FOREST LAND THE BASIC RESOURCE 



By R. E. MARSH, in charge Division of Forest Economics, and W. H. GIBBONS, 



Senior Forester 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Extent and general character 121 



Forest land for timber use 124 



Acreage, description, and distribution 124 



Ownership of commercial forest land 129 



The protective function of forest land 139 



The use of forest land for recreation 141 



Use of forest land for game 143 



The range resource of forest lands 144 



Summary of forest land situation 146 



Present areas 146 



Agricultural-land abandonment 148 



Prospective area available for timber production 149 



EXTENT AND GENERAL CHARACTER 



What is the forest-land resource of the United States? It consists 

 mainly of about 495 million acres, 1 or one fourth of the land area of 



CLASSES OF LAND 



MILLION 

 FOREST LAND: ACRES 



COMMERCIAI 4-95 



NON-COMMERCIAI \2O 



615 



CROP LAND IN FARMS. 



4-13 



PASTURE AND RANGE: 



IN FARMS 379 



NOT IN FARMS 317 



696 



FARMSTEADS. ROADS, 

 URBAN, WASTE, ETC..-.. 179 



TOTAL LAND AREA..J9O3 



FIGURE 1. Land area of continental United States (excluding Alaska) by major economic uses ,1929. 



the continental United States (exclusive of Alaska), which may be 

 capable of producing timber of commercial quantity and quality 

 under present or reasonably conceivable future conditions (fig. 1). 



1 The data presented in this section and in the section, " Present and Potential Timber Resources", 

 are based on a rapid extensive survey by the Forest Service in 1931, in which were tabulated forest areas, 

 volume of standing timber, the rate at which the timber is growing, the annual rate of its use and destruc- 

 tion, and our actual requirements for forest products. In this compilation, the aid was employed of many 

 cooperating agencies and individuals, the best available data were gathered and assembled, and the result 

 checked with the judgment of well-informed men in the different forest regions. Although accuracy and 

 consistency in detail are impossible in such an extensive survey, the broad general view of the forest situa- 

 tion thus made available will be valuable in the interim before the results of the more comprehensive and 

 intensive Nation-wide forest survey now in progress by the Forest Service shall be available. 



121 



