To cut or not to cut. That may be the question for Georgia
forest landowners. But they
can’t go wrong either way, says Coleman Dangerfield.

“You can earn a better return from the land by taking
your trees out beyond
pulpwood age,” says the University of Georgia Extension
Service economist. “But
if you’ve got to have the cash after the trees have been growing
for 15 years, then
clear-cut and take the profit.”

Gain now or gain later. But if you can let your pine trees go
a while longer, you’ll gain more profits and
other benefits.

“If you can let your timber stand grow beyond 25 or 30
years,”
Dangerfield says, “you’ll get other plants growing, wildlife
will have more food and cover and
the view will be more attractive. It’s also good for the wood-
buying public.”

Timber sold earlier goes mainly for pulpwood.

“People use a pile of paper,” Dangerfield says.

That explains the projected 1.2 percent annual growth in
paper and paperboard
consumption. This forest-product category is expected to grow
faster than any other. The
price should keep up with inflation, he says.

If you can leave your timber alone for a generation, your
trees will increase in value.
Instead of pulpwood, you’ll sell for solid wood products such as
veneer logs, plywood,
structural panels and poles.

The cut-now-cut-later decision reaches further than timber
owners’ bank accounts. Forestry is
big business in Georgia. With 65 percent of the land in forests,
Georgia has the
second-highest percentage of forest land in the Southeast,
behind Alabama. The industry
employs 71,849 people in Georgia and 1.6 million nationwide.

Timber products comprise the largest portion of total
agricultural crop value in the
United States, valued at $46.3 billion. Georgia’s total is more
than $2 billion, by far the highest in the Southeast.

“Sometimes people forget where two-by-fours come from,”
Dangerfield says. “Trees are an agricultural
crop in Georgia — a very good crop for Georgia. Our trees have
a purpose. They are
beautiful and we do enjoy them, but they are harvested just like
corn or soybeans.”

Special legislation reserves 36 million acres of timberlands
for nontimber uses. All
together, federal, state and local governments own 131 million
of the country’s 490
million forest acres. Of Georgia’s 23.6 million forest acres,
1.6 million acres are publicly owned.