A SUMMARY OF THE TIMBER RESOURCE REVIEW 



39 



COMMERCIAL 

 FOREST AREA 



Q 



WEST 



EAST 



SAWTIMBER 

 VOLUME 



WEST 



Q 



EAST 



CAPACITY TO 



PRODUCE 



SAWTIMBER 



^m 



WEST 



west includes Coastal Alaska 

 Figure 18 



Four- Fifths of Sawtimber Volume Is 

 Softwood 



Of the 2,057 billion board-feet of live sawtimber, 

 1,648 billion board-feet, or 80 percent, is softwood. 

 In terms of growing stock, softwood comprises 

 about two-thirds of the total. 



About 85 percent of the softwood sawtimber 

 volume occurs in the West and Coastal Alaska, 

 whereas 93 percent of the hardwood volume occurs 

 in the East (fig. 19). This is true despite the fact 

 that softwood type areas are as extensive in the 

 East as in the West. It can be expected that in the 

 future there will be a much larger proportion of 

 the total softwood volume occurring in the East, 

 with relatively less in the West than is now the 

 case. 



The North is greatly deficient in softwood saw- 

 timber volume, having only 4 percent, but it has 

 about half of the total hardwood sawtimber 

 volume : 



Orouing stock Live sawtimber 



Softwood Hardwood Softwood Hardwood 

 (percent) (percent) (percent) (percent) 



North 7 52 4 51 



South 14 39 11 42 



West and Coastal Alaska, 79 7 85 7 



All sections 100 100 100 100 



The sectional distribution of softwood and hard- 

 wood volume in terms of growing stock is not 

 greatly different from sawtimber distribution. 



A comparison of softwood and hardwood volume 

 distribution with distribution of softwood and 

 hardwood types, both for the country as a whole 

 and for each of the three main sections, shows that 

 softwood types on the average support heavier 

 timber volumes than do hardwood types in terms 

 of both sawtimber and growing stock. For 

 exampli, the softwood types represent 48 percent 

 of the commercial forest area, support 80 percent 

 of the sawtimber volume, and 69 percent of the 

 growing stock volume (table 22). 



Five Species Groups Comprise Two- 

 Thirds of the Sawtimber Volume 



Timber volumes are concentrated in a relatively 

 few primary species, or species groups (table 23). 

 Five such species, or groups, namely, Douglas-fir, 

 ponderosa pine, westernhemlock and Sitka spruce, 

 western true firs, and the southern yellow pines, 

 account for 64 percent of total live sawtimber 

 volume. No hardwoods are included in the first 

 five, althougli the sawtimber volume of the oaks, 

 the most important hardwood group, is almost as 

 great as that of the southern yellow pines. 



Growing stock volume by species or species 

 groups is distributed differently than sawtimber 



