• Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC
  
• Department of Forestry Virginia Polytechnic lnstitute and State University Blacksburg, VA
  
• Facultad de Ciencias Forestales Universidad de Concepción, CHILE
  

In the 1950s there were vast acreages of cutover forest land and degraded agricultural land across the South. Less than 2 million acres of southern pine plantations existed at that time. By the end of the 20th century, there were 32 million acres of southern pine plantations in the U.S. South; this region is the wood basket of the world. The success story that is southern pine forestry was facilitated by the application of research results generated through cooperative work of the U.S. Forest Service, southern forestry schools, state forestry agencies, and the forest industry. This report reviews the contributions of applied silvicultural research in tree improvement, nursery management, site preparation, weed control, and fertilization to plantation forestry in the South. These practices significantly increased the productivity of southern pine plantations.