Forestry in Florida and Walton County
Forests are the dominant land use in Florida. They cover almost half of Florida’s 34 million acres of land. Three quarters of Florida’s forests are in private ownership. There are an estimated 300,000 private forest landowners in the state, ranging from large corporate timber companies to small farm woodlots. Forests and the forest products industry are also important to Florida, contributing over $8 billion annually to the economy. There are over 150,000 forest related jobs in Florida, with payroll receipts exceeding $1.25 billion annually.
How important is forestry in Walton County?
Walton has 676,900 acres of land. Forests are the major land use covering 76% of the area.
This list of the forest products in Walton County does not include recreation, or other non-timber products and environmental services forests provide. Products include revenues from hunting leases, pine straw, and ecotourism. Services forests provide include greenspace, landscape diversity, visual aesthetics, water quality, and soil conservation.
- Value of standing timber: $443 million
- Value of harvest (1996): $9 million
- Direct employees: N/A
- Indirect employees: N/A
- Payroll receipts: N/A
- Forest manufacturing & forest value added: N/A
- Total sale value of agriculture products
(crop, animals, orchard) : $22 million
Compiled by Dr. M. Jacobson and John Vericker, School of Forest Resources and Conservation, IFAS, University of Florida
