SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF FIA DATA

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF FOREST INVENTORY DATA FOR THE NC SOUTHERN COASTAL PLAIN UNIT

    The new forest inventory data for the Southern Coastal Plain unit in North Carolina has been released. The data covers 21 counties. The survey was conducted by the Forest Service's Southern Research Station in Asheville. It marks the seventh time since 1938 that the forest inventory has been conducted in North Carolina. The previous survey was published in 1990. State and Federal field crews are continuing to collect forest resource data in the remaining regions of North Carolina with the Northern Coastal Plain region survey to be completed the fall of 2001 followed by the Piedmont and Mountain region surveys to be finished in the next two years.
    The U.S. Forest Service and the Division of Forest Resources will host a public meeting to present results of the study on Wednesday, July 18, 2001 from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. at the Sampson County Agri-Exposition Center in Clinton, North Carolina. The Sampson County Agri-Exposition Center is located at 414 Warsaw Road in downtown Clinton. For more information on the meeting, contact Roger Conner with the Southern Research Station in Asheville at (828) 257-4359 or David Brown with the N.C. Division of Forest Resources in Raleigh at (919) 733-2162.
     Below is a summary of the findings and some related analysis.

Timberland Area

Total timberland area declined by 187,000 acres to 5 million acres total (61% of the land base).
Land use changes involving forest land occurred on 484,000 acres.
--335,000 acres went into other uses.
155,000 acres cleared for agriculture
164,000 acres cleared for urban/other uses
--149,000 acres were added to the timberland base through reforestation/natural regeneration on non-forest land.

Ownership

NIPF owners still control 75% of the timberland in the region.
--Individual ownership decreased by 6% since 1990 from 3.2 to 3.0 million acres.
--Other corporate ownership (non-industry) increased from 508,000 acres to 797,000 acres.
Forest industry ownership declined by 32% from 1 million acres in 1990 to 713,000 in 1999.
Public ownership increased 62,000 acres to 540,000 acres.

Forest Type

Softwood forest type declined by 414,000 acres to 1.9 million acres in 1999. Declines were in all softwood types. Softwoods account for 38% of the timberland in the region – down from 44% in 1990. Some of the decline was due to reclassification of stands from "pine" to "mixed pine/hardwood" stands.
Mixed stand acreage increased by 237,000 acres to 1 million acres.
Of the 1.909 million acres classified as softwood type, 1.687 million acres are loblolly/shortleaf pine – 833,000 acres are planted stands and 853,000 acres are natural stands. The remaining acreage is in longleaf/slash pine stands.
The oak/hickory forest type increased 20% to 1 million acres.
The only decline in hardwood types was in the oak/gum/cypress type which dropped 190,000 acres to 1.1 million acres.Sweet bay/black gum/red maple dominate this forest type and occupy 59% of the area.

Stand Size

A shift towards smaller stands was evident. The area of both sawtimber and poletimber stands declined since 1990 – sawtimber stands down by one-third to 1.4 million acres and poletimber stands down 26% to 967,000 acres.
Seedling/sapling stands increased by 51% (+893,000 acres) since 1990.
These changes are attributed to increased harvesting and the major disturbances (hurricanes) that have impacted the region.

Stand Treatment

Final harvests occurred on 98,000 acres annually – 76% of this on NIPF lands. This is a slight decrease from the last survey period when 109,339 acres were harvested annually.
--35% on natural pine stands
--23% on planted pine stands
--28% on hardwoods stands
--14% on mixed pine/hardwood stands
New stands were established on 127,000 acres annually since 1990.
--33% through planting
--66% through natural regeneration
Weather related damage occurred on 83,000 acres annually (high winds/flooding).
--Damage to hardwood stands accounted for two-thirds of the affected area.
Other natural disturbances (insect/disease) damaged another 35,000 acres each year.

Softwood Volume

Merchantable volume of live softwood trees declined by 7% (3.8 bcf to 3.6 bcf).
--The reduction in volume occurred in all species except loblolly pine which increased by 6% to 2.7 bcf.
--Planted stands accounted for 34% of the softwood live tree inventory compared with 24% in 1990.

Hardwood Volume

Hardwood live tree volume dropped from 4.0 bcf to 3.4 bcf in 1999. The decline was greatest on NIPF lands. Oak species accounted for one-third of the decline as volume fell from 1.0 bcf to 779.8 million cubic feet.

Growth

Net annual softwood growth (gross growth minus mortality) increased 15% from 220.9 million cubic feet to 253.5 million cubic feet/year.
--Growth on forest industry land increased 12% to 63.3 million cubic feet/year.
--Growth on NIPF lands increased 13% to 163.3 million cubic feet/year.
--Planted stands accounted for 54% of the growth in 1999 compared to 40% in 1990.
Net annual hardwood growth decreased by 34% to 82 million cubic feet/year. A major factor in this was the increased mortality in hardwoods (+67%). Growth reductions occurred across all ownerships.

Mortality

Major increases in mortality occurred across the region due to damages from hurricanes that hit the region.
Annual mortality of softwood live trees increased 111% to 53.9 million cubic feet/year.
Softwood mortality doubled on NIPF lands, increased 30% on forest industry lands and jumped 402% on public lands.
Annual mortality of hardwood live trees increased 67% to 57 million cubic feet/year.
--Mortality on NIPF lands increased 73% to 57 million cubic feet
--Mortality on public lands increased 421% (2.4 to 10.1 million cubic feet)

Removals

Annual softwood removals increased 41% to 261.1 million cubic feet – 70% of this from NIPF lands. Forest industry lands contributed 23% or 61.3 million cubic feet.
--More than 42% of the softwood removals came from planted pine stands compared to only in the previous inventory.
Annual hardwood removals increased 21% to 124.7 million cubic feet/year – 87% of this from NIPF lands. Hardwood removals from forest industry lands increased 59% to 14.3 million cubic feet/year.

STAFF ANALYSIS

Overall, the report is fairly encouraging and presents a better picture than what might have been expected given the damage from repeated hurricanes over the last few years. The data shows the continuing loss of forest land to non-forest use (300,000+ acres). This was moderated by reforestation on non-forest land (149,000 acres). Reforestation rates in total for the region declined slightly from the last survey (131,000 acres/year in 1990 to 127,000 acres/year in 1999).

Ownership patters in this region are changing. While private landowners still control 75% of the timberland, nonindustrial private and forest industry owned land declined while the "other corporate" category increased by almost 300,000 acres. "Other corporate" ownership includes lands owned by investment firms, LLC’s, banks, and other non-forest industry corporations.

The data should, at least for this region, debunk the myth about turning the world into one pine plantation. Softwood forest types in this region declined by 414,000 acres while mixed pine/hardwood and hardwood forest types increased substantially. The bulk of the softwood forest type is loblolly/shortleaf pine and about half of the total acreage is in planted stands.

Data on stand size and annual mortality information clearly shows the impact of the hurricanes and other natural disturbances. Sawtimber and poletimber stands declined substantially while the seedling/sapling size stands increased by 51%.

Of particular interest is the annual harvest data. The 1999 data shows final harvest rates have actually declined by about 11,000 acres/year from the previous survey. In fact, annual reforestation rates exceed final harvest rates by 29,000/year.

The most dramatic data concerns annual mortality. Annual softwood mortality was up 111% from the last survey period and hardwood mortality jumped 67%. On public lands, hardwood mortality increased by 421%. The report says that much of this was due to wind/flooding from the hurricanes.

Encouragingly, net annual softwood growth (gross growth minus mortality) still increased by 15% from the last survey period and now totals 253.5 million cubic feet/year. Net annual hardwood growth declined substantially, again reflecting the increased mortality. Given the big increase in seedling/sapling stands, we can probably expect the next survey to show improved growth.

Due to increased mortality, there is a growth/drain deficit in both hardwood and pine and inventories for both declined from the last survey. If softwood mortality had been at normal levels, there would have been a positive growth/drain picture (reflecting the significant growth increases in plantations). On the hardwood side, there probably would have been a deficit regardless of the mortality increases. This would be consistent with increased removals and the increasing age of the hardwood resource.

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