OUR FORESTS Q 
ANIMALS OF THE FOREST COMMUNITY 
Not only does the forest contain myriad varieties of plant life 
but it is also the home of countless members of the animal kingdom. 
The timid deer cropping vegetation in the woodland, the stealthy 
cougar, the bear in a tree stealing honey from the bees, the sly fox, 
the busy squirrel, the inquisitive bobcat, the grouse upon his mossy 
log, the musical thrush, the tiny wood folk beneath the leaf litter, 
the raccoon dipping his forepaws cautiously into the cool waters of a 
running stream or searching for grubs along a rotting log, the moose 
browsing along a lake shore, the busy beaver cutting willows for a 
dam, the gamey fish in the streams, are as much a part of the forest as 
the trees themselves (fig. 5). Wild game and fur-bearing animals, 
which the forests harbor, are valuable resources. 
F-218551, F- 185378 
FIGuRE 5.—Some residents of the forest community. 
A, Raccoon; B, mule deer. 
FOREST REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES 
Originally forests covered the entire eastern half of the United 
States, stretching in a practically unbroken area from the Atlantic 
seaboard to the Great lains. West of the Great Plains they were 
in more isolated groups, lying mostly in the Rocky Mountains and 
the mountainous parts of the territory now occupied by the Pacific 
Coast States. The area of the original forests is estimated to have 
» been more than 820,000,000 acres, or about 42 percent of the land 
area of the United States. : 
It is estimated that there are about 462,000,000 acres of forest land 
in continental United States capable of producing timber in com- 
mercial quantities. An additional 168,000,000 acres consist of non- 
commercial forest land or low-grade forest and scrub. Less than 
one-half of the total acreage of commercial forest land bears saw 
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