Texas Almanac, 1990-1991 Page: 89
611 p. : col. ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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ENVIRONMENT 89
Texas Forest Resources
This information was compiled and prepared by Sam D. Logan, director of Information and Education for the
Texas Forest Service, a part of the Texas A&M University System.The forests of Texas are a most important resource,
yet they have been called one of the Lone Star State's
best kept secrets.
The popular stereotype of Texas - likely fostered by
generations of Hollywood-produced movies - is that
"Texas is mostly plains, sand, oil wells and cactus...
There are several reasons for the popular miscon-
ception that there are few trees in Texas. First, Texas is
the third most populous state of the 50 United States, yet
fully 80 percent of the population lives in several large
metropolitan cities, only two of which (Houston and
Beaumont) are located in the primary timber region.
Of this 80 percent, an estimated one-third have lived in
Texas less than eight years. The large majority of these
urbanites simply have little or no knowledge of, nor
contact with, Texas' forests.
Second, Texas, the second-largest state geograph-
ically, has only 14 percent of its land area in forests.
What many people don't realize is that this 14 percent is
about the size of the state of Indiana.
Third, there is confusion as to just where "forests"
fit into our compulsion to categorize everything. Are
forests a renewable natural resource to be conserved
for beauty and habitat for wildlife, or are they an agri-
cultural crop to be harvested and replanted? Actually
they are both.
Finally, there is the factor often called the "super-
market syndrome," a term coined after a school child
Estimated Timber Income
East Texas, 1987
Because of rounding of odd cents, columns don't
add up.
Total
value Industrial
paid for private Farm
delivered nonfarm and
timber and public misc.
products timberlands timberlands
County (Dollars) (Dollars) (Dollars)
Anderson ... $4,929,925 $1,133,882 $3,796,042
Angelina. . . . 33,220,898 16,278,240 13,952,777
Bowie ...... 3,882,899 543,605 2,562,713
Camp ...... 1,275,832 0 1,275,832
Cass ....... . 19,385,786 4,071,015 14,345,481
Chambers... 5,100,682 1,632,218 3,315,443
Cherokee ... 29,624,168 3,851,141 25,773,026
Franklin.... 688,610 516,457 172,152
Gregg...... 2,948,412 235,872 2,712,539
Grimes. . ..... 10,580,481 740,633 9,839,847
Hardin ..... . 30,820,060 0 30,820,060
Harris...... 8,397,600 1,343,616 5,290,488
Harrison.... 16,757,394 11,730,176 4,021,774
Houston . . . . 28,312,698 0 28,312,698
Jasper ..... 27,594,541 0 27,594,541
Jefferson ... 9,400,872 3,854,357 5,452,506
Leon....... . 496,949 49,694 447,254
Liberty ..... 20,038,090 3,005,713 17,032,377
Marion. . .... 13,603,378 272,067 12,243,040
Montgomery. 20,760,614 0 20,760,614
Morris ..... 3,272,296 1,079,857 1,996,100
Nacogdoches 23,094,890 18,475,912 4,388,029
Newton ..... 24,979,744 11,240,884 13,738,859
Orange..... 7,372,041 1,843,010 5,529,030
Panola ..... 10,047,249 7,937,326 2,109,922
Polk ....... 42,171,303 7,590,834 34,580,468
Red River... 7,215,474 577,238 6,638,236
Rusk....... . 17,536,405 8,768,202 4,384,101
Sabine ...... 16,167,433 8,407,065 3,880,184
San Augustine 14,230,390 4,411,421 6,403,675
San Jacinto.. 12,560,810 2,009,729 8,415,743
Shelby ..... 19,353,387 0 18,966,319
Smith ...... 5,411,625 0 5,411,625
Titus....... 971,280 553,629 126,266
Trinity ..... 18,750,438 14,250,333 4,500,105
Tyler ...... 26,388,412 1,319,420 25,068,991
Upshur ..... 7,462,447 0 7,462,447
Walker ..... . 30,029,997 2,102,099 21,020,998
Waller ...... 494,461 44,501 449,960
Wood ...... 4,656,384 0 4,377,001
Other
counties. . . 9,567,930 7,175,947 1,913,586
State Totals.. $589,554,303 $147,046,111 $411,082,868wrote a paper stating that we no longer need farmers
and cows because his mother buys milk at the super-
market.
It isn't any wonder then that too few Texans realize
the size and importance of forestry in the Lone Star
State.
Let's consider then the economic impact of timber
as both a raw material and as manufactured products:
Timber is the most valuable agricultural crop in the
South. In Texas, timber consistently ranks among the
top four cash crops (usually second to cotton), with an
annual delivered value of approximately $500 million.
* Timber grown in East Texas is processed into pri-
mary wood-based products that had a sales value of $1.6
billion and a value-added contribution of $550 million in
1984.
* The wood-based industry provides more than one-
fourth of the manufacturing employment opportunities
in rural East Texas.
* A one-percent increase in the output of the prima-
ry manufacturing sector of the industry - lumber and
plywood, and pulp and paper - will produce a
statewide impact of almost $50 million.
The forest-products industry in Texas manufactures
wood-based products such as lumber, plywood, poles,
furniture, pulp, paper and a host of other products from
the timber grown in Texas forests. This wood-based
industry is a vital part of Texas' diverse economy. As
unbelievable as it may sound, Texas is one of the top
producers of forest products in the nation:
* Texas is one of the top 10 states in the United States
in primary wood-based manufacturing. Texas ranks
third in plywood production, seventh in pulpwood con-
sumption, and 10th in lumber production.
* Texas' wood-based industry is the ninth largest in
the nation and fourth largest in the South, with sales of
$5.6 billion and a value-added contribution of $2.3 bil-
lion.
Future of Texas'
Forest Resources and Industry
Much public concern has been exhibited recently
over the trend toward global warming, or so-called
"greenhouse effect," and the planting of trees by both
groups and individuals has been encouraged around
the world.
Some Texans have a good record for reforestation,
but others need improvement.
The five largest timber industries in Texas are
doing a creditable job, maintaining their own tree nurs-
eries, growing, and planting 133 million tree seedlings
every year. Logic would dictate that these forest indus-
tries would never allow their lands to become barren.
The Texas Forest Service maintains two nurseries
and produces an average of 25 million seedlings per
year (27 million in 1989), which are sold at cost to small,
private, non-industrial landowners, for reforestation.
Perhaps Texas' greatest future problem lies in the
fact that the private non-industrial landowners are cur-
rently replanting only one acre for every nine acres
harvested. There are advantages to growing trees for
harvest. You don't have to feed them like cattle, nor till
them like row crops, and they are profitable. But there
are risks, such as fire, insects, flood and drought.
The biggest problem, and the reason that many do
not replant after harvest, is lack of incentive. It takes 20
or more years to produce a crop of trees, and many
small landowners simply can't wait that long for a re-
turn on their investment.
There are some incentives for replanting forest
lands available (discussed later in this section), but
most foresters and landowners agree that reinstate-
ment of the federal government's capital gains tax al-
lowance would be a major step toward growing more
trees in Texas.
The 22,032,000 acres of forests in Texas - an area
larger than the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont combined
- form the land base for this important renewable re-
source. There are two timber-producing counties in
East Texas (Harris and Houston) that are each larger
than the entire state of Rhode Island.
Besides the economic impacts and market values
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Kingston, Mike. Texas Almanac, 1990-1991, book, 1989; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth162512/m1/91/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.