42 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



Table 23. — Timber volume by species, in the United 

 States and Coastal Alaska 



Species group 



Growing 

 stock 



Live 

 saw- 

 timber 



Eastern sof t\voods : 

 Southern vellow pine 



Billion 



at. ft. 



49 



25 



Billion 

 bd.-ft. 

 174 



Other eastern softwoods . . . _ 



68 







Total 



74 



242 



Eastern hardwoods: 



Oak .__ 



53 



19 

 18 

 61 



146 



Sugar maple, beech, yellow birch 



Gums . . - - 



51 

 51 



Other eastern hardwoods - 



133 







Total 



151 



381 



W'estern softwoods: 



Douglas-fir 



Ponderosa and Jeffrej^ pine 



Western hemlock and Sitka spruee.- 

 True firs 



98 

 43 

 43 

 38 

 10 

 6 

 43 



532 



224 

 208 

 184 



Sugar and western white pine 



Redwood 



Other western softwoods 



57 



36 



165 



Total 



Western hardwoods _ - - 



281 

 11 



1,406 



28 







All species 



517 



2, 057 



divided between farm, and forest industry and 

 other private ownerships. In the West, the pat- 

 tern of timber ownership is distinctly different. 

 There half the timber volume is in national-forest 

 ownership and three-fifths is in public owniership 

 of all types (table 24). 



Ownership differs greatly between softwoods 

 and hardwoods (table 25). The great bulk of 

 the hardwood sawtimber volume is in private 

 ownership and is fairly evenly distributed between 

 farm, and forest industry and other private owner- 

 ship. On the other hand, well over half of the 

 softwood sawtimber volume is in public owner- 

 ship with farm ownership relatively unimportant. 

 The national forests and the nonfarm private 

 owners are the two principal groups controlling 

 the softwood sawtimber volume. 



The distribution of timber volumes among 

 owTierships is not the same as the distribution of 

 forest land. In the West, for example, nonfarm 

 private ownerships control 22 percent of the com- 

 mercial forest area, but 32 percent of the sawtimber 

 volume. This means that this class of ownership 

 in the West holds the preferred timbered areas — 

 those with the heaviest stands per acre. National 



forests, on the other hand, include 53 percent of 

 the forest area in the West and 51 percent of the 

 timber volume. Thus, national-forest timber- 

 lands are about average for the West. 



For the country as a whole, national forests 

 have 17 percent of the commercial forest area and, 

 due to the old-growth timber stands on western 

 national forests, they contain 37 percent of existing 

 sawtimber volume. Farm ownerships, on the 

 other hand, contain 34 percent of the area but only 

 15 percent of the volume; and forest industry and 

 other private 39 percent of the area, and 37 per- 

 cent of the volume. Timber in farm owaiership, 

 therefore, is poorer than average for the country 

 as a whole, and also in the South (table 26). 



Timber Volume Trends 



Broad generalizations comparing 1953 estimates 

 of total timber volume in either growing stock or 

 sawtimber with previously published estimates of 

 national totals can only be misleading. There are 

 numerous and complex reasons for lack of com- 

 parability between estimates, such as changing 

 utilization standards, changing diameter limits, 

 changing definitions of forest land, changing 

 criteria as to commercial species, and changing 

 standards for defect. Likewise, there have been 

 improvements in teclmiques which contribute to 

 lack of comparability. Only in the case of the 

 1945 Reappraisal was it possible to make adjust- 

 ments that are believed to be reasonably sound. 



Table 24. — Oirnership of live sairtimber . by section. 



Ownership 



All 

 sec- 

 tions 



North 



South 



West 



Coastal 

 Alaska 



Private: 



Farm 



Forest industry 

 and other 



Billion 



bd.-ft. 



308 



772 



Billion 



bd.-ft. 



102 



132 



Billion 



bd.-ft. 



144 



178 



Billion 

 bd.-ft. 

 62 



462 



Billion 

 bd.-ft. 



Total 



1,080 



234 



322 



524 



« 



Public: 



National forest 



Other Federal 



State and local 



766 



135 



76 



13 



4 



15 



23 



8 

 4 



647 

 117 



57 



83 

 6 



Total 



977 



32 



35 



821 



89 



All owner- 

 ships 



2, 057 



266 



357 



1, 345 



80 



> Only 322,000 M bd -ft. 



