86 



TEVIBER TRENDS IN THE UNITED STATES 



About 8 Percent of the Nation's 

 Forests in Old-Growth Stands 



Poletimber and Seedling and 

 Sapling Stands Largely in East 



Old-growth sawtimber stands, now found only 

 in the West, occupied about 43 million acres, or 

 approximately 8 percent of the commercial forest 

 area (table 58) . Two-thirds of the remaining old- 

 growth area, and a larger proportion of the old- 

 gi'owth timber volumes, was in the Pacific Coast 

 States. Some of these old-gi'owth stands are made 

 up entirely of virgin timber. Others are composed 

 of residual trees, frequently highly defective, that 

 were left in earlier logging operations. Many 

 stands are of mixed characteristics, especially in 

 the ponderosa pine type, and are classified 

 according to predominance of old or young growth. 



One-Third of the Nation's Forest 

 in Young-Growth Sawtimber Stands 



Forests that are characterized mainly by 

 poletimber trees also make up about one-third of 

 the commercial forest area. More than 4 out of 5 

 of these acres are in the East, with roughly equal 

 shares in the North and South. These stands can 

 be expected to contribute importantly to the 

 sawtimber supply during the next few decades, 

 particularly on the better sites. Opportunities for 

 enhancing the rate of sawtimber development by 

 thinning and other stand-improvement treatments 

 are substantial in many of these stands. 



Seedling and sapling stands occupy about one- 

 fifth of all commercial forests, with about 8 out of 9 

 acres of such stands in the East. In most regions 

 very few of these stands will be operable before 

 the end of the century. 



The area of young-gi'owth sawtimber stands, 

 amounting to 166 million acres at the beginning 

 of 1963, was about four times as large as the area 

 of old-growth timber (table 58). This distinction 

 between old-growth and young-gi'owth is only 

 approximate, however, because in the West, 

 especially in the Rocky Mountains, many small- 

 sawtimber stands were classified as young-gi'owth 

 regardless of their age. 



Between 1953 and 1963 the area of young- 

 growth sawtimber stands rose about 25 percent. 

 The largest acreages of these stands are in the 

 South and the North (fig. 38). 



Timber Volumes Concentrated 

 on Limited Areas 



Stands that contain more than 5,000 board feet 

 per acre cover only 21 percent of the commercial 

 forest land (table 59). They contain roughly 

 three-fourths of the total national inventory of 

 sawtimber. Most of these relatively heavy- 

 volume stands are in the West, where they cover 

 nearly half the commercial forest area. In the 

 East they cover about 11 percent of the com- 

 mercial forest land. 



Table 58. — Commercial forest land, by stand-size class and section, January 1, 1963 



Stand-size class 



Total U.S. 



North 



South 



Rocky 

 Mountains 



Pacific 





Area 



Proportion 



coast 



Sawtimber stands: 

 Old-growth 



Thousand 

 acres 



42,869 

 166,076 



Percent 



8.4 

 32,6 



Thousand 

 acres 



Thousand 

 acres 



Thousand 

 acres 



13,933 

 24,706 



Thousand 

 acres 



28,936 



Young-growth 



52,974 



68,828 



19.568 



Total 



208,945 



41.0 



52,974 



68,828 



38,639 



48 , 504 



Poletimber stands 



Seedling and sapling stands 



Nonstocked areas 



164,794 

 99,573 

 35 , 533 



32.4 



19.6 



7.0 



64,808 

 39,327 

 14,680 



71,580 

 49,254 

 11,407 



19,063 

 4,352 

 3,569 



9,343 

 6,640 



5,877 



All classes . _. 



508,845 



100.0 



171,789 



201,069 



65,623 



70,364 







