Forest Resources 0/ the Pacific Northwest 



63 



majority of the goods consumed — come from otlicr 

 States or other coimtries. The industries which pro- 

 vide materials to be sold in these other regions thus 

 come to have a special significance. It is because of 

 them that it is possible to support a population in the 

 Pacific Northwest at the standard of living to which 

 it has become accustomed. As a consequence, a 

 measure of the contributions of difl'erent industries to 

 the export trade of the Region provides a most useful 

 gage of economic importance. Export trade in this 

 instance means export to other areas in the United 

 States as well as to foreign countries. 



Tonnage of Net Exports From 

 the Pacific Northwest States 



Unfortunately, the information on internal move- 

 ments of commodities is not adequate for a complete 

 and accurate statement of the movement of goods from 

 an area such as the Pacific Northwest. It is possible, 

 however, to make a study of the net movement (by 

 weight) of particular commodities into and out of each 

 State, and thus to get a somewhat impressionistic 

 picture of the relative importance of different com- 

 modities in the trade of the individual States, and so 

 of the Region as a whole. 



A study of the net tonnage movement by commodi- 

 ties, for the Pacific Northwest States, was made for the 

 year 1929. The results are shown by broad com- 

 modity groupings in Appendix 2, table C, and in 

 figure 3.' In tonnage terms, the net movement of 

 forest products was overwhelmingly more important 

 than that of any other group of products. Over 70 

 percent of the net tonnage exports of the Pacific 

 Northwest were made up of forest products; the per- 

 centage being as high as S9 percent for Oregon, <S0 

 percent for Washington, and 4S percent for Idaho. 

 Only for Montana was the tonnage movement of forest 

 products unimportant as compared with other exported 

 commodities. However, it must be remembered that 

 Montana is divided geographically into two highly 

 different sections. The eastern and larger part belongs 

 physically and economically to the Great Plains, and 

 contains little forest area. Forest industries are largely 

 confined to the western portion. But, in Montana as 

 a whole, forest products comprised less than 9 percent 

 of the net tonnage. Altogether, it is clear that the 

 movement of forest products out of the Region is one 

 of the most important tasks of the transportation 

 systems of the area. 



Value of Net Exports from 

 the Pacific Northwest States 



The tonnage figures given above are probably sufTi- 

 ciently accurate for present purposes, although the 



' For net tonnage movement by commodities see Appendix 2, table O. 



nature of the inforiiiatioii, particularly that on coast- 

 wise and intercoastal movements, is such that accuracy 

 in the strictest sense is not possible. Statements 

 must be even more approximate when the value of the 

 export movement is being considered. The value of a 

 ton of a particular commodity imported will not be the 

 same as that of a ton of the export movement of the 

 same commodity, but in arriving at the net movement 

 (by weight) it has been necessary to balance the out- 

 going against incoming tonnage. To the distortion 

 caused by this procedure, there is added the difficulty 

 of securing satisfactory value figures to apply to the 

 net tonnage figures. Considerable care has been taken 

 to discover a price per ton that seemed to be a good 

 statement of the value of the goods exported. It is 

 probable that the errors in the value figures for the 

 commodity groupings are not in excess of 20 percent. 

 In general, the important differences are so clear that 

 the conclusions would not be greatly different even if 

 the errors were as much as 20 percent. 



Since the value per ton of forest products averages 

 less than that of other products exported, the value of 

 net exports of forest products is proportionately some- 

 what less impressive than the net tonnage of exports. 

 Nevertheless, forest products stand out clearly as the 

 most important source for the Region of income wdth 

 which to buy the products of other areas. (See fig. 4, 

 and Appendix 2, table D.)* Forest products contribute 

 practically 64 percent of the value of all net exports 

 from Oregon, and .54 percent for Washington; and for 

 the Pacific Northwest as a whole they amount to about 

 41 percent of the value of all net exports. The per- 

 centage for Idaho is only 16; and for Montana, only about 

 2 percent. For reasons previously explaiiuMl, the relative 

 dependence of the different States on the export of forest 

 products is thus seen to vary considerably, Oregon being 

 the most dependent upon forest industries, and Montana, 

 as a whole, being very slightly dependent upon them. 



Agriculture is second to forest industries as a source 

 of net exports. Agricultural and animal products com- 

 bined provided almost exactly the same proportion as 

 forest products of total net exports for the Region as a 

 whole. These two groups were very much less important 

 than forest products in Oregon and Washington, but 

 much more important in Montana and Idaho. More 

 than 75 percent of the value of the net exports of Mon- 

 tana were represented by agricultural and animal prod- 

 ucts, while the corresponding figure is approximately 

 64 percent for Itlaho. 



These values of net export figures are designed to 

 give some indication of the basic importance of different 

 resources when providing export balances for the 

 Region. In general, they do give such a picture, al- 



< For estimated value of net exports by commodities see Apiwndix 2. table O. 



