PARENT SESSION
Symposium 5: Ecological Forces and Land Management Challenges for the Southeastern Landscape
Organized by: D De Steven and BS Collins
Tuesday, August 5. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, SITCC Chatham Ballroom B.

The changing face of Southern forest lands: findings from the Southern Resource Assessment.

Wear, David^*,1, ¹ USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA

ABSTRACT- The forests of the South are diverse and dynamic. They have been heavily utilized since European settlement and their current conditions reflect the legacies of a long land use history. A century of especially intensive agricultural exploitation gave way to a period of forest recovery and growth at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the last quarter of the century, however, timber harvesting and in-land development for urban uses has increased substantially. As a result, questions have emerged regarding the health, productivity, and ultimately the sustainability of the South's forests and the benefits they provide. The Southern Forest Resource Assessment (SFRA) was initiated in the spring of 1999 to address broad questions concerning the status, trends and potential future of southern forests. The SFRA represents an unusual situation where government evaluates the status and future of a largely private sector: 89 percent of the Souths forests are held by private owners. With this in mind, the SFRA was chartered as an information gathering exercise. The overall objective of the Assessment was to develop a thorough and objective description of forest conditions and trends in the South, compiled in a way that would help the public understand a complex and dynamic resource situation. In this presentation, we discuss the major findings of SFRA, focusing especially on the several factors that are reshaping southern forests and examine the implications for the sustainability of southern forests and the conduct of research in the South.

Key words: Sustainability, Assessment, Interdisciplinary