38 FOREST RESOURCES; PRINCIPAL TREES AND REGIONS 



2. AREAS 



The total forest area of the country is 495,879,000 acres, of which 

 only 188,645,000 or about two-fifths contain merchantable saw tim- 

 ber. The balance of the forest area contains second growth of insuffi- 

 cient size to produce saw logs, also cordwood and miscellaneous young 

 timber not at present of commercial utility. 



SOUTHEAST 



PACIFIC 

 COAST 



CENTRAL 



LAKE 

 STATES 



NORTHERN 

 ROCKIES 



SOUTHERN 

 ROCKIES 



NEW 

 ENGLAND 



MIDDLE 

 ATLANTIC 



i i i i i i 

 191,739,000 Acres 38.7% 



66,685,000 Acres 13.5% 



64,249,000 Acres 12.9% 



55,895,000 Acres 11.1% 



32,329,000 Acres 6.6% 



30,570,000 Acres 6.3% 



27,273,000 Acres 5.5% 



27, 139,000 Acres 5.4% 



Saw Timber Area 

 188,645,000 Acres 



Other Forest Area 

 307,234,000 Acres 



15 30 45 60 



75 90 105 120 135 150 165 180 195 

 Millions of Acres 



FIG. 22. Commercial forest area of the United States by character of growth and 

 regions. The total area is about 500 million acres of commercial forest. 



Only about one-half the saw-timber area is virgin or old growth. 

 The second-growth timber, especially in the South, however, is rapidly 

 growing up to commercial size. Second-growth timber already plays 

 an important part in the lumber markets of the country, as described 

 elsewhere. 



