Dear John and others. Some may get the wrong impression from the data you posted (from the "Forest Statistics for Alabama Counties - 1990" published by the USDA Forest Service). One might assume that there are 355,200 acres of oak-hickory plantations and 11,700 acres of bottomland hardwood plantations (includes oak-gum-cypress and elm-ash-cottonwood stands). This totals about 367,000 acres (see below). Please do not assume these are all hardwood plantations! The ratio of pine plantations to other plantations in Alabama IS NOT 3.5 to 1!!! According to seedling production, the ratio is more like 50 to 1. These data have always bothered me since we do not plant or direct seed this many hardwoods. What these data represent are stands where there is some evidence of artificial regeneration. This means that if pines were once planted 30 years ago but natural oaks and hickory now dominate, the acre is classified: artificial-oak-hickory. Those not familiar with rapid "natural" succession in Alabama may incorrectly assume that foresters in Alabama plant large acres of land with mixtures of oak and pine (606,600 acres) as well as mixed plantations of other hardwoods (367,000 acres). It is true that some companies (and a few individuals) have established monocultures of oak or sweetgum or sycamore, but the below data termed "Artificial" relates mostly to attempts to establish pine plantations. >Areas are in thousand acres (listed on p. 21): > >Pine: > Artificial: 3437.6 > Natural: 4024.9 > >Oak-Pine: > Artificial: 606.6 > Natural: 3915.2 > >Other Hardwood: > Artificial: 367.0 > Natural: 9569.6 > David South School of Forestry Auburn University, AL 36849-5418 dsouth@forestry.auburn.edu 205-844-1022 205-844-1084 (FAX)
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