08/27/2026
🌲 COUNTY SPOTLIGHT #3 — CHEROKEE COUNTY
We’re continuing our look at the forests of Henderson, Anderson, Cherokee, Freestone, Houston, Leon and Van Zandt Counties.
We’ve covered Henderson and Anderson. Today: Cherokee County.
🌲 HOW MUCH OF CHEROKEE COUNTY IS FOREST?
Cherokee County has approximately 401,000 acres of timberland — about 60% of the county.
That makes forestland one of Cherokee County's most important natural resources and one of the defining features of its landscape.
🌳 WHAT KIND OF FORESTS — AND WHAT TREES ARE GROWING THERE?
Texas A&M Forest Service estimates Cherokee County's timberland breaks down approximately like this:
• 119,500 acres — Oak-Hickory | 29.8%
Look for post oak, blackjack oak, southern red oak, white oak and several species of hickory.
• 85,000 acres — Oak-Pine | 21.2%
Mixed stands of oaks with loblolly and shortleaf pine, often accompanied by hickory and sweetgum.
• 80,700 acres — Planted Pine | 20.1%
Primarily loblolly pine, the dominant commercial pine of East Texas.
• 78,900 acres — Natural Pine | 19.7%
Primarily loblolly and shortleaf pine. Cherokee County is particularly important for shortleaf pine.
• 17,200 acres — Elm-Ash-Cottonwood | 4.3%
Bottomland forests containing trees such as elm, ash, cottonwood, river birch and other moisture-loving hardwoods.
• 12,900 acres — Oak-Gum-Cypress | 3.2%
Bottomland forests with water and willow oaks, sweetgum, blackgum and baldcypress.
• 7,100 acres — other forest types | 1.8%
🌲 Cherokee County's native forests include an extraordinary variety of trees:
loblolly pine • shortleaf pine • post oak • blackjack oak • southern red oak • white oak • water oak • willow oak • hickory • sweetgum • elm • pecan • river birch • baldcypress • blackgum • eastern redcedar • sycamore
Cherokee County's historic soil survey specifically describes its sandy uplands as forests of shortleaf pine, loblolly pine, hickory, post oak, blackjack oak and southern red oak, while its bottomlands supported oak, elm, pecan, birch, water oak and willow oak.
🌲 A SPECIAL FOREST
Cherokee County is home to the 2,788-acre I.D. Fairchild State Forest, established in 1925.
The forest is primarily shortleaf pine and is used to demonstrate sustainable forestry, timber management, prescribed burning, wildlife habitat improvement and shortleaf pine restoration.
🔥 FIRE & OUR FORESTS
Cherokee County remains under a county burn ban as dry conditions continue.
The most recent documented wildfire was the Cherokee 6916 Fire, which began August 13 about 5 miles northeast of Jacksonville. It burned approximately 2 acres and is now inactive.
Another recent fire, the Cherokee 6644 Fire, was reported about 6 miles southeast of Rusk on August 5 and burned approximately 39 acres before reaching 100% containment.
For forest landowners, even small wildfires are important reminders of the value of fuel management, prescribed fire, maintained access roads and defensible space.
💧 FORESTS = WATER
Cherokee County lies within the Neches River watershed, with the Neches forming much of its western boundary.
The county also connects to Lake Palestine, Lake Jacksonville and numerous creeks and tributaries.
Forests matter to water. Forest soils slow rainfall, reduce erosion and sediment movement, protect streambanks and allow more water to infiltrate into the soil rather than immediately becoming runoff.
🌾 WORKING LANDS
Cherokee County has:
• 1,411 farms
• 325,551 acres in farms
• 148,984 acres of pasture
• 83,623 acres of farm woodland
• 74,816 acres of cropland
Forestry and agriculture are intertwined here. Much of what USDA calls “farmland” in East Texas also contains working woodland.
⚡ AND ONE NUMBER WE ARE WATCHING ACROSS ALL SEVEN COUNTIES
As this series continues, we are also tracking how much rural land could be converted if the large-scale energy projects currently operating or moving through the development/interconnection pipeline are ultimately built.
Across Henderson, Anderson, Cherokee, Freestone, Houston, Leon and Van Zandt Counties, our current conservative working estimate is:
≈44,000 ACRES
Nearly 69 SQUARE MILES
of potential land conversion associated with the large-scale energy projects we have identified.
This represents the potential footprint if the projects we are tracking move forward — and it is likely conservative because we have not assigned guessed acreage to energy/Solar/ BESS projects when the actual project acreage cannot yet be verified.
🌲 FOREST LANDOWNERS — I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU:
What is your biggest concern for your land?
What is your hope for your forest 25, 50 or even 100 years from now?
And what would you like to know about Cherokee County forestland in a future post?
Please tag a neighboring landowner or share this with someone who loves and wants to protect our East Texas forests.
SOURCES:
Texas A&M Forest Service — Forest Inventory & Analysis
Texas A&M Forest Service — East Texas Forestlands 2020
Texas A&M Forest Service — I.D. Fairchild State Forest
USDA NRCS — Soil Survey of Cherokee County
USDA — 2022 Census of Agriculture
Cherokee County — Emergency Management/Burn Ban
NIFC wildfire incident data
ERCOT/interconnection records
Texas A&M AgriLife
