Is replanting after timber harvest a good investment?

Mississippi’s timber industry remained its second highest producing agricultural commodity again in 2019.

Coming in with an estimated production value of $1.15 billion, timber followed the state’s poultry industry, which generated an estimated value of $2.78 billion in 2019. Timber’s value of production is estimated by monthly severance taxes collected by the Mississippi Department of Revenue.

Mississippians pondering ideas for a side business could consider investing in land and planting stem cuttings of Leyland and Murray cypress trees.

STARKVILLE, Miss. --  There are major differences between hardwood management and pine management, but they have one goal in common: Landowner objectives should drive the course of action.

Since the downfall of the housing market in 2007 and the subsequent recession, stumpage prices have fallen for every sector of the pine forestry market for pulpwood, chip-and-saw and sawtimber.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi is one of just two states east of the Mississippi River not infested with emerald ash borers, and landscapes need everyone’s help to keep it that way.

Blake Layton, Mississippi State University Extension Service entomologist, said the emerald ash borer -- or EAB -- is an invasive, nonnative pest that has killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in the eastern U.S. Fairly expensive, annual treatments can protect high-value landscape trees, but they have to be applied preventatively.