Appendix vi

The deforestation of the Southeast hardwood forests is happening at such an alarming rate that the entire ecosystem will change in the next 30 years if reason and conservation do not become active ingredients of our forest management plan.

Timbering is cyclical. The massive trees from the South's old growth were removed in the 1920's and 1930's by ax and mule. The technology of the day did not allow the lumberjacks the luxury of clear-cutting they have today with huge, rubber tired machines and even helicopters to pluck the timber treasures from steep slopes and mountainsides.

This time around, it is conceivable that nothing will be left. More alarming rhetoric from tree loving environmentalists? Hardly.

It's a warning that forestry experts throughout the country are quietly repeating, hoping that someone in the industry will listen, but not speaking too loudly for fear that their message will give the industry even more bad publicity.

The experts point to Alabama for proof. That state's hardwood forests are virtually depleted. The oaks, poplars, hickories, and dogwoods have been replaced by rows of pines.

Scientists describe our Southern hardwoods as a "mixed mesophytic forest" which spreads from Alabama to Pennsylvania and Ohio. Much of this broadleaf forest was cut over by rape and run logging operations which later made their way westward.

Over the decades, the once abused mixed mesophytic has slowly healed itself. Today it constitutes the largest block of deciduous woodland in North America with more than 80 tree species. Never glaciated, it is North America's oldest forest.

But it is being threatened by massive logging operations and a demand for wood chips overseas that no amount of cutting can seem to satisfy.

Complaints about chip mills cause most industry officials to lock arms in defense. But the bottom line is that chipping operations are giving the entire industry a black eye.

Sawmill operators in Alabama are finally beginning to realize the mistake of cutting young hardwoods for chips. They're getting fewer and fewer oak saw logs because high value timber is being cut prematurely to feed the awesome appetites of the chip mills.

Bob Lawton, professor of forest ecology at the University of Alabama, is incensed by what's happening in his state. Hardwoods are being cut at a record pace, chipped and then shipped overseas for the production of paper. Pines are replacing them.

The industry's own newsletter suggests that it is a poor steward of the forests. "International Woodfiber Report" noted in a recent edition that industry advisers already believe that "harvest rates are plunging the South towards fiber shortages and high prices."

And that warning was backed up by North Carolina State University forester Fred Cubbage who recently concluded that we have "about 10 years left before removals exceed growth."

These warnings come as companies install more and more chip mills across the South. It's evident that Cubbage's estimates are likely shortsighted. Our hardwood forests will not survive another decade.

And with them will go many species of songbirds, small mammals, and game, which depend on the mesophytic forests for survival.

Without controls, we are allowing the sale of our birthright. When the hardwoods are gone this time and pine planted in their place, they aren't likely to ever come back again.

An op-ed piece from The Daily Courier on April 3, 1998 by Wister Jackson