Georgia Forestry Commission Forest Health experts say moving firewood has been linked to the spread of destructive, non-native insects and diseases to forest ecosystems. While these pests can’t move far on their own, they can travel hundreds of miles when people move firewood, logs, chips, and mulch. Forest pests can kill our native trees and be very expensive, if not impossible, to control.

Shorter days and cooler nights start a precise clockwork of physical and chemical interactions within leaf cells bringing forests ablaze with color as they prepare for winter dormancy. In response to certain environmental stimuli, leaf pigments begin to reveal themselves in the leaves of Georgia’s deciduous trees. The amount of pigments in trees depends on the tree species, soil composition, and other environmental components.

These are generally considered the fall colors during peak season. Habitat, weather, genetics, and other components can give variations to the general. Nature determines fall color, not exact science.

Georgia’s forests are home to approximately 250 species of trees. Native Trees of Georgia describes 92 of them.

Georgia’s original Forest Action Plan was produced with contributions from many program leaders of the Georgia Forestry Commission, Georgia Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Forest Service. Content contributors included Dr. Jon Ambrose, Constance Buford, Joe Burgess, Scott Thackston, Devon Dartnell, David Dickinson, Frank Sorrells, Ken Parker, Gary White, Scott Griffin, Josh Love, Joan Scales, Jim Ozier, Dru Preston, Dick Rightmyer, Buford Sanders and Risher Willard. Liz Kramer, University of Georgia College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences contractor, conducted the GIS analyses. Final document design and production was accomplished by Wendy Burnett, Kassie Keck and Stasia Kelly. Development and publication of this document was assisted by a grant from the National Association of State Foresters.

This resource bulletin describes the principal findings of a harvest and utilization study conducted during the ninth inventory of Georgia’s forest resources. Survey crews sampled and measured trees harvested in a variety of logging operations, and analysts calculated wood volume and percent of wood utilization. Harvest volume data and factors for growing-stock and nongrowing-stock logging residue are described and interpreted.