Case Study: Southern United States

Between 1920 and 1960, the southern United States experienced a net increase of 6 million hectares of forest cover through a combination of active planting and passive regeneration. This restoration was driven by economic benefits, crisis events like the Great Depression and severe soil erosion, and enabling conditions such as secure property rights and the decline of wood-fired energy. Key implementation tools included the Civilian Conservation Corps and the USDA's Soil Bank Program. However, the trend reversed in the 1970s as suburban expansion became the primary driver of forest conversion, and the region saw a shift toward productive planted forests, such as loblolly and slash pine plantations, which comprised about 20 percent of the total southern U.S. forest area by 2006.

• Southern U.S. forest cover reached its lowest point since European settlement in 1920 at 85 million hectares, but increased to 91 million hectares by 1960, representing a net restoration of 6 million hectares.
• The restoration of forests in the southern U.S. provided significant economic and environmental benefits, including reduced soil erosion and the revival of the forest products industry; the region now provides approximately 18 percent of the world's pulp using only 2 percent of global forests.
• Several crisis events motivated restoration, including widespread soil erosion caused by unsustainable mining, lumbering, and agricultural practices, a regional timber shortage, and the high unemployment of the Great Depression, which reached 25 percent in 1933.
• Market shifts enabled forest recovery as farmers abandoned marginal lands due to falling crop prices, boll weevil infestations, and the rise of urban industrial jobs, while the adoption of electricity reduced the demand for wood energy from less than 15 percent of rural households in the early 1930s to 94 percent by 1955.
• Governmental leadership and financial incentives were critical to implementation, specifically through the Civilian Conservation Corps for tree planting and the USDA's Soil Bank Program, which enrolled nearly 0.8 million hectares in the South during its first four years starting in 1956.
• The era of net forest gain ended in the 1970s as suburban expansion replaced agriculture as the primary driver of forest conversion by 1984.
• The composition of southern U.S. forests shifted toward productive planted forests, particularly loblolly and slash pine plantations, which accounted for approximately 20 percent of the total forest area by 2006.

APA

Hanson, C. (2015). Case Study: Southern United States. World Resources Institute. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_United_States.pdf

Chicago

Hanson, Craig. Case Study: Southern United States. World Resources Institute, 2015. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_United_States.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hanson |first1=Craig |title=Case Study: Southern United States |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2015 |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_United_States.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hanson2015case, author = {Hanson, Craig}, title = {{Case Study: Southern United States}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2015}, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/WRI_Restoration_Diagnostic_Case_Example_United_States.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }