The Southern Forest Futures Project has been designed to evaluate the implications of potential futures for the many goods and services forests in the Southeastern United States provide. To ensure that the Futures Project is comprehensive and relevant, we have begun with a thorough scoping of issues using a process that elicits input from various interested publics. We have held public meetings in 14 locations around the South and through 3 online "Webinars." The meeting sites provided at least two public meetings in each of five ecological subregions and no fewer than one public meeting in each State. We gathered > 2,200 comments using a structured-workshop format and processed the compiled data to define a comprehensive view of how forces of change may reshape forests, and how these changes could affect the various goods, services, and values of forest ecosystems. We also identified a set of meta-issues that warrant indepth analysis to evaluate their potential influence on the future of forests. These topics of concern include bioenergy, climate change, forest ownership change, invasive species, fire, taxes, and water. The input on meta-issues, forces of change, and resource implications will be used to organize subsequent stages of the Southern Forest Futures Project.

This report summarizes the findings of the Southern Forest Futures Project, also referred to in these pages as the Futures Project. The Southern Forest Futures Project is an effort to anticipate the future and analyze what the interaction of future changes might mean for the forests of the South and the services the forests provide in the region's 13 States (fig. 1). We explore a labyrinth of driving factors, forest outcomes, and human implications to sketch how the landscape of the South might change.

The Southern Forest Futures Project provides a science-based "futuring" analysis of the forests of the 13 States of the Southeastern United States. With findings organized in a set of scenarios and using a combination of computer models and science synthesis, the authors of the Southern Forest Futures Project examine a variety of possible futures that could shape forests and the many ecosystem services and values that forests provide. The science findings and modeling results could inform management and policy analysis of the South's forests. In the chapters of this technical report, the authors provide detailed findings and results as well as sets of key findings and implications.

The Southern Forest Futures Project provides a science-based "futuring" analysis of the forests of the 13 States of the Southeastern United States. With findings organized in a set of scenarios and using a combination of computer models and science synthesis, the authors of the Southern Forest Futures Project examine a variety of possible futures that could shape forests and the many ecosystem services and values that forests provide. The science findings and modeling results could inform management and policy analysis of the South's forests. In the chapters of this technical report, the authors provide detailed findings and results as well as sets of key findings and implications.

This report presents forecasts from the Southern Forest Futures Project that are specific to the Mid-South, which consists of four sections located within Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas: the Ozark-Ouachita Highlands, the Cross Timbers, the High Plains, and the West Texas Basin and Range. Ranging from Little Rock, AR to El Paso, TX, it is the most diverse subregion in the South. The Mid-South faces a number of important challenges to management of forests and woodlands over the next 50 years, including population increases, the likelihood for increased drought, increased demand for water and water supply stress, sea level rise along the Gulf of Mexico, and invasive native species. Understanding these challenges, and the implications they could have on management and policy in the region, is critical to maintaining the diversity, health, productivity, and sustainability of Mid-South forests, woodlands, and grasslands.