Timber Resource 



Each ownership group in all of the counties had much more softwood 

 commercial timberland than hardwood. Lewis and Clark County had the most 

 commercial timberland, but Powell County had the most volume. Volumes by 

 softwood and hardwood species were similar to those by forest type. Other 

 private land had most of the growth in each county. Cubic foot growth on 

 state and other public land exceeded that on forest industry land, but forest 

 industry land grew more in terms of board feet. In each county there were 

 si 1 vicul tural treatment opportunities available to increase growth and improve 

 the health of the timberland. 



Forest Acreage by Ownership Group 



The proportion of sampled commercial timberland by ownership group in 

 each county is given in Figure 13. In Beaverhead, Jefferson, and Silver Bow 

 Counties, forest industries owned only one percent of the sampled commercial 

 timberland as compared to 36 percent in Madison County. The working circle 

 average was just over 12 percent. The percentage of sampled commercial 

 timberland owned by state and other public agencies varied from five percent 

 in Broadwater County to 37 percent in Beaverhead County, with an average 

 of almost 16 percent. Other private owners had 55 percent of the sampled 

 commercial timberland in Madison County, and ranged to 92 percent in 

 Jefferson County. The average was 72 percent. 



Lewis and Clark County had the most commercial and other (unproduc- 

 tive) timberland sampled in Working Circle 3 (see Table 36 and Table 50 in 

 Appendix 2). The DSL, other public, and other private ownership groups in 

 Lewis and Clark County had more timberland than those groups in the other 

 counties, but Powell County had the most forest industry timberland. In all 

 counties, the other private ownership group had more acreage in each class 

 of timberland than the other three ownership groups combined. 



Table 36 gives the area of commercial timberland in softwood and hard- 

 wood forest types by ownership group for each county. In all of the coun- 

 ties, and for both hardwood and softwood forest types, the other private 

 ownership group had more sampled commercial timberland than the other two 

 ownership groups combined. Lewis and Clark County had almost one-third of 

 the other private forest land (29 percent) occurring in the working circle. 

 Granite, Madison, and Powell were the only counties where forest industries 

 had substantially more commercial timberland than state and other public own- 



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