INVENTORY DATA BY COUNTY 



Area by Owner 



Both the largest county in the state — Beaverhead -- and the smallest 

 county -- Silver Bow -- are in Working Circle 3. Some of the ownership 

 patterns are similar between some of the counties, while others show great 

 variation. The percentage of sampled commercial timberland owned by forest 

 industries ranges from one percent in Beaverhead, Jefferson, and Silver Bow 

 Counties to 36 percent in Madison County. State and other public owners 

 ranged from five percent in Broadwater County to 37 percent in Beaverhead 

 County. For other private owners it varied from 55 percent in Madison County 

 to 92 percent in Jefferson County. In each county, the other private owner- 

 ship group had more sampled commercial timberland than the other two ownership 

 groups combined. 



As would be expected, the ownership patterns in Working Circle 3 varied 

 quite a bit between some of the counties (see Table 35). Beaverhead County, 

 the largest in the state, had the most land in five of the eight ownership 

 classes. Although Powell County was average sized for the working circle, it 

 had the most forest industry and National Park Service land. (Beaverhead 

 and Powell Counties had all of the NPS land in the working circle.) Lewis 

 and Clark County had the most county and municipal land. 



There were also some differences between counties in the percentages of 

 land owned by the different owners. Forest Service ownership ranged from 

 almost half of Lewis and Clark County to less than a fourth of Broadwater 

 County. A difference of greater magnitude was indicated for BLM land. 

 Only 1.2 percent of Deer Lodge County was administered by the Bureau, as 

 compared to 18.7 percent of Beaverhead County. The greatest difference, 

 though, was in forest industry land. Beaverhead and Silver Bow Counties 

 each had only 0.1 percent while Powell County had a percentage of 6.2 per- 

 cent. About two-thirds of Beaverhead and Granite Counties was publicly 

 owned, but only about one-third of Broadwater County was. A little more 

 than half of each of the other counties was owned by a public agency. 



-73- 



