104 



TIMBER TRENDS IN THE UNITED STATES 



railroads and timber-holding companies which in 

 many respects resemble forest industry holdings. 

 Most of the land in farm and miscellaneous hold- 

 ings, however, fall in the category of "small 

 ownerships." 



The commercial forest acreage in these nonin- 

 dustrial private ownerships rose about 3 million 

 acres between 1953 and 1963, or about 1 percent. 

 Most of this gain was a result of natural or artificial 

 conversion of abandoned farmland to forest. 

 Within this group of ownerships, transfer from 

 farm to investment and recreation ownerships has 

 also become increasingly important. 



Most farm and miscellaneous private lands have 

 been cut over — in some cases many times. As a 

 result they contain only 28 percent of the saw- 

 timber and 38 percent of the growing stock in the 

 United States today, in contrast to 59 percent of 

 the commercial forest acreage (fig. 45). Never- 

 theless these farm and miscellaneous private lands 

 in recent years have supplied about half the Na- 

 tion's cut of growing stock. Thus, in spite of 

 relatively low inventory volumes per acre, they 

 continue to be of primary importance in supplying 

 wood to the forest industries. 



Because more than half the commercial forest 

 land is concentrated in farm and miscellaneous 

 private holdings, these holdings are of major 

 importance as a source of future timber supplies. 

 The relatively large harvests on these lands and 



the potential productivity and location of these 

 properties with respect to markets also add to 

 their significance. 



The general level of management on these 

 lands, however, is below that attained on most 

 public and industrial lands. Good markets are 

 often lacking for the low-quality timber that pre- 

 dominates on many such holdings and for the 

 small and irregular lots of forest products that are 

 typically available from them. Many owners are 

 unfamiliar with forestry opportunities and pro- 

 cedures, or lack the capital necessary for stand 

 improvement, planting, or carrying charges, or are 

 just not interested in timber growing. The small 

 size of many holdings results in limited returns and 

 difficult problems of management. 



The Ownership Picture Differs 

 Widely Between Sections 



About 92 percent of the commercial forest lands 

 in the South, and 81 percent in the North, are 

 privately owned (table 70 and fig. 46). In the 

 West, on the other hand, only 32 percent of the 

 commercial forest land is privately owned. 



Ownership of timber inventories shows roughly 

 the same regional distribution (fig. 47). Thus the 

 major part of the sawtimber in the East is on 



OWNERSHIP OF COMMERCIAL FOREST LAND 1963 



Thousand Acres 



80 



40 



I 



\m^ 



Pacific Coast 



i 



■l^r 



Rocky Mountain 



Other Public 

 National Forest 

 Forest Industry 



\mM Farm 



?Z^ Misc. Private 



Figure 46 



I 



