BUTLER/CUNNINGHAM

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polioej@acesag.auburn.edu

Level 2

AL Ag Facts:

Forestry

Selection of Similar Pages

As agricultural land in Alabama was abandoned for farming it came to be used for growing trees. Agricultural in Alabama peaked in the early 1950s and then has declined steadily since. Forestry began to take off in the early 1950s and has grown steadily since, until it is now the largest single industry in Alabama. It is not the role of this site to tell the story of forestry in Alabama. Interested readers can go to the Alabama Forestry Association site (www.alaforesty.org), to the site for the Alabama Forestry Commission (www.forestry.state.al.us), to the American Forest and Paper Association (www.afandpa.org), to some of the sites listed from the page on Environmental Facts (see "Home Page" drop-down menu from above), and to the School of Forestry of Auburn University.

Concise summaries (see buttons below) are in

"Forest Facts" of the AFA at www.alaforestry.org/frameset_facts.html

or the similar page at www.forestry.state.al.us/publication/forest_facts.htm.

Please also see the page for Agricultural History in this series on AL Ag Facts, from the drop-down menu above, where you can find a brief paper on the conversion of farmland to forest land.

The first button to the left goes to a long PDF document put out jointly by the Alabama State Forestry Commission and the USDA. It is worth looking over despite the length. In the middle is a chart of forest growth in Alabama over the last 50 years. The second button to the left refers to a map summarizing the output of the 8 most important timber producing states, of which Alabama is one. Those states account for about 40% of production and revenues for the country. Surprisingly, the top 8 states do not differ much between themselves in total production and revenues although they differ in the kinds of trees they grow and the kinds of products they send out. The third button connects to an American Forest and Paper Association page that gives a synopsis of the role of forestry in Alabama and of the recent growth of forestry. The fourth button leads to "Forestry Facts" of the ALA. The fifth button goes to the forest facts page of the Alabama State Forestry Commissioni.

The next set of three buttons lead to information from Dr. Ken Muehlenfeld of the College of Forestry of Auburn University (his files included numerical and graphical information; we have selected the graphical material for convenience to users of this site). The first button shows the amount of land in Alabama under forest cover since the 1950s. The second button shows the amount of timber on the land; the increase in amount of timber relative to amount of land indicates the effects of managed forestry. The relative amount of hardwood to softwood has actually increased in the last decade, reflecting both a shift in the market and natural progressions that tree growers are allowing to occur on their lands. The third button shows the dramatic increase in the shipment of forest products since the 1950s, and therefore the importance of forest products to the Alabama economy. It indicates increases in efficiency in both growing and processing wood products.