CHAPTER III 

 FOREST RESOURCES; PRINCIPAL TREES AND REGIONS 



1. GENERAL FOREST REGIONS 



The commercial forests of the United States comprise about 25 % 

 of the total area of the country, or about 60% of the primeval forest 

 area. Originally they occupied 822,238,000 acres, or nearly one-half 

 of the total land surface of the country. 



Much of our forest is found at high elevations in the mountainous 

 regions, conspicuously in the western states where the timber is rela- 

 tively inaccessible, of insufficient size or of inferior quality to be of 

 commercial importance for saw logs, pulpwood, or other forms of 

 forest products. Forests in these locations are chiefly valuable for 

 watershed protection and seldom enter commercial markets. 



Many of our forests have been cleared for agricultural purposes, 

 or burned, or are located in swamps. Under these conditions they 

 are of little or no value in furnishing usable commodities. 



The U. S. Forest Service has separated the American forests into 

 eight broad major regions. They occur in natural geographic and 

 topographic units and generally exhibit distinctive and similar prob- 

 lems. In some regions, notably in the East, similar types of forests 

 are found in two or more regions. On the other hand, hardwoods 

 are concentrated largely in the Mississippi delta, the southern Appa- 

 lachians, and adjacent sections of the southeast region which is largely 

 devoted to southern pine. 



For the purpose of description and analysis, the forests have been 

 divided into the following regions and subregions. Special attention 

 is given to the Southeast and Pacific Coast regions because of their 

 past and prospective importance as centers of forest industries and 

 as sources of lumber production. 



1. Eastern Forest Regions. 



1. New England, embracing the five New England States. 



2. Middle Atlantic States, embracing the five states of New York, 

 Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. 



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