82 



TIMBER TRENDS IN THE UNITED STATES 



Southern Pines Predominate 

 in Eastern Softwood Types 



The most extensive eastern softwood forest type 

 is lobloUy-shortleaf pine, which accounts for half 

 of the eastern softwood acreage (table 55 and fig. 

 37). Nearly a fourth of the eastern softwood 

 area is occupied by the longleaf-slash pine type. 

 These southern-pine types are largely confined to 

 a 300-mile- wide belt extending along the Atlantic 

 Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico from New Jersey 

 to Texas. Together they make up 40 percent of 

 the South's commercial forest land . They compose 

 the major softwood timber-producing area in the 

 East. 



Only 20 percent of the commercial forests in 

 the North support softwood types. These include 

 primarily the spruce-fir and white-red-jack pine 

 types in the northern Lake States and northern 

 New England. 



Hardwood Types Largely Oak 



The oak-hickory type, the most widespread of 

 all eastern types, occupies almost half of the 

 eastern hardwood area (table 55). This type is 

 composed of a large number of species in many 

 local associations gi'owing on a wide variety of 

 sites. Oak-hickory stands in general present 

 serious problems for forest managers because of 

 the poor saw log quality of most trees left after 

 cutting, and the lack of markets for the huge over- 

 burden of small and low-grade timber in many of 

 these types. 



The relatively valuable swamp and bottom- 

 land forests of the oak-gum-cypress and elm-ash- 

 cottonwood types cover more than one-fifth of the 

 hardwood area in the East. Two-thirds of these 

 lowland types are in the South, with the largest 

 concentration- — 10 million acres^ — in the Missis- 





FOREST TYPES 







EAST 







WEST 







Oak-Hickory 





Douglas-Fir 



1 



LobloHy-Shortleaf Pine 









Ponderosa Pine 



Oak-Gum-Cypress 









^^H Lodgepole Pine 





^^B 



Waple-Beech-Birch 



^^H Fir-Spruce 



^^^^H Oak-Pine 





^H Hardwoods 



^^^^^H Longleaf-Slash Pine 





^M Hemlock-Sitka Spruce 



^^^^^H Aspen-Birch 





1 White Pine 



^^^^1 Elm-Ash-Cottonwood 





1 Larch 



^^^^1 Spruce-Fir 





Redwood 





^M White-Red-Jack Pine 



1 1 1 1 1 1 1 



1 1 1 1 1 1 



1 1 1 1 1 1 





Q 20 40 60 



80 100 120 ( 



) 20 *0 60 





million acres 





Figure 37 



