KEK
The poorly stocked forest land without seed trees
is distributed throughout the State but is especially
prevalent in Central and South Florida and in sev-
eral counties of Northwest Florida. Over half, 3.8
million acres, of the total lies in the central and
scuthern part where much of the forest land is poor
in site quality. Another three-fourths of a million
acres are on the dry sand ridges of Okaloosa, Walton,
Washington, and Calhoun Counties west of Talla-
hassee.
The distribution of the nonrestocking forest land
on the fair and good sites differs from that on the
poor sites. This 1.5 million acres, which would rate
first priority in a planting program, lies almost en-
tirely north of Lake Okeechobee and occurs only
sparingly in the western part of the State. About
700,000 acres are in Northeast Florida.
More Than a Third of the Live Trees Are
Culls
A serious obstacle to natural restocking and plant-
ing alike is the large number of low-grade trees on
many areas (fig. 25). In 1949, 37 percent of all the
live trees in the State were culls. These are trees
which are so rotten or so rough and deformed that,
at the present time at least, it would not pay to cut
them for sawlogs. They also include the trees under
saw-tiumber size that are so defective and deformed
that they show no promise of ever becoming mer-
chantable for sawlogs. Various species of oak, mainly
scrub oak, make up the largest share of the cull
trees (fig. 26). As pointed out previously, some of
these poor-quality trees are suitable for pulpwood or
' fuel wood. However, they greatly reduce stand pro-
ductivity by taking up space that could be occupied
by trees of more desirable form and species.
Mainly because of the dense stocking of scrub
oaks, large areas of the dry, sandy ridge land which
formerly grew commercial stands of longleaf pine
have completely failed to restock following cutting.
For the same reason, even where an adequate seed
30 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
Ficure 25.—Many areas remain unproductive because cull trees prevent young trees of desirable form and species from
becoming established. (Photo courtesy of Florida Forest Service.)
SPECIES
LIVE TREES .
eee
YELLOW
PINES
OTHER
SOFT WOODS
|SOFT-TEXTURED:::
HARDWOODS
|HARD-TEXTURED
HARDWOODS
O 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000
MILLION TREES
cuts
Ficure 26.—Number of trees, by quality class and species
| group, Florida, 1949.
SOUND
TREES
source is present, restocking with pine is taking place
very slowly over much of the longleaf pine type.
Nearly half of all the cull trees in the State are on
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
these dry sites in longleaf pine, upland hardwood,
and scrub oak stands.
Of the cull trees under 5.0 inches d.b.h., only the
scrub oak species were recorded. Other small trees
and shrubs of low value which frequently hinder the
establishment of desirable tree species include wax-
myrtle, ironwood, sassafras, gallberry, titi, button-
bush, and palmetto.
Heavy cutting of the best-quality trees and most
valuable species has left the lowland hardwood and
cypress stands with a large proportion of large cull
trees in them. Nearly two-thirds of all the live hard-
wood trees 13.0 inches and larger in the State are
culls.
Shortage of Large Timber
Another undesirable condition which is general
throughout Florida is the striking shortage of large
timber (fig. 27). A small number of large trees in
relation to the number of small trees is a normal
31
k , Desirable Stocking
10
DIAMETER CLASS (Inches)
HARDWOOD AND _
CYPRESS TYPES
\_, Desirable Stocking
DIAMETER CLASS (Inches)
Figure 27.—Comparison of actual with desirable stocking
of sound trees, by diameter class and forest type, Florida,
1949.
condition even in well-managed forests, but the num-
ber of trees 11.0 inches and larger (all species)
should make up about 9 percent of the total number
of trees 1.0 inch and larger.? In Florida, however,
trees 11.0 inches and larger make up only 3.6 per-
cent of the total in pine types and 4.9 percent in
hardwood and cypress types.
Perhaps even more significant than the present
shortage of large timber is the trend in volume (fig.
28). The number of trees 13.0 inches and larger
decreased for all species throughout the State since
the first forest survey. The number in the 10-inch
class increased mainly because of the large ingrowth
of young trees into this size class. The number of
trees in the 12-inch class did not change much. At
the time of the first survey the average volume per
tree of all pine trees 9.0 inches and larger was 89
board feet; in 1949 it was 77 board feet—a 13-per-
cent decrease. The average volume of hardwood
trees 13.0 inches and larger® was 126 board feet in
1949—23 percent less than at the time of the first
survey.
°Based on stocking standards used by the Forest Survey.
See appendix, p. 56.
® Hardwood trees in the 12-inch class were not recorded
as saw timber at the time of the first survey, so no compari-
son of trees smaller than 13.0 inches is possible.
Smaller timber means lower board-foot yields.
Yield studies (27) show that the average annual —
erowth per acre for a 30-year-old fully stocked slash
pine stand 7 inches d.b.h. and over (site index 70)
is 267 board feet (International Rule), compared to
410 board feet for a 50-year-old stand. Thus, annual
saw-tumber growth could be increased by merely
letting the trees grow larger before cutting them.
PINE
DIAMETER CLASS (Inches)
| J INCREASE DECREASE
Figure 28.—Change in number of trees, by diameter class
and species, Florida, 1934-36 to 1949.
The board-foot difference arises mainly because such —
a large part of small trees, when sawn into lumber,
goes into sawdust, slabs, and edgings. In cubic feet, —
in stands 2 inches d.b.h. and over, the average an-—
nual growth of a 30-year-old stand exceeds that of
a 50-year-old stand.
Pine Types Decreasing, Hardwoods
Increasing
Between 1934—36 and 1949, the area of pine types
decreased by 2.3 million acres, a 14-percent reduction
(fig. 29). This was accompanied by a considerable
increase in the number of hardwood saplings and —
poles and in the number of cull hardwoods.
A good deal of the decrease in pine types has
taken place on the dry, sandy sites. Poor site quality
32 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
TYPE
AND YEAR
PINE
1934-36
& AREA
1949
HARDWOOD
1934-36
1949
CYPRESS
1934-36
1949
10
MILLION ACRES
Ficure 29.—Area of major forest types, Florida, 1934-36
and 1949,
fa
gers
coupled with a dense understory of scrub oak and
other poor-quality hardwoods has prevented the re-
generation of longleaf pine over a large area. Nearly
half of the trees in the 2- and 4-inch diameter classes
in the longleaf pine type are scrub oak and other cull
hardwoods. Thus, cutting the merchantable pine
leaves a residual stand of undesirable hardwoods and
rather unfavorable conditions for the establishment
of more pine (fig. 30). The scrub oak type has in-
creased by 600,000 acres since the first survey, and
the upland hardwood type by 400,000 acres. There
appears to be little chance of many of these areas
coming back to pine unless some of the hardwood
cover at least is eliminated. Where a seed source is
absent, which is true in many instances, planting wil]
also be necessary.
The million-acre increase in the area of lowland
hardwood types since the first survey is mainly the
result of cutting the cypress and pine out of the
mixed softwood-hardwood stands. The cypress type
decreased by 200,000 acres and loblolly pine by 200,-
¥ Bae Wo Ef ae eae?
hardwood types.
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
33
000 acres. As in the case of longleaf pine type on
dry sites, the perpetuation of pine on many of these
low, moist areas fringing the river bottoms is going
to require the elimination of the understory of hard-
woods during the period of stand regeneration. On
the best of the sites, growing high-quality hardwoods,
or a mixture of pine and hardwoods, rather than
pure stands of pine, may prove to be the most prof-
itable course to follow.
Large Number of Worked-Out Trees
In the 15 years since the first survey, commendable
progress has been made in utilizing the 20 million
worked-out naval stores trees that clogged the pine
stands in the mid-thirties. The pulp industry, by cre-
ating a new market for millions of cords of wood
that could be cut from worked-out timber, has been
a significant factor in bringing this about.
34 ; Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
By 1949, despite annual additions as naval stores —
crops were worked out, the total number of worked-
out trees had been reduced to 7.8 million. Nearly 2
million of these were in Northwest Florida and about
700,000 were in the central part of the State. All
together, they amounted to less than 4 percent of
the total number of turpentine pines of saw-timber
size and their presence does not materially reduce
timber yields in these two areas.
In Northeast Florida there are about 5.2 million
worked-out trees. Here, 6 percent of all longleaf and
slash pine trees of saw-timber size are worked out,
plus nearly a half million 7- and 8-inch trees. Cubic-
foot growth on these trees is about a third less than
on round trees, and mortality losses are high. They
should be cut as promptly as possible, unless they are
needed for seed, in order to make way for new
growth.
Reasons Why Forest Conditions Are Poor
YY
Fire—The Number One Problem
ANY of the undesirable forest conditions
in Florida are the result of land-use prac-
tices—practices associated with farming,
turpentining, and logging. Of these practices, fre-
quent burning of the woods has most influenced the
character of the forest.
Since the days of the early white settlers, woods
burning has been practiced with a deep-seated con-
viction that it is as essential to the proper handling
of wooded land as plowing is to growing cotton. In
1926, it was estimated that at least 75 percent of the
pine land in the State burned over annually and that
not more than 10 percent ever escaped fire for 3
years in succession (1). Not until as recently as the
mid-thirties was there any appreciable downward
trend in the area burned by wildfires.
This long history of frequent burning of the
stands had two main effects on the character of the
forest. First, it served to extend the occurrence of
the fire-resistant longleaf pine to the very edges of
the swamps, bottom lands, and upland hardwood
lands.
The second, and perhaps the more important, ef-
fect of repeated burning was that of keeping the
stands open and understocked. Even though longleaf
pine existed over a wide area only by virtue of re-
peated fires, these same fires took a heavy toll of
young trees before they became large enough to sur-
vive the flames. This annual toll of young trees by
fire, coupled with the uncertain seed-bearing habits
of longleaf pine, made the restocking of the stands a
very slow process. Even in many of the virgin stands,
the trees were widely scattered. Full stocking in these
stands frequently represented a gradual accumulation
_ of trees over many years. There is little doubt that
the too frequent fires down through the years have
been responsible for a good deal of the poor stock-
_ ing in Florida.
Fire protection on other than national-forest land
had its beginning in Florida with the enactment, by
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
KKK
the 1927 State Legislature, of a law creating a Board
of Forestry. One of the provisions of this law author-
ized the Board to enter into cooperative agreements
with landowners for the prevention and control of
woods fires. The landowners paid for half the cost
of prevention, and, in most instances, for the cost of
fire suppression. Federal funds made available to the
State under the provisions of the Clarke-McNary
Law were used to offset private expenditures, while
the State provided the funds for a skeleton organiza-
tion to supervise the work (5).
By 1935, the Board had succeeded in extending
organized fire prevention and control to 1.4 million
acres of private forest land (6). However, real prog-
ress in reducing the area burned over annually by
fire took place after 1935. The strengthening of fire
laws and a basic set-up for county cooperation was
followed by a steady increase in area under organ-
ized protection (fig. 31) and significant reductions
in the total area of forest land burned over annually
(fig. 32). As of July 1, 1950, more than 30 of the
67 counties were under organized fire protection (fig.
33). This area, together with national-forest land
and protection units comprising parts of 19 other
counties amounted to over 14 million acres, or two-
thirds of the total forest area in the State.
Estimates of area burned over, of course, are nec-
essarily rough—especially on unprotected area. How-
ever, the trend is unmistakable. During the 5-year
period 1930-34, the average annual burn amounted
to nearly three-fourths of the total forest area in the
State. By 1946, the annual burn had dropped to less
than a fifth of the total forest area. During 1950, 63
percent of the unprotected area and 3 percent of the
protected area was burned over by wildfires, resulting
in a total burn of about 4.8 million acres.
This reduction in wildfires accounts to a large ex-
tent for the significant increase in amount of young
timber and the replacement of longleaf pine by slash
pine over extensive areas of the better flatwood sites,
which took place between the two forest surveys. The
35
MILLION
14
Ficure 31.—Forest area un-
der organized fire protec-
tion in Florida, 1929 to
July 1, 1950.
1932
eset
a
1936 1938 1940
YEAR
1942
36
1944 1946 1948
Figure 32.—Forest area
burned over annually on
protected and unprotected
land, Florida, 1932 to
1950.
ALL FOREST LAND PROTECTED
OVER 2/3 PROTECTED
jis TO 2/3 PROTECTED
|__| None TO !/3 PROTECTED
| NO FOREST LAND PROTECTED
al NONFOREST LAND
: SCALE
O10 29 32 40 50 EO Miles
[i
Figure 33.—Florida counties with organized fire protection as of July 1, 1950.
increasing backlog of young timber has resulted in
the upward trend in growth, as every year more and
more young trees grow into merchantable sizes, add-
ing their volume to the growth. Also reflecting better
fire protection is the reduction in mortality.
Improved fire protection, along with its beneficial
effects, has also created some problems. Complete
exclusion of fire on some areas has contributed to
the 2.3-million-acre decrease in pine types by per-
mitting dense understories of hardwoods to become
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
established in pine stands, thus preventing pine re-
generation. Also, in some areas, the extension of tit?
thickets from swamps and ponds to the flatwoods
land has impeded the establishment of slash pine.
Even where the accumulation of vegetative growth
or “rough” did not seriously interfere with regenera-
tion, a serious fire hazard was frequently created so
that when fire did occur, it was especially destruc-
tive. In 1943, the Mount Carrie Fire on the Osceola
National Forest on land which had been protected
37
from fire since the early thirties resulted in the com-
plete destruction of even merchantable stands over
a large part of the 9,000 acres burned.
For a long time, public fire protection agencies,
drawing on experience in other sections of the coun-
try, have been reluctant to regard fire in the southern
woods as anything but bad. However, recent experi-
ence and the results of carefully conducted studies
have made it increasingly clear that fire, when prop-
erly used, can be a valuable tool in the management
of many southern pine forests. Fire is effective in
killing titi, gallberry, myrtle, and other commercially
worthless species which encroach and occupy good
pine sites in thickets so dense as to exclude pine
reproduction (/0). Fire effectively controls brown
spot disease which in some instances prevents the
establishment of longleaf pine (28). Where the rough
is thick, seeds which germinate fail to reach mineral
soil and die. Burning the rough prior to seedfall
often results in excellent pine regeneration (10).
These studies further show that slash pine stands
will tolerate moderate burns after saplings reach a
height of 12 to 15 feet (J8). Longleaf pine is a good
deal more fire resistant. In the Coastal Plain, at
least, there is little evidence that even repeated fires
at frequent intervals cause site deterioration (J/).
As a result of these studies, the.techniques for the
use of prescribed burning as a silvicultural tool in
the longleaf-slash pine region have been worked out
and published (18), (23), (2).
These findings in no way minimize the urgent
need to reduce the area burned over by wildfires.
Every year wildfires take a heavy toll of timber, es-
pecially the seedlings and saplings which are so vital
to the future supply (fig. 34). Also, there is a need
to improve prescribed-burning practices. Areas are
sometimes fired without adequate consideration of
burning conditions and without taking the necessary
steps to protect blocks of young growth within the
burned area. Thus, in spite of the progress made in
FIGURE 34.— The effect of fire. on 1 slash pine regeneration. The area on the right has been protected from Te while the area
on the left has been burned over annually since 1940. (Photo courtesy Florida Forest Service.)
38 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
a se te ae Nee re nee
the past 15 years, woods fires are still Florida’s num-
ber-one forest problem.
Grazing and Timber Growing
Cattle raising in Florida is rapidly growing in
importance. Between 1940 and 1945, the number of
cattle and calves increased from 721,000 to 1,115,-
000, a 55-percent increase (24). The trend has con-
tinued upward since 1945. In 1948, the gross cash
income of Florida farmers from cattle and calves
amounted to 31 million dollars (7), equal to more
than half the value of sawlogs, poles, pulpwood, and
other rough wood products harvested from the
forests.
Cattle raising has an important bearing on forest
conditions and the timber supply outlook. A great
many of the cattle in Florida are scrub, or piney-
woods cows, which generally depend entirely upon
native grass on wild land (much of it forest land)
for feed. The cattle themselves are seldom concen-
trated enough to do much damage to the young
trees by trampling. The damage to the timber comes
almost entirely from the age-old practice of annually
burning the woods to improve the cattle range. The
owners of the cattle frequently own very little land
themselves, and run their cattle on other people’s
land. Thus, a great deal of the burning is done by
people who are not interested in timber values.
As has been pointed out, both timber growing and
cattle raising are important sources of income in
Florida. The question arises: To what extent is the
sacrifice of timber values justified, or necessary, in
improving cattle range? To fully answer this ques-
tion, more information concerning the management
of forest range and its relation to timber production
is needed, including the income that might be ex-
pected from alternative or integrated uses of various
types of land. However, information now available
indicates that Florida’s forest land could be made to
produce more of both timber and beef, and that the
conflict between timber growing and grazing is not
as great as it seems to be (/8). Further, methods of
harmonizing timber and cattle production will vary
considerably according to the relative importance of
_ the two industries, which varies markedly in differ-
ent parts of the State.
In the northern part, timber production greatly
overshadows cattle raising as a source of income
from forest land. Yet many cattle are raised there;
according to the Bureau of the Census, 40 percent of
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
all the cattle and calves on farms in the State in 1945
were in Northeast and Northwest Florida (fig. 35).
A large part of these were scrub cattle, which depend
entirely on native range for feed.
Experience on the Olustee Experimental Forest in
northeastern Florida indicates that with only native
range and piney-woods cows the timberland manager
is seldom justified in sacrificing timber values to
benefit the cattle (1/8). The damage to timber values
caused by annual burning to improve the cattle
range is usually far in excess of the returns from the
cattle. However, under proper management some
cattle can be grazed on forest land without interfering
with timber production (fig. 36).
This means adjusting cattle stocking to the carry-
ing capacity of an annual burn of 10 to 15 percent
of the area instead of the 30- to 50-percent usually
preferred by operators who use prescribed burning
primarily to obtain better forage to increase cattle
gains (18), (3). With burning keyed in this way to
the needs of the timber and without the use of im-
proved pasture, it is estimated that 50 acres of flat-
woods forest land will provide enough feed for one
cow grazing throughout the year. The returns from
such yearlong grazing would not be high but they
would materially help in meeting the expense of
taxes on the land. Also, grazing is beneficial in reduc-
ing the fire hazard by retarding the build-up of
flammable undergrowth, such as gallberry and pal-
metto (3).
Herd management studies on native forest range
at the Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station
have shown the advantage of seasonal grazing and
supplemental feeding on the range when the nutritive
value of native forage is deficient (8). This permits
growing a better grade of cattle and results in a
greater annual crop of larger calves.
In Central and South Florida, the timber-growing
possibilities on much of the forest land are open to
question. In contrast to conditions in the northern
part of the State, concessions to timber values at
the expense of the production of grass may not be
justified on certain areas. However, this question has
never been studied adequately. Here is a real need
for research on both the technical and financial as-
pects of land use in Central and South Florida.
Many people feel that much more timber could
be raised along with cattle in the southern part of
the State, and a greater total income produced from
39
EACH DOT REPRESENTS
O00 CATTLE AND CALVES
SCALE
Oo 10-20 3. 40 50 60Mites
Sr
Figure 35.—Distribution of cattle and calves on Florida farms, 1945.
the land. The common practice is to run cattle en-
tirely on natural range or unimproved pasture. The
land is poorly stocked with trees, and at the same
time produces such poor forage, that the landowners
can raise only scrub cattle. Returns from both timber
and cattle are very low. An increasing number of
landowners are finding it more profitable to convert
part of the land into improved pasture and use the
remaining wild land as a supplemental or seasonal
source of feed. This not only greatly increases the
carrying capacity of the land, but permits the land-
owner to raise improved breeds of cattle. At the
present time, little consideration is given to the tim-
ber-growing possibilities on the remaining unim-
proved land. However, it seems probable that by
keeping fire out of selected blocks long enough to
permit forest regeneration, a crop of trees could be
grown without greatly reducing the value of the land
as a source of supplemental feed. In some instances,
planting might be justified.
40 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture |
F-433869
Figure 36.—Although timber is by far the most important source of income from forest land in the northern part of the State,
it is possible under proper management to raise some cattle without interfering with timber production.
Gum Production and Timber Yields
Some practices associated with gum _ production,
which is confined to slash and longleaf pine, con-
tribute to undesirable forest conditions. In the past,
it was the custom to rake the debris away from
working trees to protect them from frequent wild-
fires. The fires, on the other hand, served to keep
the woods free of undergrowth and to make it easier
for the turpentine workers to move about in the
stands. However, this frequent burning took a heavy
toll of young trees and helped to keep the stands
open and poorly stocked. Often little effort was made
to confine these fires to any particular area; they
frequently escaped to adjoining areas to add to the
annual damage caused by other wildfires.
Gum production conflicted with timber production
in other ways. The practice of hanging cups on all
trees in the stand above a certain diameter is the
principal reason for the present serious shortage of
large timber. Prior to the establishment of the Naval
Stores Conservation Program in 1936, it was com-
mon practice to chip all trees in the stand 8 to 9
inches and larger. Some 7-inch trees, and occasionally
trees as small as 6 inches were cupped. Chipping
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
affects a tree in several ways. First of all, it reduces
growth; according to studies of wood-chipping meth-
ods, diameter growth may be reduced by a third to
a half. Even after chipping stops, especially if chip-
ping is deep, trees often do not recover normal
growth (/8). However, recent studies show that bark
chipping has very little effect on growth.
A second effect of chipping these small trees was
to reduce their quality for wood products. Many a
potential pole or saw-timber tree is suitable only for
pulpwood by the time it is worked out.
Mortality among small turpentined trees was par-
ticularly high. Chipping, burning of the faces by
wildfires, and subsequent borer attacks so weakened
the trees that large numbers were broken down by
the wind every year. These were usually left lying
on the ground and were eventually burned up in
subsequent fires.
Thus, since most of the young-growth timber was
worked for gum as soon as it became large enough,
very few small trees had the chance to grow into
quality saw timber. This absence of young timber
to replenish the supply of saw timber accelerated the
already rapid decline caused by heavy cutting.
41
Bs
$
;
E
Z
i
Pave
Figure 37.—The practice of selective cupping leaves part of the trees in the stand unworked to grow and become more valu-
able for both naval stores and timber products. (Photo courtesy Florida Forest Service.)
Gum production does not conflict with timber pro-
duction nearly as much now as it did in the past.
One reason is that a much smaller proportion of the
timber is being worked for naval stores. Also, more
and more operators are adopting improved practices.
The raising of the minimum diameter of trees
worked represented an especially significant improve-
ment in turpentining practices. Before 1936, in most
sections, about one-third of all the trees cupped were
less than 9 inches in diameter. Now, largely because
of the Naval Stores Conservation Program, practically
no trees smaller than 9 inches are cupped (20). This
has contributed to a marked reduction in the num-
ber of small trees which die or blow over every year.
The rise of the pulp and paper industry has also
been an important factor in reducing timber mortal-
ity resulting from turpentining. Worked-out trees
which were too small or too low in quality to make
sawlogs were once left in the woods to die or blow
over; now they are cut for pulpwood.
One of the main reasons for the significant increase
in young timber and the accompanying increase in
net growth since the first forest survey has been this
reduction in the loss of timber in stands worked for
naval stores. As pointed out previously, pine mortal-
ity in 1948 was only 14 percent of what it was in
1934-36.
An increasing number of operators are improving
the quality of their worked-out timber, without
reducing their returns from gum production, by
bark chipping and using acid to stimulate the gum
flow. On the Olustee Experimental Forest, trees
that had been chipped and treated with sulfuric
acid every 2 weeks during the naval stores season
for a period of 5 years were practically equal in
quality to round trees (9). Contrary to the prevalent
practice of cutting off the worked portion of the tree,
the faces were left on the logs. Both the bark-chipped
face and the pitch soaking beneath the faces were
entirely removed in normal slabbing of the logs and
42 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
edging of the lumber. The lumber from behind the
face was in no way affected by the presence of the
face.
Progress in getting general adoption of the bark-
chipping and acid method has been reasonably good
considering that the gum naval stores industry is not
susceptible to rapid change in operating methods.
The techniques for this method were worked out in
1944, but satisfactory equipment for the application
of acid was not available until several years later.
In 1950, a fourth of the gum naval stores producers
were using acid to stimulate gum flow.
Another practice which improves the value of the
worked-out trees for wood products is hanging the
cups in such a way as to permit removing all the
nails and metal from the trees when turpentining
has been completed. Because of the damage to saws,
stumpage prices for timber with nails in it are con-
siderably less than for nail-free timber.
Selective cupping is another practice which serves
to reduce the conflict between gum and timber pro-
duction (fig. 37). Instead of working all trees above
a certain diameter, only those trees which should be
removed from the stand to improve its quality and
growth are worked. Leaving the best trees to grow
means not only greater gum yields in the future but
also more and better quality timber. Turpentining
| only those trees that are scheduled for early re-
moval has another advantage. It avoids excessively
long turpentining periods that characterized older
methods. The fresh faces resulting from shorter
periods of turpentining have much less timber de-
fect than older faces, which usually get burned and
become wormy and pitch-soaked.
Research findings in recent years have made avail-
able to landowners practical improvements of dem-
onstrated value for increased gum production and for
a integration of gum and timber production to
obtain the maximum value from both. In spite of
the fact that this information is available in clear
| “how-to-do-it” style, there still remains a big job
in getting general adoption of improved practices.
Cutting Practices and Forest Conditions
| Poor methods of timber harvesting are contribut-
ing to poor stand conditions. Although an increasing
number of landowners and forest industries are im-
proving their cutting methods, it still is a common
practice in Florida to clear-cut all the timber large
enough to make pulpwood (fig. 38). The effect of
ig type of cutting varies depending upon the char-
|The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
acter of the stand and quality of forest land. Even
when all of the merchantable timber is removed, a
scattered residual stand of spindly and defective
trees is often left. Many of these recover and in
time grow large enough to bear seed. With pro-
tection from wildfires, the better sites restock quite
readily. But this is a slow process which greatly
increases the time required to grow another crop of
timber. Further, foresters fear that these residuals
left to restock the land are sometimes inherently
slow-growing and poor in quality. There is the
danger, then, that this practice will result in a
steady degradation of the quality and growth
characteristics of the timber in subsequent genera-
tions.
Unfortunately, these heavily cut areas are often
subjected to repeated burning. Not only are the
seedlings which get started repeatedly killed, but the
number of seed trees and potential seed trees is
steadily reduced. In spite of the readiness with which
the good sites regenerate naturally, in 1949 nearly
a half million acres of good-quality pine land (site
index 70 or better) were so completely denuded
that planting will be required to bring them back
into forest production in a reasonable length of time.
On poor sites, heavy cutting is an even more
serious threat to stand productivity. At best, re-
generation is slow and uncertain, particularly in the
case of longleaf pine. The delay in restocking caused
by cutting all of the seed-bearing trees permits
the establishment of a heavy cover of scrub oak and
other undesirable shrubs and hardwoods over ex-
tensive areas of dry, sandy ridge sites. Largely be-
cause of the presence of scrub oak on such sites
in 1949, 2.8 million acres of poorly stocked long-
leaf pine type and nearly 2 million acres of scrub
oak type were not expected to restock naturally
with commercial species. Since the first survey, the
scrub oak type has increased by 600,000 acres.
A great deal of the heavy cutting in Florida is
associated with the practice of diameter-limit cupping
for gum production. Because many of the stands
are even-aged, cutting the worked-out trees frequent-
ly leaves the area virtually denuded of timber. Raising
the minimum diameter of working trees from 7 to 9
inches and reducing the number of trees being work-
ed has resulted in an increase in the number of round
trees in worked-out stands, but it still is possible to
find instances where small round trees have been
cut along with the worked-out timber.
43
Some clear cutting is done in connection with
preparing the land for improved pasture, citrus
orchards, and other farm crops. While land clearing
for agriculture is active in certain areas, notably in
Central Florida, for the State as a whole the amount
of clear-cut land which is actually converted to agri-
cultural use is rather small.
Poor cutting practices not only contribute to
poor stocking, but species composition and stand
quality are likewise affected. Heavy cutting of the
pine has converted many mixed _pine-hardwood
stands to pure hardwood types, and, in part, ac-
counts for the million-acre increase in lowland hard-
wood types between the two forest surveys. Cutting
of the most valuable species and highest quality
trees has left hardwood stands with an extremely
high proportion of poor-quality trees. These not
only take up growing space and interfere with the
development of the more valuable young growth,
but they frequently grow very rapidly following
esis
F — 421475
Ficure 38.—Cutting which leaves the land without an adequate seed source is still a common practice in Florida.
cutting and add to the volume of cull trees. Also,
many of the trees left are of such poor quality that
they soon become culls. The large increase in both
the proportion and quantity of cull hardwood tim-
ber in Florida since the first forest survey is, for the
most part, the result of this practice of “high-grad-
ing” the stands.
Land Ownership and Forest Practices
Land-use practices affecting forest conditions vary
widely, depending upon who owns the land. Many
of the undesirable practices contributing to poor
forest conditions arise from the fact that a great
deal of the forest land is owned by people who
have little or no interest in growing timber. A
large proportion of the timber cut comes from
this class of ownership. In 1945, 87 percent of the
privately owned forest land in Florida was owned
by people who were not associated with the wood-
44 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
using industry. Farmers own about a fifth of this
area; the remaining area is owned by people en-
gaged in a wide variety of occupations.
Among the private owners are naval stores and
railroad operators, bankers, doctors, and local mer-
chants. Some of these owners, of course, do recog-
nize timber values, and make an effort to manage
their land to realize these values. However, the pri-
mary interest of most of these owners is not timber
growing. They either are not aware of the potential
returns from timber on their forest land or they
are so absorbed in other occupations that they give
little attention to timber growing. This lack of inter-
est in managing their land for timber crops is re-
flected by the kind of cutting being done on these
ownerships. In 1945, two-thirds of the cutting on pri-
vate ownerships, exclusive of lumber and pulp com-
panies, was rated poor or destructive.
In contrast, all of the cutting on pulp company
Although cutting
practices on land owned by lumber companies was
land was rated fair or better.’
not so good as that on pulp company land, it was
still substantially better than the cutting on owner-
ships not associated with the wood-using industry.
About half of the cutting on lumber-company land
“was rated poor; very little of it was rated destructive.
Forest land in public ownership amounts to about
B23 million acres, or about 10 percent of the total
area. Two million acres of this is in Federal owner-
ship including the national forests, and 223,300
acres is owned by the State. The remainder is in
“Good cutting requires good silviculture that leaves the
land occupied by desirable species in condition for vigorous
growth in the immediate future. Fair cutting marks the be-
ginning of cutting practices which will maintain on the land
a reasonable stock of growing timber in species that are de-
sirable and merchantable. Poor cutting leaves the land with
limited means for natural reproduction, often in the form of
poor-quality trees of undesirable species. Destructive cutting
leaves the land without timber values and without means
for natural reproduction.
) The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
county and municipal ownership. In 1945, two-thirds
of the cutting on publicly owned land rated fair or
better; most of the remainder was poor.
Land ownership affects not only cutting practices
but also other practices that have a bearing on
timber production. While other uses are permitted
on forest land owned by public agencies and forest
industries, they are usually fitted into timber-pro-
duction plans. An effort is made to prevent wild-
fires. Grazing is usually controlled. Some companies
have bought cattle to run on their own land in
order to better control the burning done by others
in connection with cattle raising. Others permit
grazing only under provisions which stipulate the
location and size of the area that can be burned
annually to improve the range.
Naval stores practices on these ownerships usually
are not allowed to interfere with timber values.
Only selective cupping is permitted on national
forests.
turpentining of their timber because of the difficulty
Some forest industries refuse to allow any
of insuring practices that will not damage the timber
values.
Forest industries and public agencies own but a
fifth of the forest land, yet during the 1949-50 tree-
planting season they planted 59 percent of the total
area planted in Florida. The proportion of forest
land in this class of ownership has increased since
1945. Pulp and paper companies in particular have
added large acreages to their holdings.
It appears likely that with the increased awareness
of timber values, many private owners not associated
with forest industries have improved their forest
practices since 1945. However, there still remains the
difficult task of getting many thousands of small
owners with a wide variety of interests to recognize
the potential returns from their timberlands and to
adjust their management practices accordingly.
What Needs to be Done
KKK
DY
N BRIEF, the findings of the 1949 forest survey
reveal that, although the timber supply outlook
in Florida has improved in many ways since the
first forest survey, some of these gains have been
offset by further deterioration in other ways. The
principal gain was the increase in growth brought
about by a substantial increase in the amount of
young timber, coupled with a marked reduction in
mortality. As a result of this increased growth,
along with a reduction in commodity drain, during
the year 1948 both saw-timber and all growing-stock
growth exceeded drain for the State as a whole.
However, in spite of these encouraging improve-
ments, many undesirable forest conditions that existed
at the time of the first forest survey have become
worse. Florida now has less area of pine types and
more area of scrub oak, more area of poor quality
hardwood type, more volume of cull hardwoods, and
smaller volume of large, quality timber. There is
still far too much poorly stocked land, and in some
areas too many worked-out turpentine trees in the
stands.
These undesirable conditions are not entirely the
result of past practices; many of the factors giving
rise to these conditions are still active. In spite of
the improvement in forest practices since the first
survey, indiscriminate and careless burning of the
woods for range improvement and other reasons,
poor naval stores practices, and poor cutting practices
are still prevalent enough in Florida to cause further
serious deterioration. A continuation of these prac-
tices not only threatens to nullify past gains but to
retard the build-up in forest productivity.
To meet its own need for wood products and also
to contribute its share of timber to the national
goal,* it is estimated that Florida should plan to
grow twice as much saw timber and three-fourths
8 National goal for annual growth placed at 20 billion
cubic feet of all timber, including 72 billion board feet of
saw timber, by Forest Service reappraisal of the forest situa-
tion in 1945.
again as much timber 5.0 inches and larger as it
did in 1948. This would mean increasing saw-timber
growth from a little more than a billion board feet
to more than 2 billion, and growing-stock growth
from 370 million cubic feet to nearly 650 million.
Before any substantial progress can be made
toward the achievement of this goal, corrective
action along several lines must be stepped up.
1. Reduce the loss of timber due to fire. The
first and most important step toward reducing fire
damage is the extension of organized fire protection
to all forest land in the State. But the job of reducing
fire losses does not stop with organized fire protec-
tion; in many cases it will have to be followed by
intensive effort to get better enforcement of fire
laws, and by education*aimed at making local people
aware of the harm done by indiscriminate burning.
Even when landowners realize that they should
protect their land from wildfires, they frequently
need information and technical advice on how to use
fire safely and effectively (fig. 39). Still more re-
search on the techniques of prescribed burning and
their relation to timber management, turpentining,
and grazing is needed.
2. Integrate timber growing and grazing. A good
deal, perhaps most, of the damage to timber values
caused by fire would be eliminated if burning in
connection with cattle raising could be controlled.
The landowners themselves, especially those in the
northern part of the State, are becoming increasingly
aware of timber values and are becoming more and
more interested in controlling the burning on their
land. The big job is that of restraining the people
who run their cattle on other people’s land and
have no stake in the timber. The recently adopted
fence law in Florida, which requires that stock be
kept off State highways, promises to be an important
step in this direction. The law will require fencing
range land adjacent to State highways. Landowners
can then control grazing by refusing to permit the
building of a fence on their land or by making the
46 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
<5 AA AAP TERINR ap
ta
J
Figure 39.—Where fire is needed to keep down the “‘r
scribed burning practices. (Photo courtesy of Florida Forest Service.)
building of fence contingent upon abiding by certain
restrictions in the use of fire. Further, cattle owners —
will often be discouraged from running their cattle
on other people’s land when faced with the expense
of building a fence.
What is also needed to resolve this apparent con-
flict between cattle raising and timber growing is
a better knowledge of the technical and financial
aspects of the two uses on various types of land
throughout the State. Studies are needed to deter-
mine the proper balance between timber and cattle
production—the balance that will result in realizing
the maximum income from the land. The results of
such studies would enable landowners and protection
agencies to gear their protection efforts to the timber
values involved.
3. Integrate naval stores production with timber
growing. Improved methods of naval stores produc-
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
according to pre-
tion have been pretty well worked out. As pointed
out in an earlier section, studies show that by using
these improved methods it is possible to integrate
gum production with timber growing without signifi-
cantly reducing the growth or value of the timber
for forest products. The job ahead is mainly one
of getting these practices generally adopted. This
calls for distributing information to landowners,
conducting demonstrations, and making available
technical advice and aid.
4. Improve forest cutting practices. A continuation
of present cutting practices threatens to nullify a
good deal of the effort to improve forest conditions
along other lines. Steps should be taken to encourage
commercial forest landowners to leave an adequate
number of seed trees of desirable species and form
following cutting. Also, partial cuttings aimed at
increasing the growth and quality of the stand should
be encouraged.
47
5. Step up the planting program. All together,
Florida has 7.1 million acres of forest land which,
because of inadequate seed source, are not expected
to restock. About a half million acres of this is
rated good-quality forest land, about a million acres
is fair, and the remainder poor-quality land.
In general, most of the planting effort should
be directed toward restocking the more productive
land first. However, there are landowners who have
little else other than poor-quality forest land. Even
though the returns from their investment in planting
may be low, these owners still may wish to restock
their land rather than let it lie idle.
During the 1949-50 planting season, a total of 43,-
000 acres was planted in Florida. At this rate, it
would take 35 years to plant just the 1.5 million acres
of fair- and good-quality nonrestocking forest land.
To do the job in 20 years would mean stepping up
the annual planting to 75,000 acres, or nearly double
the area planted during the 1949-50 season.
A large part of this 1.5 million acres of nonrestock-
ing fair- and good-quality forest land is suitable for
machine planting (fig. 40). About 1.3 million acres
is made up of areas that are at least 10 acres in
size and sufficiently firm, level, and free of stumps
and rocks or scrub timber to permit the operation of
a tractor-drawn planting machine. The remaining
area would have to be planted by hand.
6. Work out ways of restocking the less productive
forest land. One reason for concentrating the plant-
ing effort on the more productive land is that
methods of getting the poorer land restocked have
not been very well worked out. All together, Florida
has 5.6 million acres of poor-quality land which is
Ficure 40.—Florida has 1.5 million acres of fair- and good-quality nonrestocking forest land. About 1.3 million acres of
this is suitable for machine planting. (Photo courtesy of Florida Forest Service.)
48 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
2 in A
|
7
i
|
:
unlikely to restock naturally for many years. Of this,
2.1 million acres is longleaf pine type and 1.7 million
acres 1s scrub oak type. Originally, most of this area
was covered with merchantable stands of longleaf
pine.
For the most part, slash and loblolly pine, the
species usually recommended for planting, do not
thrive on these dry, sandy ridge soils. Although long-
leaf pine is the species best adapted to this type of
land, attempts to get it established have not been
successful. Most of these areas, however, are capable
of growing fair stands of longleaf pine. The problem
is to find an effective way of getting them established
again following the removal of the merchantable
stand. A stepped-up program of research on both the
basic and applied aspects of natural and _ artificial
regeneration of longleaf pine on the poorer sites
is needed.
Florida also has 1.5 million acres of poor-quality
slash pine land which is not restocking. Nearly a
million acres of this nonrestocking poor-quality slash
pine land is in South Florida. This part of the State
needs more forest industries; it has the potential
timber-growing capacity to support more. But until
large parts ofthis nonrestocking land can be brought
back into forest production, opportunities for ex-
pansion in this region are very limited. There is
evidence that fire protection coupled with simple
management practices would make reforestation in
the southern part of the State a financially attractive
venture. A growth study in Lee County showed that
where fire was excluded or very diameter
growth was more than double that on areas burned
annually or frequently. However, a thorough investi-
gation of both the technical and financial aspects
of reforestation and timber management in this part
of the State is needed.
7. Make better use of available timber. Shifts in
the kind of timber used for various products would
help to prevent further deterioration of forest condi-
Tare,
tions. There is a need to ease the commodity-drain
pressure on the rapidly disappearing supply of large
timber which is the base for the maintenance and
future expansion of the lumber industry. One way
to do this is to reduce the amount of pulpwood
cut from large timber. In 1948, 29 percent of the
pulpwood was cut from trees 13.0 inches and larger.
A shift of the cut to smaller sizes would seem to be
feasible in view of the rapidly increasing supply of -
small timber. Another saving could be made by in-
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
creasing the amount of pulpwood taken from tops
of pine trees cut for sawlogs. In 1948, the tops. of
pine trees cut for sawlogs amounted to about 233,000
cords. Of this, 187,000 cords were used for pulpwood.
About 15 percent of the total pulpwood cut came
from tops in 1948; with better coordination between
sawlog and pulpwood operations, it should be possi-
ble to increase this proportion to 20 percent.
Also, a greater amount of pulpwood could come
from thinnings. In 1949, 860,000 acres of pine stands
were overstocked. While most of the excess stocking
was made up of trees too small to make pulpwood,
these overstocked stands contained about 1.6 million
cords of trees 5.0 inches and larger in excess of what
is required to fully stock them. A significant increase
in the amount of timber available from thinnings
can be expected when the large backlog of young
timber in these overstocked stands reaches
mercial size.
com-
In 1949, there were 7.8 million worked-out trees
in the State. A heavier cut of these low-quality trees
would leave more round trees to grow into quality
saw timber. The possibility of easing the commodity-
drain pressure on the timber supply by utilizing saw-
mill wastes for pulp also should be investigated.
8. Guide the development of forest industries. The
establishment of new industries that would compete
with existing industries for timber already in short
supply should be discouraged. Temporarily at least,
Florida has little room for new sawmills. There is
probably room for a moderate expansion of the pulp
and paper industry providing the cut from thinnings,
tops, worked-out timber, and low-grade hardwoods is
stepped up. However, it would be desirable to keep
the commodity drain at about the current level for
a while to permit a substantial part of the young
timber to grow into quality saw timber to build up
the badly depleted supply.
Florida has a large amount of low-grade hard-
woods which is not being used. There are more than a
billion and a half board feet of low-grade hardwood
timber (Grade 3B logs) and 22.7 millions cords of
sound cull hardwood trees. Here is an opportunity
for the establishment of new industries able to use
this raw material in the manufacture of such prod-
ucts as fibre, alcohol, or molasses. Information on the
location, amount, and quality of this type of timber
should be made available to prospective new in-
dustries. ;
In spite of the adequate supply of round trees, an
49
expansion of the naval stores industries under existing
practices would be very undesirable. This would
serve only to convert a larger proportion of potential
quality saw timber into low-grade, worked-out tim-
ber. There is already too much of the latter type
of timber in the State. An expansion in naval stores
operations under improved practices, however, such
as selective cupping and bark chipping, is desirable
and should be encouraged.
Although present opportunities for the establish-
ment of more forest industries in Florida are limited,
the future holds promise of substantial expansion,
once growth can be brought more nearly in line
with the potential capacity of the forest land. When
this future expansion can take place depends upon
how rapidly the corrective measures suggested are
put into practice.
50 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
Literature Cited
»DHYH— —KKK
(1) Baker, H. L. (15)
1926. FOREST FIRES IN FLORIDA. The Fla. For- 1950. FOREST RESOURCES OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA,
estry Assoc. 36 pp., illus. 1949. U.S. Forest Serv. Southeastern For-
(2) BrckForp, C. A., AnD NEwcoms, L. S. est Expt. Sta. Forest Survey Release 32, 36
1947. PRESCRIBED BURNING IN THE FLORIDA FLAT- pp., illus. [Processed.]
woops. U. S. Forest Serv. Fire Control (16) "
Notes 8(1): 17-23, illus. 1950. FOREST RESOURCES OF SOUTH FLORIDA,
(3) Brswe.y, H. H., anp OTHERS. 1949. U.S. Forest Serv. Southeastern For-
1942. FOREST GRAZING AND BEEF CATTLE PRODUC- est Expt. Sta. Forest Survey Release 33, 21
TION IN THE COASTAL PLAIN OF GEORGIA. pp., illus. [Processed.]
Ga. Coastal Plain Expt. Sta. Cir. 8, 25 pp., (17)
illus: 1950. FOREST STATISTICS FOR FLORIDA, 1949. U.
(5).
(6)
|
|
Bryan, Mackay B.
1950. TIMBER PRODUCTION AND COMMODITY DRAIN
FROM FLORIDA’S FORESTS, 1948. U.S.
Forest Serv. Southeastern Forest Expt. Sta.
Forest Survey Release 34, 35 pp., illus.
[Processed.]
FioripA Forest SERVICE.
1932. SECOND BIENNIAL REPORT, JULY 1, 1930-
JUNE 30, 1932. 36 pp., illus.
1936. BIENNIAL REPORT OF THE FLORIDA FOREST
AND PARK SERVICE, JULY 1, 1934-JUNE 30,
1936. 61 pp., illus.
FLoripA STATE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
1949. SOME FACTORS OF FLORIDA’S ECONOMY,
1946-1948. Fla. Dept. Agr. 17 pp.
GeEorGIA COASTAL PLAIN EXPERIMENT STATION.
1950. THIRTIETH ANNUAL REPORT, 1949-1950.
151 pp., illus.
GruscuHow, G. F.
1950. AcID-TREATED TURPENTINE BUTTS YIELD
QUALITY SAW TIMBER. Naval Stores Rev.
60(22): 22-23, illus.
HarTMANn, A. W.
1949. FIRE AS A TOOL IN SOUTHERN PINE. U. S.
Dept. Agr. Yearbook 1949: 517-527, illus.
HEYWARD, FRANK, AND BaRNETTE, R. M.
1934. EFFECT OF FREQUENT FIRES ON GHEMICAL
COMPOSITION OF FOREST SOILS IN THE
LONGLEAF PINE REGION. Florida Agr. Expt.
Sta. Tech. Bul. 265, 39 pp., illus.
MANUFACTURER’S RECORD PUBLISHING Co., INC.
1949. THE BLUE BOOK OF SOUTHERN PROGRESS.
172 pp., illus., Baltimore, Md.
McCormack, J. F.
1949. FOREST RESOURCES OF NORTHEAST FLORIDA,
1949. U.S. Forest Serv. Southeastern For-
est Expt. Sta. Forest Survey Release 30, 36
pp., illus. [Processed.]
1949. FOREST RESOURCES OF CENTRAL FLORIDA,
1949. U.S. Forest Serv. Southeastern For-
est Expt. Sta. Forest Survey Release 31, 36
pp., illus. [Processed.]
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
21)
22)
S. Forest Serv. Southeastern Forest Expt.
Sta. Forest Survey Release 36, 73 pp., illus.
[Processed.]
McCuL.tey, R. D.
1950. MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL SLASH PINE
STANDS IN THE FLATWOODS OF SOUTH
GEORGIA AND NORTH FLoRIDA. U. S. Dept.
Agr. Cir. 845, 57 pp., illus.
NAvAL Stores REVIEW.
1950. INTERNATIONAL YEARBOOK. New Orleans,
La., 114 pp., illus.
Ostrom, C. E.
1945. HISTORY OF GUM NAVAL STORES INDUSTRY.
Chemurgic Digest 4(13): 217, 219-223,
illus.
Rysera, M. E.
1950. BETTER TOOLS FOR GUM PRODUCTION. Na-
val Stores Rev. 60(22): 14-16, illus.
SHINGLER, G. P.
1951. STATUS OF THE NAVAL STORES INDUSTRY.
Naval Stores Rev. 61(8): 14, 15, 22, 23.
Squires, JoHN W.
1947. PRESCRIBED BURNING IN FLORIDA. Jour.
Forestry 45: 815-819.
UniTepD STATES BUREAU OF THE CENSUS.
1946. FLORIDA: STATISTICS BY COUNTIES. U. S.
Census of Agr. 1945, Vol. 1, pt. 18, 162 pp.
1949. CENSUS OF MANUFACTURERS, 1947, FLORIDA.
U. S. Dept. Com. Series MC109, 8 pp.,
illus.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE,
1924. STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE
STATES, 1923. 878 pp.
Unitep STATES ForEsT SERVICE.
1929. VOLUME, YIELD, AND STAND TABLES FOR
SECOND GROWTH SOUTHERN PINES. U, S.
Dept. Agr. Misc. Pub. 50, 202 pp., illus.
WAHLENBERG, W. G.
1946. LONGLEAF PINE. Charles Lathrop Pack For-
estry Foundation, Washington, D. C. 429
pp., illus.
UNITED
51
ee Appendix
DY
Survey Methods
The forest survey of Florida used aerial photo-
graphs as a basis for preliminary estimates of forest
area and stand-class area. A stratified sample of
forest plots was located on the photographs and was
then carefully cruised on the ground. The county
was the basic work unit. Detailed statistics by survey
units and counties have been issued in five publica-
tions. (13; 14,-15;16;-17);
Area Estimates
Acreages of forest and other land were estimated
with the use of a dot grid placed on every third
contact print along each flight line in each county.
(In parts of South Florida suitable photography was
not available so the dot grid was used on Soil Con-
servation Service maps made up from small-scale
aerial photographs. In Taylor County lack of both
photographs and Soil Conservation Service maps
necessitated the use of a Florida Forest Service type
map.) The proportion of dots falling on forest land
when applied to the gross area of the county, as
reported in 1940 by the Bureau of the Census, yielded
a preliminary estimate of the acreage of forest and
other land-use classes in each county. This estimate
was revised after field checks were made of a sample
of both forest and nonforest ground plots. All together
approximately 148,000 of these dots were classified.
Every third dot classified as forest in the preceding
step, about 27,500, was further classified into forest
type, stand class, and density class by careful stereo-
scopic analysis of a one-acre plot surrounding the dot
on the photograph. The proportion of plots falling
in each classification when applied to the forest area
of the county gave the total area in each classification.
These totals were revised after a sample of plots
was checked for proper classification on the ground.
In estimating the areas of various categories of
land, there were two possible sources of error: (1)
errors in classifying the dots and plots or in compiling
Se |
the data, and (2) sampling errors. In this survey
every effort. was made to maintain a high order of -
accuracy in the collection and compilation. Frequent
checks were made and a continuous program of
training was carried out. The sampling intensity
was sufficient to provide an estimate of the forest
acreage of the State with a standard error of =
0.4 percent. This indicates the probabilities are two
out of three that the actual forest area is within =
0.4 percent of the value given, exclusive of measure-
ment and computing errors.
Volume Estimates =
Timber cruisers made a detailed on-the-ground
tally of photo plots in each stand-size class to obtain
volume, growth, cull, and mortality data and to
check the accuracy of the photo classification. The
number of plots tallied varied according. to the
stand-size classe; i.e., every 3d large saw-timber
photo plot, every 4th small saw-timber, every 6th—
pole-timber, every 13th seedling and sapling plot,
and every 26th poorly stocked or nonstocked plot
was taken. The total amounted to 3,542 one-fourth
acre plots, although these were classified by forest
type and stand-size class on a one-acre basis. An addi-
tional sample of 916 plots, classified as agricultural
on the photographs or maps, was taken to provide
a check on land-use changes since the date of photo-
graphy.
In estimating timber volumes, the sources of error
include (1) errors in classifying field plots and in
compiling the data, (2) sampling errors, (3) in-
accurate measurements of tree diameter, height,
form, and cull, and (4) errors resulting from im-
proper construction or use of tree volume tables.
As in the case of area determinations, every effort
was made to obtain accurate classifications, measure-
ments, and final statistics through frequent checks
and training. The volume tables used also were
checked and found to give reasonably accurate
results. The standard error of estimate of the board-
52 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture’
foot volume of saw timber in the State is -£1.7
percent; a corresponding error for the total volume
in cords was not computed, but it should be smaller.
Growth Estimates
Net growth was computed only on live saw-timber
and pole-timber trees. Cull trees and hardwood limbs
were not included in growth calculations.
Measurements for growth calculations were
obtained from increment borings taken from me-
chanically selected trees on the sample plots measured
for volume estimates. A total of 5,242 sample trees
3.0 inches and larger in diameter were bored. In
general, computational procedures consisted of add-
ing the volume of small trees that grew to mer-
chantable size or grew into a higher diameter-class
group during the preceding 10-year period to the
growth of the trees that remained in a particular
diameter class.
Sample tree diameters were increased by using
the measured diameter growth of trees of the same
diameter class. For instance, the average diameter
growth of 8-inch trees was based on the growth of
trees that were 8 inches in diameter at the start of
‘the growth period, not on the last 10 years’ growth
of an 8-inch tree. Also, an allowance was made for
bark growth during this period. The projected vol-
ume of the sample tree was then expressed as an
annual percentage increase through the use of com-
pound interest tables, and these percentages were
applied directly to the growing-stock
Mortality was obtained by special studies on the
ground plots, and the total annual loss was deducted
from total growth.
volume.
_ Growth of turpentined trees was determined by a
special field study involving ring counts and radial
growth measurements on stump and_ stem cross-
sections of worked-out trees cut on logging and pulp-
wood operations.
Drain Estimates
Following the completion of the forest inventory
of Florida in 1949, the Southeastern Forest Experi-
ment Station and the Florida Forest Service co-
operated in a field survey to determine the volume
of raw forest products used in Florida or shipped
to out-of-State users in 1948. A complete canvass
of sawmills and primary nonlumber plants in Florida
and adjoining areas was made to obtain 1948 pro-
duction of logs, bolts, and stumps. Contacts with
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
treating plants, railroads, large utilities, and exporters
were made for data on hewn cross ties, poles, and
piling.
The 1948 production of fuel wood, fence posts,
and farm timbers was estimated through an area
sample. Small areas totaling approximately one per-
cent of the area of the State were selected mechan-
ically from the Master Sample of Agriculture, a
sampling system used by the Bureau of Agricultural
Economics in agricultural sampling work. A complete
canvass of each area was made to determine the
amount of the items produced during 1948. The data
were then expanded to give county and State totals
(4).
Additional information was needed to convert the
1948 production data to commodity drain. To obtain
this, a separate study was made on a random selection
of the woods operations for each of the 10 leading
products. The study was made on active operations
in order to determine: (1) the extent of over-
utilization or waste, compared to Forest Survey
standards, in trees cut for the various products; (2)
the species, tree sizes, log diameters, and quality
of material used; (3) the species, size, and quality
of trees ruined in cutting and logging operations;
and (4) other information, such as bark thicknesses
and length of bolts, for use in converting the in-
formation to the different units of measure.
Reliability of the Data.—Four general sources
of error could affect the accuracy of the data used
in the production and commodity drain estimates.
These are reporting errors, canvassing errors, errors
in compiling data, and sampling errors.
Most producers of fuel wood, fence posts, and
farm timbers, as well as some small sawmills and
other manufacturers, furnished estimates of produc-
tion rather than actual bookkeeping records. In-
dividual errors caused by this are not likely to be
large and may tend to be compensating; but it is not
possible to measure them. Enumerating work was
done by men familiar with the locality who had
been especially trained to do accurate canvassing
work. All records and computations were carefully
checked to eliminate possible error.
Sampling errors (standard errors of estimates) are
the only errors that can be evaluated. They are
measures of the reliability of the estimates based
on the size of the sample and individual variations
within it.
53
The sampling error for the total cubic-foot com-
modity drain estimate was +£1.8 percent, as shown
by the following tabulation:
Error of cubic-
foot estimates
Product: (percent)
Sa wilog siecle eae ck mic tee eee ea 25
Bulpwood=t2s ee ie ne ee ae 2D
NEES oot at telat fe tel eg Sg eon 5.3
Polesrand: piling =2] Seis eas awe ee 6.3
FLEW CrOSS?: Gessner = aU cen ree eae 16.4
re WOO Casati eae 6.1
(OYA NCS ieee eee eae Se mal a pee 4.4
Alle productss2= See ese ea 1.8
This indicates the chances are two out of three
that the actual commodity drain was within 1.8 per-
cent of the estimated. Sampling errors shown apply
only to State totals. As the totals are broken down
by counties and species groups, their reliability
diminishes.
The sampling error was computed only for cubic-
foot commodity drain. However, the reliability would
be slightly higher for board-foot commodity drain
and approximately the same for standard-cord com-
modity drain.
The sampling error in the production estimate
would be very low, since a complete canvass was
made except in the case of fuel wood, fence posts,
and farm timbers. Computation of the production
estimate was mainly a matter of combining indi-
vidual reports to obtain county and State totals.
Public Land Ownership
Information on the forest area and timber volume
in Federal, State, county, and municipal ownership
was obtained in the following manner. The area
under Federal jurisdiction was obtained from super-
vising agencies. Various Florida State agencies pro-
vided the figures for forests, parks, and other State-
owned lands. County and municipal ownerships were
obtained at county courthouses and city halls. In
general the boundaries of these tracts were outlined
on the aerial photographs or Soil Conservation
Service maps, and dot counts were made to determine
the acreage of forest and nonforest land. Forest
plots were classified by forest type and stand class
in each publicly owned area, thus giving the area by
these classifications. Average volumes per acre by
type and stand-size class, derived from survey unit
summaries, were then applied to obtain volumes.
Definitions of Terms Used
Land-Use Classes
Forest land area—Includes (a) lands which are at
least 5 percent stocked with trees of any size and
capable of producing saw timber or other wood
products, and (b) lands from which the trees de-
scribed in (a) have been removed to less than 5-
percent stocking but which have not been developed
for other use, subdivided into the following classes:
1. Commercial—Forest land which is (a) pro-
ducing, or physically capable of producing,
usable crops of wood (usually saw timber),
(b) economically available now or in the
future, and (c) not withdrawn from timber
utilization.
with-
drawn from timber utilization through statute,
2. Noncommercial—Forest land (a)
ordinance, or administrative order, but which
otherwise qualifies as commercial forest land
and (b) incapable of yielding wood products
(usually saw timber) because of adverse site
conditions, or so physically inaccessible as to
be unavailable economically in the foreseeable
future.
Nonforest land—Land that does not qualify as
forest land, subdivided as follows:
1. Active agriculture—Land under cultivation
or in pasture, including farmyards and work
lots.
2. Idle agriculture—Land previously cultivated
or pastured but now idle or abandoned and
having less than a 5-percent stocking of trees.
Oo
. Marsh—Low, wet areas characterized by a
heavy growth of grass and reeds and -an
absence of timber.
4. Sand dunes and beaches—Nonforested sand
dunes and coastal beaches.
5. Urban and
residential and industrial suburban areas,
schoolyards, cemeteries, roads, railroads, power
lines, and other rights-of-way.
other areas—Includes towns,
6. Water—Includes lakes, bays, and _ estuaries
over 40 acres in size and streams, canals,
and sloughs at least one-eighth of a mile in
width which are classed as “inland water”
by the Bureau of the Census. Smaller lakes
and ponds between | acre and 40 acres in size,
54 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
and waterways between 120 feet and 660
feet in width, which are classed as land area
by the Bureau of the Census, are also included
as water areas.
Forest Types?
Pine types—Stands in which softwood species
comprise at least 25 percent of the dominant and
codominant trees with the named pine species pre-
dominating. Scattered stands of shortleaf pine and
spruce pine are included with the loblolly pine type.
Cypress—Stands in which softwood species com-
prise at least 25 percent of the dominant and co-
dominant trees with cypress or white cedar predomi-
nating.
Lowland hardwoods—Stands in which mixed hard-
woods such as water tupelo, blackgum, sweetgum,
white oak, water oak, red maple, and ash comprise
at least 75 percent of the dominant and codominant
trees. Found along rivers, small streams, and in
swamps and bays.
Upland hardwoods—Stands in which mixed hard-
woods such as red oak, white oak, post oak, hickory,
ash, sweetgum, elm, and yellow-poplar comprise at
least 75 percent of the dominant and codominant
trees. Found on the drier upland sites and on low
rolling hills bordering the flatwood zone.
Scrub oak—Stands in which scrub species such
as blackjack, bluejack, turkey and laurel oaks pre-
dominate and in which sound commercial species
comprise less than 5 percent of satisfactory stocking.
Palms—Stands in which there is at least a 5-
percent stocking of merchantable palm trees and less
than 5-percent stocking of other sound commercial
species.
Stand-size Glasses
Saw timber—Stands with saw-timber trees having
a minimum net volume of 1,500 board feet net,
International %-inch log rule, per acre in sound,
live, softwood trees 9.0 inches d.b.h. or larger, or
hardwood trees 11.0 inches d.b.h. or larger. Two
classes of young saw-timber stands are recognized:
1. Large saw timber—Saw-timber stands having
more than 50 percent of the net board-foot
volume in softwood trees 15.0 inches d.b.h. or
larger, or hardwood trees 17.0 inches d.b.h.
or larger.
9Refers to types discussed in text but not to types listed
in table 18.
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
2. Small saw timber—Saw-timber stands having
50 percent or more of the net board-foot
volume in softwood trees less than 15.0 inches
d.b.h., or hardwood trees less than 17.0 inches
d:byh:
Pole timber—Stands failing to meet the saw-
timber stand specification, but at least 10 percent
stocked with pole-timber and larger trees (5 inches
d.b.h. and larger) and with at least half the stocking
in pole-timber trees.
Seedling and sapling—Stands not qualifying as
either saw-timber or pole-timber stands, but having
at least 10 percent stocking of trees of commercial
species and with at least half the minimum stocking
in seedlings and saplings. Eight hundred seedlings
or saplings per acre are considered full stocking.
Nonstocked and other areas not elsewhere classi-
fied—Areas not qualifying as saw-timber, pole-tim-
ber, or seedling and sapling stands.
Diameters
D. b.h. (diameter at breast height) —Stem diameter
in inches, outside bark, measured at 4% feet above
the ground.
Diameter class—All trees were tallied by 2-inch
diameter classes, each class including diameters 1.0
inch below and 0.9 inch above the stated midpoint,
e.g., trees 7.0 to and including 8.9 inches are in
the 8-inch class.
Tree Classification
Growing stock—Net volume in cubic feet of live
saw-tiumber trees and live pole-timber trees from
stump to a minimum 4.0-inch top (of central stem)
inside bark.
Saw-timber trees—Net volume in board feet,
International 14-inch rule, of softwood trees at least
9.0 inches d.b.h. and hardwood trees at least 11.0
inches d.b.h., with not less than one merchantable
log 12 feet long, or with not less than 50 percent
of the gross volume of the tree in sound timber.
Pole-timber trees—-Straight-boled trees between 5.0
inches d.b.h. and saw-timber sizes.
Sound cull trees—Live trees of saw-timber or
pole-timber size which meet required specifications
of freedom from rot but will not make at least one
merchantable sawlog, now or prospectively, according
to regional specifications because of roughness, poor
form, or species. Volumes shown in the text for sound
55
cull trees also include the limbs, in sections 4 feet
long and at least 4.0 inches in diameter inside bark,
of sound saw-timber-size hardwoods. Scrub oak and
noncommercial species such as ironwood, blue beech,
sassafras, etc., are included in this group.
Rotten cull trees—Live trees of pole-timber and
saw-timber sizes that fail to meet regional specifica-
tions of the proportion of sound volume to total
volume.
Palms—All species of Sabal 5.0 inches d.b.h. and
larger with at least 12 feet of clear stem. All palm
trees were considered to be free of rotten defect.
Species Groups
Softwoods—All of the pines, eastern redcedar,
Atlantic white-cedar, pond cypress, and baldcypress.
_ Soft-textured hardwoods—Black and water tupe-
los, sweetgum, soft maple, magnolia, and sweetbay.
The other soft-textured hardwoods include cotton-
wood, willow, basswood, and yellow-poplar.
Hard-textured hardwoods—All of the oaks, hick-
ories, ash, river birch, elm, hackberry, and sycamore.
Volume Estimates
Board-foot volume—The volume in board feet,
measured by the International %-inch rule, exclusive
of defect, of that portion of saw-timber trees of
softwoods 9.0 inches d.b.h. and larger and hardwood
trees 11.0 inches d.b.h. and larger, between. the
stump and the upper limit of merchantability for
sawlogs.
Volume in cords—The volume in standard cords
(including bark) of the sound portion of trees 5.0
inches d.b.h. and larger, between stump and a
minimum top-stem diameter of 4.0 inches inside bark,
and the volume in hardwood limbs, in sections 4
feet long and at least 4.0 inches in diameter inside
bark.
Volume in cubic feet—Same as volume shown
in cords except bark is not included.
International %-inch log rule—A rule for esti-
mating the board-foot volume of 4-foot log sections,
according to the formula V = 0.905 (0.22D? —
0.71D). The taper allowance for computing the
volume in log lengths greater than 4 feet is 0.5
inch per 4-foot section. Allowance for saw kerf is
¥%/, inch.
Standard cord—A stacked pile, 4 x 4 x 8 feet,
of unpeeled round or split bolts, estimated to contain,
on the average in Florida, 72 cubic feet of softwoods
(wood only) or 71 cubic feet of hardwoods (wood
only).
Gum Naval Stores Conditions
Round timber—A minimum of 15 longleaf and
slash pine trees 9.0 inches d.b.h. or larger per acre
that have never been worked for naval stores.
W orking—Longleaf and slash pine trees that are
now being worked for naval stores.
1. Front-faced—Turpentine tree species on
which the front or first face is now being
worked.
2. Back-faced—Turpentine tree species. on
which the front face has been worked out
and on which a back (second or third, etc.)
face is being worked.
Resting—Longleaf and slash pine trees with a
worked-out front face at least 5 feet high and on
which back-facing has not been started.
Abandoned—Longleaf and slash pine trees on
which faces less than 5 feet high were discontinued.
Worked-out—Longleaf and slash pine trees on
which two or more faces at least 5 feet high have
been worked out and with no possibility of supporting
another face.
Stocking
Stocking is the extent to which growing space is
effectively utilized by present or potential growing-
stock trees of commercial species. The number of
stems present by d.b.h. classes was used as a basis
for stocking classification. Areas having the minimum
numbers of trees listed below, either in a single
diameter class or in combinations, were considered
fully stocked.
Minimum number
trees per acre
D.b.h. (inches) :
DoE MONS Wey PROTO EAC iy ANS ee re 800
4 es BS ee SS a a 600
Gi ee ae ee ed RS er 450
Git Ba ew) Se ee Ee a Se ey eee 300
QS eas EP EAE Ren a ee ee 200
[PD Pt Re GEE aa II SE) A = SI 150
DA a A ES aT Rn AES ce 110
Growth and Drain
Net annual growth of saw timber—The change
in net board-foot volume during the calendar year in
the live saw timber on commercial forest land re-
sulting from natural causes exclusive of catastrophic
56 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
losses. Includes the gains accruing from the growth
of small trees into saw-timber sizes during the year.
Net annual growth of growing stock—The change
in cubic-foot volume during the calendar year in the
stem volume of all live trees 5.0 inches and larger
resulting from natural causes, excluding catastrophic
losses. Includes the gains accruing from the growth
of saplings into pole sizes during the year.
Annual mortality of saw timber—The net volume
-removed from live saw timber during the calendar
year through death from natural causes. Catastrophic
losses are not included.
Annual mortality of growing stock—The net vol-
ume removed from the growing stock during the
calendar year through death from natural causes.
Catastrophic losses are not included.
Commodity drain on saw timber—The net board-
foot volume of live saw-timber trees removed from
commercial forest land during the calendar year as
timber products and logging waste.
Commodity drain on growing stock—The net
cubic-foot volume of growing-stock trees removed
from commercial forest land during the calendar
year as timber products and logging waste.
Common and Botanical Names of Principal Tree Species
| Lumber or trade name
Recognized common name
Eastern redcedar _____
SOFTWOODS
Botanical name
Bednar ced se ee
@Medariene dyes ek
Cedar whites: =: 2-2 es eee
Southern redcedar ______
Atlantic white-cedar ____
Juniperus virginiana.
J. silicicola.
Chamaecyparis thyoides.
Taxodium distichum.
Cypress —
Palin seer Se ae Ne Palmettor esa &
oat pees ----
Reaanpein anny eas] PONG CY PLOSS ses ua
T. ascendens.
Sabal sps.
Loblolly pine ~~----____
Pinus taeda.
neers a as See are ae Re 2 IG) 9 eesti epee
Shortleaf pine —2=-=— 7
Slashi pine: <2s 220s sees Ss
Spruce: pine $222 S223. ssi
Recognized common name
Longleaf pine 22-2 ee P palustris:
Pond:piney 22S a ee Ps rigida var. serotina:
| Pine, southern yellow _-_________ SANs pine sac Sees ee ene P. clausa.
P. echinata.
es Va tea guerre P. elliottit (syn. “P. caribaea’ U.S. authors)
sale erick IETS P. glabra.
HARDWOODS
Botanical name
Basswood ~~-_---__-=—_
American beech ___----_~
River. birch 222 ===
Sweet birch: =—2-_ =
BB UCK eyesore ete es Se Buckéye. S25 sos
HButternu tes =o ee Butternut $232 ses 552 =
RG herny 7a ie ae ee eS Black-cherry; 22232222255
Fraxinus sps.
Tilia sps.
Fagus grandifolia.
Betula nigra.
B. lenta.
Aesculus sps.
Juglans cinerea.
Prunus serotina.
Populus sps.
Cornus florida.
Ulmus sps.
Nyssa sylvatica.
Liquidambar styraciflua.
Celtis occidentalis.
Carya sps.
Ilex opaca.
Gleditsia triacanthos.
Silver maple
| Cottonwood _~---------_---___ Cottonwood ~___-__-__-
i DWoswoodgsee a ta Mrs oe Cee Flowering dogwood ~____
Plime SO heat ara a Bilimily. 2o So Saitek neice Sie
BG unis blackee oe serosa ee Black tupelo (blackgum)
BiG rit sahe Clee rees oes eat ole Sweetoum ss seine ik
lac berry sae a ee eS SS Hackberry 32 se 2 Sask
Prlickoryasemoonnna tS E 2 eS Mickory si 202s sane ceo
Elo ype ease Os SSeS American holly ~~----__
Biloneylocuste see se Hloneylocus tease er sees mee oo EE ee
| Hornbeam CHER ear tapi Se VES NT American hornbeam __~_
Plronwoodweee 22 eee Eastern hophornbeam ___
Black locustza2 so isa
} Southern magnolia —~____
anoweetbayr seen Be oe
Boxelderig = See ee
Redsmapless=2
Carpinus caroliniana.
Ostrya virginiana.
Robinia pseudoacacia.
Magnolia grandiflora.
M. virginiana.
Acer negundo.
A, rubrum.
A. saccharinum.
SSE AEE i cel et Red mulberry _-~-~-_-__
Morus rubra.
57
Lumber or trade name
HARDWOODS—Continued
Recognized common name
Botanical name
Quercus velutina.
. marilandica.
. cinerea.
. falcata var. leucophylla.
. laurtfolia.
. palustris.
. coccinea.
. sShumardiu
. falcata.
. falcata var. pagodaefolia.
. catesbaei.
. nigra.
. phellos.
. montana.
. virginiana.
. lyrata.
. stellata.
. prinus.
. alba.
Diospyros virginiana.
Cercis canadensis.
Sassafras albidum.
Oxydendrum arboreum.
Platanus occidentalis.
Nyssa aquatica.
Juglans nigra.
Blackioak 22 ste see
Blackjack oaki sss ses are aie Q
Blucjacksoakw == ese Sees Q
Gherrybark;oak===—==s2 = alee Q
Teaurelis Oa ke en ee ee eee Q
Pintoak Sosa a See ea ee Q
@aksered ea 2 ee Scarletioak (Sees es eee eee Q
Shumard* oak === 3 Sess Q
SouthemPmredtoak= Sees ie eee Q
Swamp:red=oak=23=55=— = eee Q
Rurkey2oak- =e Raia eee Q
Wiatersoak: +327 Ese =e ee Q
Willowsoak: == 22 — Ss ht Seen Q
Chestnutsoaks ast s es Seis ee ree)
TIVE s © ae ee eet vas Dien eae Q
: Overcup; Oaks ses be a a a oe Q
Oakiawhite == = eee Post ee een ate eee Te eS O
Swamp: chestnutzoak= 22s) === sees Q
Win t 0 zal cee een BE Sere Q
Persimmon 22a = = ee Common-=persimmons 228 Ses eee
IRV bot ge eee Soe a Bastern=red bud 222s se en See
DASSAlT AS warren eer aeie ete ale eo Sassafras _-___-____ Fae ene eee ae
SOurwoodtve sss a ee Sourwood Se estan an Sr ee Ae RW =
Sycamores sss ee ees American sycamores = =n =e
Mupeloe sine stes2s = eee ae a Weaterstupel oss ee ees
Wali t es ee ee ee ae Black walnut rao ate Soe irae Se rae es
Willow pcos Se See See Beales Willow. es
Salix sps.
Yellow-poplar
Forest Survey Standard Tables
As each State throughout the Nation is reported
upon by the Forest Survey following initial or re-
surveys, a standard set of tables presenting informa-
tion on forest area, ownership, timber volume, growth
TasBLe 10.—Land area by major classes of land,
Florida, 1949
Class of land Land area
Forest: Thousand acres
Commiercia) 222 a eee 21,451
Noncommercial:
Reserved from commercial timber use - - - 46
Unproductive for timber use__--_-_-___- 1,550
Lotalive: 22s S58 Se ee 23,047
Nonforestitet2 = Soe ee ee eee 11,681
Total; alliclassess= S222 55 Soe ee eee 34,728
' Includes 249 thousand acres of water according to Survey standards
of area classification, but defined by the Bureau of Census as land.
Liriodendron tulipifera.
and drain will be presented. With such tables, forest
statistics for any region or group of States can easily —
be compiled. Standard tables prepared for the State i
of Florida, based on the 1949 survey, appear on the ©
following pages.
TaBLe 11.—Commercial forest land area by ownership and
stand-size class, Florida, 1949
Saw- Pole- | Seedling! Nonstocked
Ownership class Total | timber | timber gue and other
stands | stands | Sapling areas!
stands
Federally owned Thousand| Thousand) Thousand| Thousand| Thousand ;
or managed: acres acres acres acres acres P|
National forest___}| 1,025 212 327 213 273
Indian==2o-se==2- 36 (?) (?) 1 35
Other === = 920 141 110 56 - 613
otal sseseseeee 1,981 353 437 270 921
States at =e eee 223 35 16 7 165
County and municipal 56 6 4 2 44
Privates=oos = a oeee ee 19,191 2,839 3,073 2,017 11,2629
Total, all
ownerships-_-_-_|21,451 3,233 3,530 2,296 12,3927
' Includes areas not elsewhere classified.
* Less than 500 acres.
Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agriculture
TasLe 12.—Area of commercial forest land, by major
forest types, Florida, 1949
Forest type! Thousand acres
Wongleaf-slash piness2225 soe eas eee 12,993
Loblolly-shortleafspines- 2222 i223 see eee 1,144
Oak=hickory tases cn ea Seen ow ee ane oe 22,481
Oak=pines! see Sete eee lee See 654
@Oak-oum=-cypress= 22st ee eee eens 4,179
otal aes ss se a ek SAO 21,451
1 Forest-type acreages in this table were computed on a cubic-volume
basis except for seedling and sapling stands, where number of stems was the
criterion. Specifications required 50 percent of the cubic volume of num-
ber of stems of the indicated species except for the hardwood-pine type
which required 25 percent pine.
3 Includes upland hardwoods and scrub oak types shown elsewhere
in this report.
TaBie 13.—WNet volume of live saw timber and growing stock
on commercial forest land, by stand-size class, Florida, 1949
Stand-size class Saw timber Growing stock
Million bd. ft. Million cu. ft.
Saw-timber stands_____.________--_-_- 13,517 3,933
Pole-timber stands.___-__.--_-_-_---_- 2,975 1,914
Seedling and sapling stands____________ 1,055 442
Nonstocked and other areas not else-
wherei classified 22 Sana Se eee 3,047 1,068
eV otal eee a ied ae 20,594 7,357
Tasie 14.—WNet volume of live saw timber and growing stock
on commercial forest land, by ownership class, Florida, 1949
Ownership class Saw timber | Growing stock
Million bd. ft. Million cu. ft.
Federally owned or managed:
INational*forests 282 ah es ier eS 1,331 520
Gaye PER eae eh ak ce es eee ae 12 6
Others sen ese RE Ee 948 346
GL Oba ee eee ee ene 2,291 872
SS Ea Oe epee lee Se epee Sale 201 71
County and municipal________________ 39 15
Private sce ewes Ss eee eee 18,063 6,399
Total, all ownerships____________ 20,594 Ese hy)
The Timber Supply Situation in Florida
TaBLe 15.—WNet volume of live saw timber and growing stock
on commercial forest land, by species, Florida, 1949
Species Saw timber | Growing stock
Million bd. ft. Million cu. ft.
Softwoods:
Longleaf and slash pines__.._-----_-_ 10,768 3,631
Shortleaf and loblolly pines__-----_- 1,302 324
Other southern yellow pines_-_--_-_-_ 621 196
Cypressa se Sei ees PE 3,095 1,199
Other eastern softwoods__________- 91 24
PIO tal se dean nee a Sa ie 15,877 5,374
Hardwoods:
Wihite oaksis i 22422 see 319 98
Red-oaks22 asso 252 3 ee ES 768 295
Soft:maples2:= See sees lees seek 190 121
sweetgums = 2282s ee 629 237
Tupelo and blackgum________-___- 1,578 654
DNC) « este DD Seg A TE OAD ag 208 117
HMickoryssouo sie eats Sa ee 157 57
IBASSWOOG2 so ese eS eas 25 10
Mellow=poplarsss=- 222s eos 22 Se 40 19
Other eastern hardwoods-_-_-_-__-_-_- 803 375
Mo tales Sea ares oak a es 4,717 1,983
Totalxallvspectes sis ssa e es SAN wees 20,594 PEELE
TasBLe 16.—Net volume of live saw timber on commercial
forest land by diameter-class group and selected species,
Florida, 1949
Diameter-class group
Species
9.0 to 12.9 13.0 to 18.9 19.0 inches
inches inches and
d.b.h.! d.b.h. larger d.b.h.
Million Million Million
bd. ft. bd. ft. bd. ft.
Longleaf and slash pines 7,592 2,905 271
Shortleaf and loblolly
Pinesisl eas ae es 449 696 157
White and chestnut oaks 44 105 170
Tupelo and blackgum _-_ 424 834 320
Sweetgum 222: So2ce SEs 143 370 116
Yellow-poplar_-_------- 12 283 |2o eee ae es
1 10-inch diameter class not included for eastern hardwoods.
59
TaBie 17.—Net volume of all timber on commercial forest
land, by class of material and species group, Florida, 1949
Class of material Total Softwoods | Hardwoods
Growing stock: Million Million Million
Saw-timber trees: cu. ft. cu. ft. cu. ft.
Sawlog portion_--_-_- 3,502 2,687 815
Upperistenis-=—-=— = 771 592 179
Lotalo ose esas woe ee 4,273 35279 994
Pole-timber trees___-_-_- 3,084 2,095 989
Total growing stock---- 15397 5,374 1,983
Other material:
Sound cull trees:
Saw-timber size_____- 1,086 96 . 990
Pole-timber size-_---_- 1,431 86 1,345
‘Total-t e222 SS ke 2,517 182 2,335
Rotten cull trees _--_-_--_- 1,167 168 999
Hardwood limbs_--_------ 281) S-e Reese 281
Total, other material__- 13,965 350 3,615
‘Total;all'classes === 2 esse 11,322 5,724 5,598
1 Includes 1,009 million cu. ft. of palms.
TasiLe 18.—WNet annual growth, annual mortality and com-
modity drain of live saw timber and growing stock on
commercial forest land, Florida, 1949
Saw timber Growing stock
Item
Soft- | Hard- Soft- | Hard-
Total woods | woods Total woods | woods
Million | Million | Million | Million | Million | Million
bd. ft. bd. ft. | bd. ft. cu.ft. | cu.ft. | cu.ft.
Net annual growth___} 1,125 935 190 370 291 79
Annual mortality ---_ 105 78 27 36 27 9
Commodity drain-___- 937 824 113 232 206 26
60 Forest Resource Report No. 6, U. S. Department of Agricultu z
TaBLe 19.—Total output of Sinks products from all timber,
Florida, 1948
A ; M cubi
Timber product Standard unit Number |. iudin = fects
Sawlogs (for lumber and
Sawnities) === see Mebdstt wate 546,900 88,820
Veneer, bolts22=2422 2522 |2== do2 = 2s 86,200 13,590
Cooperage bolts_-__----]--- doles 10,500 1,640
Pulpwood bolts__------- Standard cords? 1,221,200 96,960
Fuel wood2= <=—==-- 24 |=— doz sae 351,700 28,400
Chemical-wood=- === =|=—2 donee ee ss 608,700 39,560
Piling -sb se ee Tinear feet 2— === 1,048,500 740
Poles = See (Pieces==-> == 373,200 5,330
Post (round and split)--_|_-- do2 aS 1,710,400 1,120
Hewn' ties 2222 se doze == 1,402,100 8,340
Miscelianeous-__-__--_--- Mi civitvasse = 1,520 1,520
Total;all-tintbers= | 2222 s— ee | eee eee
1 Board feet, International 14-inch rule.
? Standard cords—rough wood (unpeeled). A pile of stacked wood 4
feet by 4 feet by 8 feet within its outside surface.
i
MAJOR FOREST TYPES — FLORIDA
1950
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRIGULTURE - FOREST SERVICE
SOUTHEASTERN FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION - |. T. HAIG, DIRECTOR
LEGEND
LONGLEAF - SLASH PINE OAK - HICKORY
LOBLOLLY PINE OAK - GUM-CYPRESS
SAND PINE UNPRODUCTIVE FOREST
OAK - PINE
[|_| Prarmie om wars
SCALE IN MILES
\
OenreQ——_10 203040
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