and used chiefly for common boards and dimension 

 and for box shook. The wood is nonresinous and 

 odorless when dry, and therefore desirable for boxes 

 used as food containers. 



Western white pine, per unit of volume, is the 

 most valuable species in the region, but its scant 

 occurrence renders it of little commercial impor- 

 tance. A little more than half of the total of 0.8 

 billion board feet is in Washington. The wood is 

 highly prized for interior finish, patterns, cut stock, 

 sash and doors, and many specialty uses. 



The remaining conifers and the hardwoods are 

 now of little commercial significance by reason of 

 limited quantity, unsuitability of the wood for com- 

 mercial use, or inaccessibility. At one time con- 

 siderable quantities of "cedar" poles were produced 

 in northeastern Washington but the supply is now 

 nearly exhausted. 



Economic Availability 



No classification by economic availability was 

 made of the saw-timber volume, as was done for the 

 Douglas-fir region (/), owing to the very different 

 situation prevailing. In the ponderosa pine region, 

 all species except ponderosa pine, sugar pine, and 

 white pine may be considered for all practical pur- 

 poses as being low in economic availability. Usu- 

 ally these species are not logged except when they 

 occur in mixture with the pines and often not then. 



Although the quality of ponderosa pine saw tim- 

 ber varies considerably, the range in size, quality, 

 and location is not comparable to that of the prin- 

 cipal commercial species in the Douglas-fir region, 

 where several large navigable bodies of water and 

 extensive areas of rough mountainous topography 

 combine with wide variation in size and quality of 

 timber to give to some Douglas-fir stands a com- 

 paratively high value and others a comparatively 

 low value. 



Cubic Volume 



Cubic measure is seldom used in this region be- 

 cause practically all material utilized is in sawlog 

 form. Since interregional comparisons of timber 

 volume, however, can be accurately made only in 

 cubic feet, cubic volumes were computed (table 12) 

 by ownership class and species. Of the total, 80 

 percent is in sawlog-size trees (12 inches d. b. h. or 

 more), 10 percent is in understory trees in saw- 



timber stands (less than 12 inches d. b h.), and 10 

 percent in trees less than saw-timber size in second 

 growth stands. 



Ownership of Forest Resources 



One of the characteristic features of the forest 

 situation already noted is the large proportion of 

 the forest resource in public ownership. Unques- 

 tionably this has had a stabilizing influence on 

 forest-land management and a restraining effect on 

 forest exploitation. Continuity of tenure, including 

 a consciousness of the public interest in all forests, 

 is the key to sustained-yield management of forest 

 resources in both public and private holdings. 



Private Ownership 



Approximately 32 percent of the commercial 

 forest land and 29 percent of the saw-timber 

 volume is in private ownership. This disparity 

 does not denote that the private land is less pro- 

 ductive or the timber on it smaller or more scat- 

 tered. Actually the reverse is true. But most of 

 the cutting has taken place on private lands and 

 consequently a larger percent of the area of second- 

 growth and deforested lands is privately held. 

 About 56 percent of the private forest land supports 

 ponderosa pine saw-timber stands, 1 5 percent pon- 

 derosa pine second growth, and 7 percent other 

 conifer saw timber. Very little other conifer 

 second growth, lodgepole pine, and noncommercial 

 land is privately owned. 



Approximately a third of the total ponderosa 

 pine saw-timber volume remains in private owner- 

 ship, despite heavy cutting for two decades. About 

 three-quarters of the privately owned saw timber 

 is ponderosa pine and a large part of the remaining 

 volume is in species growing in pine stands as a 

 minor component of the forest. 



The concentration of the most productive land 

 and best timber in private hands carries an added 

 responsibility to conserve this valuable resource 

 through management for continuous production. 

 Private owners are aware of this responsibility 

 and some are making a conscious effort to fulfill 

 their obligations. Unfortunately private action 

 toward resource management is not universal and 

 sustained-yield practices have made slight head- 

 way on private lands. 



29 



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