In the humid, storm-prone South (like Mississippi), decay visibly dead pine trees will fall relatively quickly. Fungal rot and insects weaken roots and trunk, so a pine may fall within a couple of years.
During the severe 2023 drought in Mississippi, approximately 12 to 12.5 million pine trees died across the state—primarily due to extreme drought conditions that left trees vulnerable to beetle attacks. This devastation affected nearly 80,000 acres of pine forest, based on multiple forestry surveys and satellite-based assessments.
A report from the Mississippi Forestry Commission (MFC) estimates that approximately 12.5 million pine trees died as a result of the severe 2023 drought, based on survey data and modeling—from roughly 79,000 acres of affected forest at a density of 159 trees per acre.
