Georgia-Pacific: Plywood’s Southern Yellow Revolution By K. Brad Barfield In the early 1960s, the American forest products industry was defined by a rigid geographical monopoly. Softwood plywood production belonged almost entirely to the Pacific Northwest, where vast Douglas fir forests fed a mature, technologically stable manufacturing system. To the rest of the country—especially the South—plywood was an expensive, imported commodity. Freight from Oregon and Washington added such cost that Sou