24 



National Resources Committee 



This dominant position in the hanbcr inthistiy is a 

 development of relatively recent years. About 30 

 years ago, when the Nation was consuming more lumber 

 than ever before or since, this Region's contribution was 

 but 13 percent of the total. The gradual exhaustion of 

 eastern timber supplies has made increasing demands 

 on the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Today, they 

 stand between the Nation and a seiious shortage of 

 forest products. Therefore, the wise haudluig of this 

 great natiu-al resource is a matter of national concern. 



The Forest Area of the Region 



For several years the Research Branch of the Forest 

 Service has been making a sm'vey of the forest resom'ces 

 of the Nation. Work in the Douglas fir region has been 

 finished ; that in the pine region of eastern Oregon and 

 Washington, and the northern part of Idaho is also 

 rapidly approaching completion; but, as yet, southern 

 Idaho and Montana are practicalh' untouched. The 

 figures available for areas of forest land for volumes of 

 timber, are, therefore, of varying reliability, and any 

 regional totals arc inevitably a summation of reasonably 

 precise figures and of approximations which can be little 

 more than intelligent guesses. 



According to these figures, 38 percent of the Region is 

 forest land, including not only the area bearing mer- 



FOREST LAND 



IN 



COLUMBIA BASIN STATES 



y///////A'('///M 



63 



10 



31 



17 



30 



y////////////A:i//////////////. 



|^^^^:^^fe'^^^^^^^^^^^J 



EASTERN 

 MONTANA 



WESTERN 

 MONTANA 



EASTERN 

 WASHINGTON 



EASTERN 

 OREGON 



WESTERN 

 WASHINGTON 

 WESTERN 

 OREGON 



30 40 50 60 70 eO 

 PERCENTSGE OF SUBDIVISION AHEA 



^ 



FOREST LAND 



ALL OTHER LAND 



AREA OF SQUARE REPRESENTS ENTIRE LAND AREA 

 OF REGION- 251 MILLION ACRES 



AREAS OF RECTANGLES REPRESENT AREAS OF LAND 

 ACCORDING TO ABOVE LEGEND 



NUMERALS ARE AREAS IN MILLIONS OF ACRES 



FhilRF. '1 



chantablc or second growth tbnber, but also all burned- 

 over or cut-over land which has not been converted to 

 agricultural use, and the high mountain slopes on which 

 grow forests of no present or prospective industrial 

 value. 



The proportion of the land area whicli is thus classi- 

 fied as forest laml varies widely within the Region. 

 It is nmch heavier in the fir region than in the pine, the 

 percentages being 84 and 30 percent, respectively. 

 There is little difference between western ^Vasliington 

 and western Oregon, but the subdivisions of the pine 

 region are cpiite diverse in this respect. The lowest 

 figure is for eastern Montana (12.5 percent) while the 

 highest is for Idaho (42 percent). 



Figure 2 presents the facts in graphic form. The 

 large square which forms this graph represents the 

 entire land area of the Region. This is divided by 

 horizontal lines into seven rectangles which have areas 

 proportional to the land areas of the seven subdivisions 

 of the Region. The arrangement is roughly geographic, 

 eastern Montana being at the top and western Oregon 

 and Washington at the bottom. Each of these rec- 

 tangles is again subdivided, the cross-hatched left-hand 

 end representing the forest land while the unhatched 

 portion represents all other land. 



The seven shaded rectangles, then, represent by their 

 area the forest land in each subdivision. Their lengths, 

 measured horizontally, represent the proportion of each 

 subregion which is forest land. This can be read in 

 percentage by means of the scale below the graph. 

 Since the diverse shapes of the rectangles make visual 

 comparisons of their areas somewhat difficult, the area 

 which each represents has been entered therem in fig- 

 ures which are to be read as millions of acres. 



The statistics represented by tliis and subsequent 

 figures are also presented in tabular form in the ap- 

 pendix. 



The forest land has been classified into five types, as 

 follows: 



Land bearing mature saw timber (softwood). 



Land bearing second growth (softwood). 



Land which is unstocked as a result of cutting or 



fii'e. 

 Land bearing hardwood. 

 Land bearing noncommercial stands. 



Figure 3 shows this classification witliin each subdivision 

 of the Region. Tliis graph is similar in construction to 

 figure 2. The main square now represents only the 

 forest land, that is, the shaded area of figure 2. The 

 rectangles representing the seven subdivisions, conse- 

 quently, have changed in proportionate area, as can 

 best be seen by comparing on the two gi-aphs; first, 

 eastern Montana, at the top, which has become rela- 

 tively small, and second, western Oregon, at the hot- 



