FOREST LAND AND TIMBER RESOURCES 



77 



Figure 34 



under present cost and price conditions. Other 

 areas are either nonstocked or support low- 

 quahty or sparse stands of timber. Many of these 

 lands are used for recreation or other purposes in 

 addition to timber growing. All of these lands, 

 however, are considered suitable for producing 

 timber crops, now or prospectively, under some 

 level of protection and management. 



One-third of the total forest area, or 250 million 

 acres, is classified as "noncommercial," either 

 because of low productivity for timber growing, or 

 in the case of some public lands, because of legal 

 reservation for recreation and other nontimber 

 uses. 



Commercial Forests 

 Mainly in the East 



Although the total forest area is fairly evenly 

 divided between the East and the West, nearly 

 three-fourths of the commercial forest land is 

 concentrated in the East (table 52 and fig. 35). 

 The South alone has 39 percent of the total area 

 of commercial forests, the North 34 percent, and 

 the West 27 percent. 



America's forests also are unevenly distributed 

 by States. In North Dakota and Nevada, for 

 example, less than 1 percent of the land area is 

 commercial forest. On the other hand, Maine 

 has 87 percent of its acreage in commercial forest, 

 and Washington and Oregon west of the Cascades 

 73 percent. 



Commercial Forest Area 

 Continues To Increase 



Since the original settlement of this country, 

 there has been a continuing encroachment on 

 forest lands, for farms, cities, highways, and other 

 purposes. Over the past few decades, however, 

 abandonment of cropland in certain areas and 

 reversion to timber gi'owing has more than offset 

 such losses of forest land. 



During the decade prior to 1953, for example, 

 additions to the forest acreage exceeded with- 

 drawals by 24 million acres. ^" In the 10 years 

 from 1953 to 1963 the increase in forest area 

 continued, although at a slower rate with a net 

 addition of 7.6 million acres to the commercial 

 forest area (table 53).^' 



Most of the change in the commercial forest 

 area between 1953 and 1963 occurred in the South, 

 where there was a net increase of 6.7 million acres. 

 Except in the East Gulf States, where forest areas 

 declined about 2 percent largely as a result of 

 conversion of forests to pasture, all regions of 

 the South gained commercial forest acreage, 

 particularly the Central Gulf region — Alabama, 

 Mississippi, and Tennessee. Here commercial 

 forest land increased 8 percent in the 1953-63 

 decade. 



These net gains in forest area in both the South 

 and North reflected sweeping changes in the 

 agricultural economy. Areas of cropland har- 



■■"' U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 

 Timber Resources for America's Future, Forest Resource 

 Report No. 14, January 1958. 



3' The estimated area of commercial forest land on 

 January 1, 1953, was 489 million acres. New statistics 

 from the Forest Survey in the West and other minor 

 changes such as the inclusion of Hawaii resulted in an 

 upward revision of the 1953 estimates to 509 million acres. 



DISTRIBUTION OF COMMERCIAL FOREST LAND 



million 



acres 



W 



pacific Coast 





North JfUli 





Rocky Mountain 







66 



1^ 



^(O 





South 





201 



Figure 35 



