Southern Appalachian hardwood timber market trends

Since 1980, the hardwood timber harvests in Southern Appalachia, and particularly in western North Carolina, have risen to a 20-year high. Increased harvests accompanied, in some cases, by rising real stumpage prices for private timber, could be interpreted as indications of economic scarcity. Large timber inventories, however, indicate that physical supply is not a major problem. Tract subdivision and changes from farm to nonfarm ownerships may be creating supply problems. While real prices for private stumpage have risen in North Carolina, prices for National Forest timber have fallen rather drastically. Possible causes for this apparent inconsistency include accelerated National Forest harvesting and weak demand for federal timber due to "nuisance factors' associated with purchase of federal timber. -Authors