CH PROCTER OF COVER 



on commERciPL forest lppd 



BLACK SYMBOL REPRESENTS PART OF AREA ! 



DOUGLAS -FIR 



■'iGURE 1 1 . — The character of cover on the 6.0 million acres of commercial forest land, .i very impor- 

 tant feature is the relatively small area in each productive class that is in the valuable western while 

 pine type. 



The nonstocked area is only a partial measure of the lost 

 productivity; in addition, 217,000 acres of pole stands and 

 250,000 acres of seedling and sapling stands are poorly 

 stocked. In all, at least 1,370,000 acres of commercial 

 forest land are either not producing at all or growing 

 timber at only a fraction of their potential capacity. 

 Timber Volumes 



The total volume of merchantable-size trees in saw- 

 timber stands of northern Idaho is 38 billion board feet, 

 Scribner log scale. This is almost 3 percent of the national 

 total, and about the same volume as that of present 

 saw-timber stands of the Lake States region. More than 

 a fourth of the timber is western white pine, or approxi- 

 mately 10 billion board feet (fig. 12). Practically all of 

 this — 96 percent — is in the western white pine type. 

 Cedar poles in saw-timber stands, which are equivalent 

 to 1.1 billion board feet of the western redcedar total, 

 number 6.3 million pieces. 



Forest Survey volumes are generally somewhat higher 

 than earlier estimates. This is chiefly on account of the 

 less selective standards. These permit the inclusion of 

 volumes in stands heretofore considered unmerchantable 

 but having distinct possibilities for utilization sometime 

 in the future. 



Geographic Distribution 



The various parts of northern Idaho were not originally 

 clothed with forests of the same fabric. Moreover, 

 cutting has not progressed at the same pace throughout 

 the area. Thus, in digging beneath the over-all figures, 

 one finds marked differences between the several locafities 

 in the percent of forest land that is commercial, in the 

 proportion of virgin saw-timber stands remaining — 

 particularly western white pine and ponderosa pine, and 

 in the degree of present industrial activity. The forest 

 lands can be divided along county lines into five economic 

 districts on the basis of such differences (fig. 1). These 

 are (1) the JSandpoint district, including Bonner and 

 Boundary Counties; (2) the Coeur d'Alene-St. Joe district, 

 including Benewah, Kootenai, and Shoshone Counties; 

 (3) the Clearwater district, including Clearwater and Latah 



Counties; (4) the Winchester district, 

 including Lewis and Nez Perce Counties; 

 and (5) the Idaho County district, 

 including the portion of Idaho County in 

 northern Idaho. 



It is noteworthy that the so-called 

 noncommercial area in northern Idaho is 

 not evenly divided among the districts. 

 Two-thirds of the forest in the Idaho 

 County district is noncommercial, whereas 

 only 1 forest acre in 20 is so classified in. 

 the Winchester district (table 2). 



Timber cutting has been heaviest in 

 the Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene-St. Joe districts, where 

 saw-timber stands occupy only 27 percent of the commer- 

 cial forest area. Years ago they were noted for an abun- 

 dance of virgin timber. On the other extreme, the timber 

 in the Idaho County district has hardly been touched. 

 Here 55 percent of the commercial forest area bears 

 saw-timber stands. 



voLumE in commERCiflL 

 snuu-TimBER STpnos 



10 



WESTERN WHITE PINE 



6.4 



5.7 



GRAND FIR 



4.9 



PONDEROSA PINE 



4.1 



WESTERN LARCH 



3.3 



WESTERN REDCEDAR 



2.4 



ENGELMANN SPRUCE 



U2 



NUMBERS ARE 

 BILLIONS OF BOARD 

 FEET (LOG SCALE) 



OTHER SPECIES 



Figure 12. — One-quarter of the saw timber is western white pine. The 

 volume of western redcedar includes ynerchantable-siiLe poles. 



12 



