Mississippi's Forests, 2006

Abstract

Forest land covers 19.6 million acres in Mississippi, or about 65 percent of the land area. The majority of forests are classed as timberland. One hundred and thirty-seven tree species were measured on Mississippi forests in the 2006 inventory. Thirty six percent of Mississippi's forest land is classified as loblolly-shortleaf pine forest, 27 percent is classified as upland oak-hickory forest, and 19 percent is composed of bottomland hardwoods. Weather-related events were the largest component of average annual disturbance (204,000 acres yearly) on Mississippi forest land since the previous inventory. About 4 percent of live trees on Mississippi's forest land experienced some degree of damage due to Hurricane Katrina.