The Relation of Soil and other Site Factors to Forest Composition and Productivity in West Tennessee

Forest are important in the economy of Tennessee because so much of the state is forested. Half of west Tennessee, for example, is in forest, and since no other productive use is likely for the marginal land so used, it will probably remain forested.

According to a report prepared by the Tennessee Forest Industries Committee in 1957, industries based ultimately on the forests number about one-third of all manufacturing establishments in the state. In west Tennessee, with half of the area actually in forest, the forest economy forms a large part of the total economy of a region of limited agricultural potential.

The forest of west Tennessee are made up of many species of hardwoods. Oaks and gums and tulip poplar occur on most sites of the region, but the principal commercial species are southern red and white oak in upland forest, and in the bottoms, sweet gum and cherrybark oak. On the more moist upland sites tulip poplar is common.