are located here. The extensive forest area is in rela- 

 tively large tracts; about a third of it is publicly 

 owned (fig. 27). Some of the public land is in the 

 farming area, but more than 70 percent of it is in the 

 extensive forest area. The privately owned land in 

 the extensive forest area belongs largely to resort 

 owners, hunting and fishing clubs, and timber 

 operators. 



Table 9. — Forest-land ownership, by subregions, 1943 



Ownership 



Coal 

 fields 



Farming 

 areas 



Extensive 

 forests 



Total 



Public: 

 Federal . 



Acres 



Acres 



Acres 

 34, 400 



126,500 



169,600 

 39, 300 



Acres 

 34, 400 



State department 

 of forests and 

 waters 





1,800 



62, 700 



' 53,700 

 5,200 



128,300 



State game com- 

 mission 





232, 300 



Counties 



12, 200 

 14,000 



105,200 



Communities 



19,200 









All public .... 



26, 200 



123, 400 



369, 800 



519,400 



Private: 

 Coal companies. . . 

 Water companies. . 

 Farmers 



256, 800 

 17.500 

 13,200 

 88, 700 



376, 200 



3,900 



38, 900 



491,000 



866, 600 



1,400,400 



2, 100 

 53, 100 

 42, 300 



262, 800 

 109, 500 

 546. 500 



Others 



804, 900 1. 760. 200 



All private. . . . 



902, 400 



2, 679, 000 



Total 



402, 400 



1,523,800 



1,272,200 



3,198,400 



Present Forest Management 



Forest management varies from subregion to sub- 

 region. In the coal fields verv little forest manage- 

 ment has been applied. A few coal companies and 

 mine-timber operators have done work in fire preven- 

 tion and control, and some management for timber 

 has been started. However, in general the forests in 

 the coal fields are abused. Mining operations de- 

 much forest land, and clear-cutting of forest tracts for 

 mine timbers is the general practice. 



The forests in the farming areas receive much better 

 management. The small holdings of the water com- 

 panies and the forests owned by farmers have been 

 spared much of the overutilization and burning to 

 which the coal-field forests have been subjected. 

 Many farm woodlands are managed for home use 

 only, and the water companies have generally kept 

 their forests uncut in order to protect their water 

 supplies. Much of the other privatel) owned (non- 

 farm) forest land gets no management and is left to 

 grow as it will. 



In the extensive forests the smaller holdings get no 

 management; but main of the larger foresl ti 

 managed for timber, recreation, or game. In the 

 western Poconos a large area is managed for bit a 1 errv 

 production. For the most part, lumbering in the 

 extensive forests has been on a clear-cut basis; the 

 result is that much of the subregion is well stocked, 

 but the timber is too young to be of commercial value. 



THE COAL FIELDS 



The coal fields occupy the heart of the Anthracite 

 Forest Region. A sparse forest, much of it sprouts 

 and saplings, covers three-quarters of the area. 

 Scattered through this forest are mine operations; 

 shafts, coal breakers, huge mine waste banks piled on 

 the surface (fig. 28), and stripped areas where the 

 surface has been shoveled awav and the coal has been 

 removed in some places to a depth of several hundred 

 feet. The greater part of this subregion, with the 

 exception of the Wyoming Valley, is unsuited to 

 agriculture; some of it, notabl) in the vicinit) of 



Ha/leton, is poor even for forest land. 



Into the coal fields a space of aboul 190 square 

 miles are crowded a million people. This popula- 

 tion is peculiarly dependent on coal mining, and its 



economic condition rises and falls with the anthracite 



industry. The decline in the population of the 



Anthracite Forest Region has taken place almost 

 entirely in this subrc'ion. It was here that the bulk 



1 i..\ ki 28. W 



The Anthracite Forest Region .1 Pioblun Area 



