DECREASE m SPIUU TIITIBER 

 BETUUEEn 1915 PHD 1939 



PRIVATE 



NATIONAL FOREST 



k 



OTHER OWNERS 



VOLUME 

 IN 1939 



DECREASE 

 SINCE 1915 



EACH TREE REPRESENTS 5 BILLION BOARD FEET 



Figure 17. — The heavy drain on private saw limber makes the national- 

 forest timber increasingly important. Noncommercial stands, of which 

 the greater part are on national forests, are included. 



Standpoint in that all of the noncommercial saw timber, 

 which is mainly in the national forests, is included. 



Private 



National forest. . . . 

 Other public lands. 



Total 



Billion board 

 feet Hog scale) 

 28 



57 



Three decades ot heav\- cutting have brought about a 

 gradual change in the relative positions and importance of 

 private and national-forest timber. Cutting during that 

 period has been concentrated principally on private lands. 

 The estimated average annual cutting drain for the period 

 1935-38 is 49 million board teet from the national forests 

 and 575 million board feet from all other lands; this is 

 fairly indicative ot the proportion ot cut coming from 

 national forests and other lands durmg the past 30 years. 



As a result of this drain the private timber supply has 

 shrunk from 28 billion board teet in 1915 to 15 billion board 

 feet in 1939, and national forest timber has declined from 

 22 to 20 billion board feet during the same period (fig. 17). 

 To make the comparison with 1915 valid, the noncom- 

 mercial stands were included tor 1939. Inasmuch as the 

 national forests hold the greater part of the noncommercial 

 timber, figure 17 in no way indicates the present relative 

 commercial importance of the several ownerships. 



Followmg removal ot the timber, forest land ceases for 



the most part to be an attractive private investment. 

 Consequently, cut-over and burned-over areas are drifting 

 back into public ownership, Federal and county. Up to 

 1938 a total of 330,000 acres had been acquired by the 

 national forests, largely through donation from the large 

 private owners and counties and partly through the ex- 

 change ot national-torest timber tor land. Most of this 

 increase took place alter 1928. 



Less desirable is the increasing county domain as the 

 result ot tax delinquency and foreclosure. At present 

 the county is no better able than the average private 

 owner ot cut-over forest lands to manage growing stands 

 properly. Until this situation is corrected, county owner- 

 ship is naturally no solution to the problem. In the 10- 

 year interval between 1928 and 1938, the rural area on 

 the tax rolls decreased by 518,000 acres donated to 

 the national forests by private owners or reverted to 

 the counties. Some of the latter ended up in the national 

 forests. Since in 1928 only 4.9 ot the 12.5 million acres 

 in northern Idaho was subject to taxation, the loss ot 

 one-half million acres from the tax rolls is significant. It 

 seems inevitable that, as time goes on, more lands will 

 be dropped from the tax rolls for one reason or another. 

 Counterbalancing the rapid rise of private ownership 

 during the latter part of the ninteenth century and the 

 early part of this century, the downward trend has defi- 

 nitely set in and, although more gradual, it will probably 

 continue tor many years. The threat to the solvency ot 

 of the forest counties is apparent. 



Present Forest Ownership 



From even the very rough estimates ot the forest re- 

 source available heretofore, it has long been apparent that 

 the holdings of the several classes ot owners differ signi- 

 ficantly with respect to commercial values. The refine- 

 ments in classification possible through the forest-survev 

 data make these differences even more striking. In the 

 preceding section, the wide range of forest-land values 

 was emphasized. Beginning on the lower end of the scale 

 with the vast area ot noncommercial forest, public owner- 

 ship predominates. Proceeding upward toward the stands 

 with greatest value, the public holdings become less im- 

 portant and the proportion of private holdings increases. 

 Total Forest Area 



The public is the biggest forest owner in northern 

 Idaho. Approximately 7.4 million ot the 10.3 million 

 acres of forest land is owned or managed by the Federal, 

 State, and local public agencies. Ot this, 6.3 million 

 acres is in national forests. The following tabulation 

 shows the proportion of total forest area in each ownership, 

 the small private class including, tor the most part, owner- 



18 



