TreeLines

Across the South, mills are closing, timber prices have declined from historical highs, and many landowners are asking the same question: 

Can you still make money growing pine trees? 

It’s a fair concern. Pine sawtimber prices peaked in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with sawtimber bringing around $55 per ton and pulpwood reaching as much as $20 per ton. Since then, prices have generally softened while the number of facilities consuming forest products has declined. 

At first glance, the outlook can seem discouraging. 

But that’s only part of the story. 

The Good News: We Grow More Wood Than Ever Before 

While timber prices have fluctuated over the years, one thing has continued to improve: forest productivity. 

Today’s landowners can grow significantly more wood per acre than previous generations thanks to decades of advances in reforestation, silviculture, and forest genetics. 

To understand where we are today, it’s helpful to look at how far the industry has come. 

A Century of Progress in Pine Production 

The first southern pine nurseries were established in the 1920s as landowners and forestry organizations recognized the need to reforest harvested acres. By the 1950s, large paper companies began investing heavily in tree improvement programs to ensure a reliable fiber supply for their mills. 

Early efforts focused on one primary goal: growing trees faster. 

Those programs were successful, increasing average yields from roughly 60 tons per acre to around 100 tons per acre. 

The next major leap came through improved silvicultural practices. Techniques such as chemical site preparation, bedding, competition control, and fertilization became more widely adopted throughout the 1970s and 1980s, pushing yields to approximately 140 tons per acre. 

Then came another game-changing advancement: forest genetics. 

Researchers began selecting and crossing the highest-performing tree families to create seedlings capable of delivering greater growth, improved form, and better overall performance. These advances helped increase yields to approximately 200 tons per acre in many situations. 

Today, ArborGen’s advanced breeding and development programs continue to push those gains even further. Modern full-cross families can produce yields exceeding 230 tons per acre under the right conditions, with future breeding cycles offering even greater potential. 

Why Genetics Matter More Than Ever 

For landowners, the takeaway is simple: 

You may not control timber prices, but you can control how much timber you produce. 

By combining sound silvicultural practices with high-performing genetic stock, today’s pine plantations can produce substantially more volume than previous generations of forests. In many cases, landowners have the opportunity to grow significantly more wood on the same acre while improving the proportion of higher-value sawtimber. 

That matters because profitability isn’t driven solely by price per ton. 

It’s driven by the total value produced per acre. 

Even in a flat-price environment, producing more tons, and more high-value sawtimber, can generate stronger financial returns than producing less volume during periods of higher pricing. 

Focus on What You Can Control 

Market conditions will continue to change. Timber prices will rise and fall. Mills will open and close. 

Those factors are largely outside a landowner’s control. 

What remains within your control is the productivity of your forest. 

The landowners who position themselves for long-term success are those who invest in the fundamentals: quality genetics, sound silviculture, and a management strategy designed to maximize productivity over the life of the rotation. 

The forestry industry has spent the last century finding ways to grow more wood, more efficiently, on every acre. 

For today’s landowners, that may be the biggest opportunity of all. 

If you’re planning a planting project or evaluating options for your next rotation, an ArborGen Reforestation Advisor can help you identify the seedlings and management approach best suited to your goals.

Jeff Slaga is a Reforestation Advisor at ArborGen, where he works with landowners, consultants, and forestry professionals across Texas and Louisiana to develop reforestation strategies that maximize long-term forest productivity and value. With more than 25 years of forestry experience spanning timberland management, silviculture, and forest operations, Jeff is passionate about helping customers establish successful forests that deliver returns for generations to come.