New research highlights how southern forests—particularly private plantations—are becoming the dominant source of US timber, with limited long-term growth prospects in the West. The US timber sector, a cornerstone of global wood and paper production, is undergoing a quiet but fundamental realignment. A new nationwide study suggests that the long-term sustainability and growth of the American timber supply rests not in the forests of the Pacific Northwest—as many still assume—but in the pine plantations and mixed hardwood stands of the South. The study, led by David Wear of the Resources for the ...