FOREST LAND AND TIMBER RESOURCES 



101 



Variety of Causes for Mortality 



Determination of the cause of mortality of 

 standing timber is extremely difficult in many 

 cases, partly because two or more causes of injury, 

 such as fire and insects, may be evident. A rough 

 approximation of mortality of sawtimber by cause 

 in 1962 is indicated in the following tabulation: 



Groiving stock Sawtimber 



Cause: 



Fire 



Insects 



Disease 



Weather and 



other 



Unknown 



All causes 5.6 



(Billion 



(Per- 



(Billion 



(Per- 



cu. ft.) 



cent) 



bd. 



ft.) 



cent) 



0.3 



6 





1.3 



7 



1.2 



21 





5.4 



27 



1.2 



21 





3.8 



19 



1.8 



32 





5.7 



29 



1.1 



20 





3.5 



18 



100 



19.7 



Insects are an important cause of mortality. 



100 



-493869 



Salvage of Mortality 

 Increasingly Important 



The timber killed by destructive agents is not 

 always a total loss, for a considerable volume of 

 dead wood is salvaged each year by the timber 

 industries. In 1962 about one-half billion cubic 

 feet of dead timber, or 5 percent of the total 

 domestic roundwood output, was used for lumber, 

 plywood, and other products (fig. 44). 



Lack of roads and low concentration of salvable 

 trees per acre have made it uneconomic to com- 

 pletely salvage the dead timber. However, the 

 high value of much of this dead wood and local 

 needs for logs suggest that high priority be given 

 to intensified road construction and closer utiliza- 

 tion of salvable dead timber, especially in the 

 West. 



FOREST OWNERSHIP 



The condition of forest lands, the amount and 

 kind of forest management applied, and prospec- 

 tive timber growth all depend to a great extent 

 upon the decisions of several million individuals, 

 corporations, and public owners of forests. Own- 

 ership thus represents a key factor in assessing 

 forest inventory trends and the outlook for the 

 Nation's timber supply. 



Seventy-two Percent of Commercial Forest 

 one/ 53 Percent of Timber Privately Owned 



The early settlement of America was predicated 

 on private land ownership and the historical 

 policy of the United States with respect to State 

 lands and the public domain was expeditious 

 transfer to private ownership. As a result, 

 nearly three-fourths of the Nation's commercial 

 forest area, or 367 million acres, is in private 

 ownership today (table 69). 



National forests, made up largely of lands 

 reserved from the public domain, include about 

 19 percent of the commercial forest land in the 

 Nation. Other Federal, State, and local public 

 holdings comprise about 9 percent. 



Since 1953 the area of public forests has declined 

 about 1.5 million acres, or 1 percent, in part as a 

 result of reclassification of commercial forest land 

 to wild or wilderness areas, and in part a shifting 

 of Indian lands held in trust to private ownership. 



