A SUMMARY OF THE TIMBER RESOURCE REVIEW 



83 



industry is small in relation to other major owner- 

 ship groups, the average individual forest industry 

 ownership is relatively large — 2,660 acres. Lum- 

 ber industry ownerships average 1,630 acres, and 

 pulp industry ownerships nearly 150,000 acres. 

 About 84 percent of the forest land owned by the 

 lumber industry is in ownerships of 5,000 acres 

 or larger, but the average for the lumber industry 

 is considerably smaller because of the many small 

 manufacturers whose individual acreage is in the 

 smaller size classes. Ninety-four percent of the 

 pulp industry ownership is in holdings of 50,000 

 acres and larger (table 53). 



Of the 58 million acres in ownerships of 50,000 

 acres and larger, nearly three-fourths is owned by 

 the forest industries. The 283 large ownerships 

 in this class average 206,000 acres. The 7 

 ownerships of more than 1,000,000 acres apiece 

 average 2,100,000 acres. 



Over half (54 percent) of tlie commercial forest 

 land owned by forest industry is in the South. 

 The remainder is almost equally distributed be- 

 tween the North and the West (table 16 and 

 fig. 41). The lumber industry ownership is con- 

 centrated in the South and West; pulp industry 

 ownership in the South and the North (fig. 42). 



Timber Volumes Large in Relation to Acreage 

 Owned 



Unfortunately, timber volumes for nonfarm 

 private ownership were not separated between the 

 forest industry segment and "other" private 

 ownerships. However, for those ownerships com- 

 bined, the average stand per acre is 4,000 board- 

 feet of sawtimber. This is more than twice the 

 average stand for farm ownerships, but less than 

 half the average on Federal forests. The latter 

 figure is due in part to the large volumes of old- 

 growth timber which occur on some public land. 

 It is probable that the average stand per acre in 

 forest industry ownerships is higher than that in 

 "other" private which more nearly resembles farm 

 ownerships in other respects. 



With respect to total United States softwood 

 sawtimber volume, 35 percent is found in forest 

 industry and other nonfarm private ownerships. 

 This is a larger proportion than on any other 

 ownership except the national forests. Consider- 

 ing the distribution of forest area between forest 

 industries and "other" private, the concentration 

 of industry ownership in the South, and the owner- 

 ship by industry of some heavily timbered lands 

 in the West, forest industries probabl^^ own from 

 15 to 25 percent of the Nation's softwood sawtim- 



ber. If this is a fair inference, it is apparent that 

 forest industry ownerships are a more important 

 factor in timber supply than would be indicated 

 by the relative number of ownerships or the acreage 

 owned. 



About 77 percent of recently cut lands in forest 

 industry ownership qualified in the upper pro- 

 ductivity class. The pulp industry with an 

 average of 84 percent in the upper class had a 

 higher average percentage than any of the other 

 private ownerships or the public ownerships, with 

 the exception of municipal and othei locally owned 

 public holdings, which are small in total area. 



Farm Ownerships 



Large in Number and Total Acreage 



Of the 4.5 million private ownerships of commer- 

 cial forest lands, 75 percent or 3.4 million are farm 

 ownerships. Farm owners constitute by far the 

 largest number of forest land owners. 



One-third of all commercial forest land and 

 close to half of all the privately owned commercial 

 forest land is in farm ownerships ; farms have more 

 commercial forest land than all public holdings 

 combined. Of the commercial forest land in the 

 United States, one acre in every three is on a 

 farm. 



Not only are farm forests important in supplying 

 our national needs for timber, they also are a vital 

 part of a sound farm economy. About 60 percent 

 of all farms have woodland, and nearly one-fifth 

 of all farm acreage is in forest. 



Like forest industry, more than half (54 percent) 

 of the farm forest land occurs in the South. But 

 whereas the remainder owned by forest industries 

 is distributed about equally between West and 

 North, 38 percent of farm ownership occurs in the 

 North, and only 8 percent in the West (table 16). 

 Thus, over nine-tenths of all farm ownership is 

 in the East. 



Most Farmers Own Very Small Tracts 



The average farm ownership is 49 acres. In 

 contrast, forest industry ownerships average 

 2,660 acres, and the "other" private ownerships 

 119 acres. 



With i-espect to size of forest holdings, practi- 

 cally all farm ownerships are less than 5,000 

 acres. Eighty-three percent of the farm-owned 

 acreage is in tiacts of less than 500 acres, and 

 nearly half is in tracts of less than 100 acres 

 (table 54). 



