Midsouth forest area trends

The forest inventory and analysis unit of the southern forest experiment stations (Forest Survey) conducts periodic inventories at approximately 10-year intervals of the forest resources of the Midsouth States (fig. 1). This report contains a summary of forest acreage estimates made between 1950 and 1985. The statistics are based on published forest survey reports and survey archives. Because each state is inventoried successively in a continuous cycle, area estimates were adjusted to common years through interpolation between actual survey dates, and extrapolation to earlier or later years. Minor adjustments were made for definitional or procedural changes that have occurred in the survey process. Area estimates by ownership classes were adjusted to conform with enumerated data on public landholdings in each state. Forest Service planting records and long-range ownership trends were used to provide cross-tabulations by owner and forest classes for some of the earlier surveys.