FOREST OWNERSHIP 
11. Who owns our forests? 
Of the Nation’s 624 million acres of forest land, 196 million 
acres are in public ownership—community, State, and Fed- 
eral—and 428 million acres are in private ownership. Of 
the commercial forest land—land capable of growing com- 
mercial timber crops and available for this purpose—ap- 
proximately 116 million acres are in public ownership and 
345 million acres in private ownership. 
A major portion of the publicly owned forest land is in 
national forests administered by the United States Forest 
Service. On these lands scientific forestry is applied and as 
fast as they can be opened up the timber stands are being 
managed for what foresters call sustained yield—that is, 
continuous production at a high level. Similar management 
is being applied to many of the forest lands in other Federal 
and State ownerships. 
Publicly owned forest land, however, includes only about 
one-fourth of the total commercial forest acreage. Generally 
the most accessible, easily logged, and most productive forest 
lands are in private ownership. 
About 40 percent of private forest lands is in farm owner- 
ship; another 35 percent is in small nonfarm holdings; and 
25 percent is in industrial or other large holdings (5,000 
acres or more). 
The 139 million acres in farm woodlands is divided among 
314 million farmers. Another 125 million acres is held by a 
million nonfarm owners—investors, small-business men, own- 
ers of estates, and others. Many of these are absentee own- 
ers; with them the problem of encouraging good forestry 
practice is especially difficult. 
Private forest lands, large and small, include at least 80 
percent of the potential timber-growing capacity of the entire 
country. They furnish about 90 percent of our present 
output of all forest products. 
It is evident, therefore, that the Nation is primarily de- 
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