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Show Under 10 incH$» 10 15 15 20 20 30 30 40 Over 40 inche* AVERAGE ANNUAL RUNOFF Southeastern United States Source: U. S. Geological Survey FIGURE 4 farmers and the other half by a variety of owners. This large acreage, with trees in all stages of de- velopment from saw timber to seedlings and includ- ing denuded land, supports about 6.3 billion cubic feet of timber, including 15.5 billion board feet of saw timber. About half this volume is pine. Throughout the history of forest land use in this area timber volume has been declining, especially in pine and other favored species. Most of the larger trees and better quality timber have been harvested. Timber management is poor on most forest land. Destructive logging is the rule except in national forests and some other public lands, on two-thirds of the properties held by forest indus- tries, and on a thin scattering of other forest hold- ings. But national forests make up only 4 percent of the forest land in the basin; other public lands, 2 528 percent; and forest industry, 13 percent. On more than three-fourths of the forest land, the trend of the resource is downward. In this respect the forests of the Alabama-Coosa Basin are like those of a large part of southeastern United States. The sustained output of timber products is re- markable considering the downward trend of the forest resources. This reflects the inherent pro- ductivity and great recuperative powers of the forests of the region. Only three States outrank Alabama in lumber production; Alabama also ranks high in output of pulpwood. In 1948, about 2.2 billion board feet of lumber and 982,000 cords of pulpwood were produced. It is impossible to estimate with accuracy how many workers find employment in forest industry, as much of the employment is part-time work for |
