land open to timber 

 production under the new 

 guidelines. Timber sales 

 planned in or adjacent to 

 areas proposed by various 

 private interests for 

 wilderness designation or 

 other nontimber use have 

 been the subject of 

 numerous injunctive actions. 

 These injunctions are 

 sought by parties who view 

 timber sales as being in 

 conflict with other resources 

 and uses they regard as 

 more important or valuable 

 than timber production. 

 Despite these legal 

 interventions, timber sales 

 and cut from the national 

 forests have been 

 maintained at a relatively 

 stable level, but with only a 

 slight increase in volume 

 harvested each year over 



that in 1 970 (the average 

 being slightly more than 1 

 billion board feet). 



As of this writing, some 

 11.4 million acres 

 (approximately 95 percent 

 of the net national forest 

 areas of 11.9 million acres) 

 were classified as 

 commercial forest land. Of 

 the area classified as 

 commercial forest land, 

 only 8.8 million acres 

 (approximately 75 percent 

 of the national forest land 

 in the South) is currently 

 suitable for timber 

 production. The cut in 1984 

 was 1,243,553,000 board 

 feet, for which the Forest 

 Service received 

 $104,279,053 (USDA Forest 

 Service 1985a, unpubl., 

 and 1985c, unpubl.). 



48 



