A SUMMARY OF THE TIMBER RESOURCE REVIEW 



55 



principal species 



OAKS 



SOUTHERN YELLOW PINES 



WESTERN TRUE FIRS 



PONDEROSA & JEFFREY PINES 



DOUGLAS-FIR 



INVENTORY 

 VOLUME 



GROWTH 



CUT 



\ 



includes Coastal Alaska 



Figure 25 



small group of species constitute the foundation of 

 our timber supplies. It is also apparent that, in 

 terms of both sawtimber and growing stock, these 

 species together represent a greater proportion of 

 total cut than they do of either growth or volume. 



Overall Growth-Cut Comparisons Have Little 

 Significance 



One of the most natural comparisons to make in 

 attempting to appraise in simplified terms the 

 complex timber situation is to determine whether 

 growth exceeds, or is less than, cut. Total growth 

 has been compared frequently with total cut in 

 the past by interested gi'oups including the Forest 

 Service, but this is gross oversimplification and 



439296 0—58 5 



unless carefully qualified and explained may well 

 mislead the reader or conceal important relations. 

 There are four main reasons why an overall 

 growth-cut relationship has relatively little signifi- 

 cance: 



(1) The mature old-gi'owth forests of the West 

 are still being cut. These forests show little net 

 growth, but heav}^ volumes. Until these old- 

 growth areas are harvested and replaced by new 

 second-growth forests, it can be expected that cut 

 will continue to exceed growth in the West. To 

 incorporate this unusual gi-owth-cut relationship 

 into overall national figures would be inappro- 

 priate. 



(2) Growth-cut relationships between hard- 

 woods and softwoods are significantly different 



