120 



TIMBER TRENDS IN THE UNITED STATES 



2000. However, the cut on public lands in the 

 long run may equal or exceed the cut from private 

 lands in supplying industrial wood. About 70 

 percent of the sawtimber volume in the Pacific 

 coast is on national forests and other public lands, 

 and 60 percent of the commercial forest area is 

 publicly owned, as shown by the following tabula- 

 tion: 



Percent of Percent of 

 sawtimber commercial 

 volume forest area 



Ownership: 



National forest 57.1 46.4 



Other Federal \ ,„ „ ^o a 



State and local / ^^"^ ^^ '^ 



Forest industry 17.7 17.6 



Farm and miscellaneous. _ 11.9 22.4 



Total 100.0 100.0 



TIMBER SUPPLY OUTLOOK IN THE ROCKY 

 MOUNTAINS 



The 66 million acres of commercial forest in the 

 Rocky Mountain section make up 13 percent of 

 the commercial forest area in the United States 

 (fig. 53). They contain 17 percent of the Na- 

 tion's inventory of sawtimber — roughly equal to 

 the volume in the South. During the past decade 

 this section has contributed about 5 percent of 

 the total cut in the United States. 



Parts of the Rocky Mountain forest area have 

 long supported substantial forest industries, and 

 in some areas there is now more industrial plant 

 capacity than can be kept supplied with logs 

 with current levels of timber management. This 

 is the situation in the Inland Empire of northern 

 Idaho and western Montana and much of the 

 pine area of the southern Rockies. However, the 

 main range of the Rocky Mountains is still a 

 frontier area insofar as industrial capacity is con- 

 cerned. As a result, of all the sections in the 

 United States, the timber resource is least de- 

 veloped in the Rocky Mountain States. Thus in 

 Washington and Oregon the annual sawtimber 

 cut is 1.8 percent of the inventory; in the Rocky 

 Mountains it is 0.9 percent. 



Considerable Increase in Cut 

 Anticipated in the Rockies 



The assumed allocation of timber cut in the 

 Rockies rises from an actual cut of 3.8 billion 

 board feet in 1962 to 6.3 billion board feet in 

 2000— an increase of 66 percent (table 80 and fig. 

 54). As indicated in the section on cutting as- 

 sumptions, this includes the prospective cut on 



RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF 

 FOREST RESOURCES IN THE 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES 



Area 



D 



Sawtimber Volume 



Growing Stock Volume 



Sawtimber Cut 



B 



Sawtimber Growth 



B 



(In Percent of U.S. Total) 



Figure 53 



private lands; on national forests it includes a 

 buildup of the timber harvest to the estimated 

 allowable cut by 1990. 



In the period 1952-62, the sawtimber cut in the 

 Rocky Mountains rose 58 percent, or 1.4 billion 

 board" feet. This was in contrast to a decline in cut 

 in the South and North, and an increase of 15 per- 

 cent or 3 billion board feet on the Pacific coast. 



The projected increase in cut in the Rocky 

 Mountains is large, but it still represents a rela- 

 tively modest rate of use of the timber inventory. 

 In 1962 the cut of 2.2 billion board feet on the 

 national forests was only 0.7 percent of the saw- 

 timber inventory. This is projected to 1.2 per- 

 cent of the inventory by 1980 and to 1.5 percent 

 by 2000. 



Numerous Areas in Rockies 

 Currently Inoperable 



Many parts of the Rocky Mountains are still 

 unsuited for commercial logging at present price 



