A requiem for the southern regionalists : Reforestation in the South and the uses of regional social science

Objective. More agricultural land has reverted to forest in the South than anywhere else in the twentieth century. This change in land cover recalls the work of the southern regionalists, an influential group of sociologists who produced close descriptions of living conditions among the poor, predominantly agricultural, population of the American South during the 1930s and 1940s. The city-focused pattern of economic development which emerged in the post-World War II South made much of the southern regionalists' work apparently irrelevant, and it now receives little attention. This paper demonstrates the continuing utility of their work through an analysis of the reforestation which occurred in the South between 1935 and 1975. Methods. Data from forest inventories conducted by the U.S. Forest Service map the reforestation of the South, county by county; multivariate analyses of these patterns with social, economic, and geographical data on counties provide an explanation for the reforestation. Results. Variations in illiteracy rates, farming types, fertilizer use, and soils, all variables developed or identified by Odum and Vance, explain most of the variation in the extent of southern reforestation. Conclusions. These findings confirm the value of regional social science for studying land cover change and suggest a policy direction for current efforts to slow tropical deforestation