Here’s a cool find. I found this a few years back and saved it. It’s a really good read for those interested in Alabama forestry

Link to PDF document

Great read, thanks for posting

I did not read it yet but is there any virgin timber left in Alabama (other than cypress in inaccessible swamps)?

There's some very small spots up here in in the mountains , but no large acreages that I'm aware of. Most of those left are way back in the mountains in very inaccessible areas that weren't cut when logging was done with mules. Last few decades with the introduction of skidders and dozers there's not much that can't be gotten out. If it grows , most of these guys up here will get it.

Not to mention helicopters.

When I was a kid in the 1980’s, my granddaddy took me to see the last old growth tract of land between Greenville and Georgiana (I think). They were getting ready to cut it and people were going to see it before they started. Huge, towering pines and oak trees. They looked like redwoods to a kids eyes. I just remember dad and granddaddy couldn’t reach around the bases of the trees between the two of them. You could see forever at ground level.

That's right , if there's enough of it waaaaay back in the mountains , call in the choppers.

I'm reading the paper now, but I highly doubt there's a stand of virgin timber anywhere in the state. A stand of timber that's never been cut? Doubtful.

"A stand of timber that's never been cut."

That has always been a funny line to me. Technically, if a stand of trees is still standing on the stump no matter the age, then it has indeed never been cut. A 10 year old stand of loblolly pine that hasn't been thinned has "never been cut."

While in school, we did a field trip to joyce kilmer national forest in western NC. There were small pockets of timber there that were considered "old growth" and a few stands were believed to have never had a saw in them. Unbelievable trees there. I remember a poplar that took 10-12 of us students to circle around, arms spread, touching fingertip to fingertip around the trunk.

Another cool parameter of old growth forests, as we learned it, was the presence of nurse logs. These are fallen trees that have trees that have sprouted and are growing on the rotting log. There were 20"+ DBH trees growing on top of nurse logs there. It's a cool place to visit if you like trees.

They made a reference to “Cuban pine”, never heard of that.
Good read.

Yeah , I noticed that also.

I think there's a stand of old growth longleaf somewhere around Brewton if I remember correctly......

I'd sure like to know of such a place. I'd love to see some old growth forests

Just like man, every tree is appointed a death. What is virgin timber? What is old growth? Is a stand of pioneer species hardwood trees - only 20 years old - that replaced a grove of 150 year old pines that died - is that old growth?

Southern forests are cyclical, ever changing, with or without man. Actually without us - there would be less forestland in the south.

There's a small stand somewhere down in south Alabama between Andalusia and Brewton maybe but I cant remember exactly where its at.....We were supposed to go see it while I was at forestry camp but the field trip got rained out the day we were supposed to go

During a return from Fontana a few years ago, I stopped at Kilmer forest and spent a couple of hours just walking around in the misty drizzle. It was great. Such a special place.

You guys are fortunate, bucket list material for me. When I retire in a few years I’m gonna find such a place and go

I’ve come across several water/willow oak stumps that were wider across than my dbh stick in south Alabama.

When I was at Auburn, Dr. John Kush was studying a small stand of what he called old growth longleaf pine near Flomaton. My graduate work was based on longleaf seedling growth and development, so I was on the opposite end of the spectrum than old growth studies. I never got a chance to visit that stand at Flomaton.