The economics of public assistance for private nonindustrial timber sales in Mississippi

The U.S. South has many forestry advantages, yet public and private efforts are increasingly needed to encourage reforestation and active forest management in the region. The review draft of The South\u27s Fourth Forest, Alternatives for the Future (USDA Forest Service 1987a) highlights the urgent need for increased efforts to ensure future timber availability: ... projections of resource change mean that the South is facing a future of rising stumpage and roundwood product prices, much lower rates of growth in timber harvests, and declines in employment in the forest industries (p. xxxv). The report also highlights great opportunities to increase forest productivity in the South, and to sustain continued growth in forestry employment and income-growth that will no.t occur without continued public assistance directed to the present and future forestry needs in the region. Public assistance for forestry includes fire protection, research and information transfer, reforestation incentives, and other direct and indirect programs to assist public and private timber producers and wood products manufacturers and consumers. Forestry assistance programs are funded by local, state, and federal agencies. In recent years, continued funding for some programs has been questioned