— are less than or equal to 7,000 feet in elevation west of the Continental 

 Divide and less than or equal to 8,000 feet east of the Divide. 



Fair timberlands 



— do not meet the requirements for good or excellent timberlands; 



— have a potential productivity that is greater than or equal to 20 cubic feet 

 per acre per year; 



— have a slope that is less than or equal to 56 percent; 



— have a good (class I) or medium (class II) landscape stability rating; 

 -- are less than or equal to 8,000 feet in elevation. 



Poor timberlands 



— do not meet the requirements for excellent, good, or fair timberlands. 



Timberland Quality Class and Stand Size Class 



About 40 percent, or 440,100 acres, of the commercial softwood timber- 

 land in the working circle was rated as good or excellent for timber produc- 

 tion. Fifty-four percent of the young-growth sawtimber stands and 31 per- 

 cent of the old-growth sawtimber stands were found on good or excellent rat- 

 ed timberlands. An estimated 114,500 acres or 60 percent of seedling-sapling 

 and nonstocked stands were found on timberland rated as fair for timber pro- 

 duction (see Figure 12). 



Timberland Quality Class by Ownership Group 



Fifty-four percent of the commercial softwood timberlands owned by 

 forest industries were rated as excellent or good. This compared favorably 

 to the relative amounts of excellent and good rated timberland found on the 

 other two ownership groups. State and other public had 40 percent of their 

 timberlands rated as excellent or good. The other private ownership group 

 had 37 percent. 



However, if total acreage by ownership group is examined, most of the 

 excellent and good rated timberland in the working circle (64 percent) is 

 owned by the other private group (see Table 28). 



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