A Report on US Southern Forests

Abstract

The US South contains the most heavily disturbed forest landscape in the world (Hansen, et al. 2013). By far, the biggest cause of disturbance is the harvesting and planting of pine for industry (Drummond and Loveland 2010). In recent years, we have seen massive changes in landownership patterns, industrial organization, and the emergence of new markets for biomass and carbon sequestration across the region. In this presentation, I will discuss these changes as well as report on preliminary ethnographic research that was carried out across the US South in the summer of 2021.