Crisis…Or Opportunity? The State Of South Georgia’s Timber Industry

New uses for the state’s number one product — from petroleum to pellets for fuel and innovative building supplies — are indicating a new direction for South Georgia’s timber industry.

By Don Sadler

Jon Burns’ family has been in the farming and forestry business for four generations, raising livestock, growing crops, and harvesting timber on their centennial family farm in Effingham County since 1900. So the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives has a front-row seat to what’s happening to the timber industry in South Georgia.

“The timber industry is in crisis mode,” says Burns. “This is affecting our farm and many of our immediate neighbors, as well as timber farms all across the Southeast.” And it’s not just foresters that are impacted, notes Burns. So are numerous businesses that feed off the timber industry — everything from trucking and transportation companies to equipment dealers, furniture manufacturers and logging businesses.

Georgia Representative James Burchett, whose district in south-central Georgia is heavily reliant on the timber industry, says the pulpwood and paper market has “evaporated. Pulpwood has always provided a steady source of income timber farmers could fall back on when the lumber market fluctuated, but this underpinning of the timber industry is now gone,” he says.

Mills Close as Demand Plummets

It’s not a stretch to say that the demise of the pulpwood and paper market could threaten the long-term viability of the timber industry in South Georgia. There has been a historic run of pulp and paper mill closures in the southeast as demand for pulpwood and byproducts such as sawdust and wood chips plummets.

According to the Georgia Forestry Commission, 20 pulp and paper mills have closed in the southeast over the past decade and prices for pulpwood are at the lowest level in nearly 40 years. Large mill closures include the Georgia-Pacific containerboard mill in Cedar Springs and the International Paper containerboard mill in Savannah.

Trees used for pulpwood, such as the southern yellow pine tree, are too narrow for lumber, but they’re ideal for making paper and containerboard used to manufacture shipping boxes. “You also need a market for your residuals like wood chips because they’re a crucial part of the process,” says Burns. “And we’ve lost much of the market for these residuals due to the closure of so many pulp and paper mills.”

Meanwhile, the digital transition has severely reduced demand for office paper and newsprint produced from pulpwood, while shippers like Amazon are packing goods more efficiently to reduce the need for as many shipping boxes. In addition, much of the pulpwood market in the U.S. has migrated overseas to countries like Brazil, where fast-growing eucalyptus trees are meeting what demand remains for pulpwood.

South Georgia is also still dealing with the impact of Hurricane Helene, which wiped out 1.5 million acres of timberland in South Georgia when it roared ashore in 2024. “It takes four to five years for foresters to remove the debris and dig out from a storm like this,” says Johnny Sabo, the Director/State Forester of the Georgia Forestry Commission. “So we’re really just in the middle of this now.”

Sabo says funds have been allocated by the state to help remove this debris via the Fuel Mitigation Program (FMIT). “We’re also in partnership with the Department of Agriculture to provide block grants, or crop loss payments, to timber farmers in South Georgia,” says Sabo. “This has only happened once before, after Hurricane Michael came ashore in 2018.”

The Top Timber State

The timber industry has a significant impact on Georgia’s overall economy. Timber is a $59.4 billion industry in Georgia that accounts for 177,000 direct jobs and nearly $1 billion in state tax revenue. Georgia is the nation’s number one state for timber with more than 24 million acres of forest, 88% of which is privately owned. Even with the closing of so many pulp and paper mills, forestry and related manufacturing remain among the largest industries and employers in South Georgia.

Georgia’s pulpwood industry goes back to the 1930s when a scientist named Charles Herty discovered how to make paper from lignin in pine trees that were too narrow for lumber. Soon, tens of millions of acres were being planted with row after row of southern yellow pine trees. For nearly a century, forestry and related manufacturing supported many South Georgia farm families and helped shape the region’s economy.

On a pine tree plantation, several hundred seedlings are planted per acre. This dense planting forces trees to grow narrow and straight with few branches, which makes them ideal for pulpwood. Pine trees also grow relatively fast so foresters can harvest them sooner than larger trees that take longer to reach maturity.

Georgia Forestry Association President and CEO Tim Lowrimore believes the timber industry is now entering a transition similar to what occurred in the 1930s. “Our forests are as healthy and plentiful now as they’ve ever been and we have more standing timber than at any point in generations,” he says. “I think the current market conditions are addressable and we’re positioning ourselves well for the transition away from pulp and paper to new markets for small diameter pine trees.”

Sabo agrees: “I believe we’re seeing the lifecycle of the timber industry play out as we transition to what is the next best use for our timber. There are a lot of uses for small diameter pine trees other than paper and containerboard, so I’m optimistic about the future of the industry.”

Lowrimore thinks the transition away from using pulpwood to make paper and containerboard was inevitable. “Other states in the South had mill closures before we did, going back to 2022, so they got out of the gate ahead of us looking for new opportunities for forest investments,” he says. “But I think Georgia’s advantages, such as our forest resources, supply chain and infrastructure, are helping us weather the storm a little bit better.”

The legislature has also been proactive in helping the South Georgia timber industry make the transition. Burchett points to House Bill 134, the Keep Georgia Forested Act, that was signed in May. This Act expands the existing Jobs Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit to qualified forestry manufacturing companies and makes them transferable. “The Act also gives businesses a tax credit for new jobs created to help sustain the timber industry,” he says.

“Forestry manufacturers are already lined up and ready to get started on projects that take advantage of these tax credits,” adds Burns.

Innovative New Uses for Pulpwood

The Georgia Forestry Commission has partnered with the state of Georgia and Georgia Tech on the Georgia Forestry Innovation Initiative, appropriating $8.9 million to a pilot project focused on using lignin from pine trees to replace petroleum in many different products. “Biochemicals can be used in a variety of products such as tires, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and automotive coatings,” says Sabo.

Pulpwood is also now being used in some building products. “For example, Weyerhaeuser has developed a product called Timber Strand that compresses wood from small-diameter trees into engineered lumber that can be used to build new homes,” says Lowrimore. “And the steel industry is looking into how biocarbon from trees can be used to make steel manufacturing more environmentally friendly.”

In addition, pulpwood can be used to manufacture sustainable aviation fuel and biodiesel fuel used to power container ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean. “Some European countries are requiring that airlines use sustainable aviation fuel from a renewable resource when flying routes between the U. S. and Europe,” says Sabo. “Pulpwood can even be used to manufacture lignin-based batteries for electric vehicles.”

Burchett says that the lignin in southern yellow pine trees binds together better than other fibrous trees, which makes them ideal for manufacturing pellets used to produce clean energy. “Right now, the primary market for these pellets is in Europe,” he says. “I think creating a pellet market here in the U.S. is one path forward, especially with the proliferation of data centers that require so much energy.”

“The pellet business is really big in South Georgia,” says Burns. “We’re doing everything we can to build the momentum and volume to help take up some of the slack from the closing of the pulp and paper mills.”

Protecting Georgia’s Future

Burns believes that preserving the timber industry in South Georgia goes far beyond foresters and loggers. “It’s about protecting Georgia’s future and preserving the quality of life that many South Georgians enjoy,” he says. “And it’s about doing things right and being respectful of a way of life that has sustained us for generations. Forestry is a crucial part of who we are.”

Plant Them Thick, Cut Them Quick

Silviculture is the art and science of controlling the growth of forests and woodlands. Michael Westbrook has made a career out of silviculture and timber management since graduating from the University of Georgia in 2008 with a master’s degree in Forest Business.

In his current role as the resource manager for Southern Pine Plantations, Westbrook manages about 280,000 acres of timberland mostly in the south, including South Georgia. “The timber industry is like any other industry — it goes in cycles,” he says. “We’ve been seeing the trend of less demand for pulpwood for the past five or six years now and adapting our strategy to adjust.”

One strategy has been to plant fewer pine trees per acre. Foresters can affect how pine trees grow based on how dense forests are planted. “If they’re planted too thick, trees grow skinny with few branches and stall out early,” Westbrook explains. “If they’re planted too wide apart, you get big, fat, branchy trees.”

Breeding programs now are trying to bring the density of forests down but the quality of trees up. “This generally means about 300 to 400 trees per acre,” says Westbrook. “In the past, this number has been from 600 to 750 trees per acre — or what was known as ‘plant them thick, cut them quick.’ So foresters are planting a little over half as many pine trees now as 25 years ago.”

The challenge South Georgia foresters face today is finding new markets for their pulpwood. “This has spurred a lot of conversations, like ‘How do we use pulpwood to make bioethanol or biodiesel or carbon pellets?” says Westbrook. “Pine trees are a hydrocarbon in a different form than crude oil — anything that can be made out of crude oil can be made out of pine trees.”

Westbrook calls himself a “glass-half-full” kind of guy. “One thing we know how to do in Georgia is grow pine trees, so the resource and technology are there,” he says. “We’ve just got to find a way to make it feasible. I think Georgia’s timber industry is well-positioned for the future and we have the right leadership to take us there.”