Policy, uses, and values

Abstract

The South has changed dramatically in the last 100 years. It was a rural, agrarian society; it has now become a predominantly urban one. This has changed forever the region’s forests and their management, use, and protection. In 1900, there were just over 20 million people living in the South. By 2000, the South’s population was almost 89 million, making the region now one of the fastest growing in the country. Projections by the U.S. Census Bureau indicate the region’s population will continue to grow at a rate greater than the national growth rate, reaching over 110 million by 2020. By the year 2000, 74 percent of the region’s population was urban, and as much as 80 percent of the region’s population will be urban by 2020 (Tarrant and others 2002). The population of the South is now mostly concentrated along the coast, in the Piedmont cities, e.g., Atlanta, GA, Charlotte, NC, and Columbia, SC; in the major cities of Texas, e.g., Austin, Dallas, and Houston; and in Florida. In 1990, the South’s rural population was concentrated in the Southern Appalachians, parts of the Mississippi River Basin, and the western Texas and Oklahoma Panhandle. But, overall, the entire region experienced a general decrease in rural residency between 1980 and 1990, a trend that continues today.

Parent Publication

• Southern forest science: past, present, and future

Citation

Cordell, H. Ken. 2004. Policy, uses, and values. In: Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS–75. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. Chapter 20. p. 227-229.