A SUMMARY OF THE TIMBER RESOURCE REVIEW 



87 



such ownerships. Furthermore, which of the 

 various characteristics of "other" private owners 

 are important in relation to forest condition is 

 not known. Among the more common occupa- 

 tions represented are business and professional 

 people, wage and salary earners, housewives, and 

 retired persons. Because this ownership group 

 is so important in terms of numbers and in area 

 of forest land controlled, there is a real need for 

 further identification of its key characteristics 

 that bear on forestry decisions. 



The 1.1 million holdings in this group represent 

 one-fourth of all private ownerships and contain 

 one-fourth of all commercial forest land. The 

 "other" private category includes twice the acre- 

 age owned by forest industries, is equal to that 

 owned by all public agencies, and is exceeded only 

 by farm ownerships. Half of the total area in 

 this classification occurs in the North, with most 

 of the remainder in the South (table 16). 



It is more difficult to characterize the "other" 

 private ownership according to size class than 

 iether forest industry or farm ownerships, prob- 

 ably because of its heterogeneity. Whereas 

 forest industry acreage is clearly concentrated in 

 the medium and large holdings, and farm owner- 

 ships in the very small holdings, the "other" 

 private ownerships are more evenly distributed 

 among size classes. Nevertheless, three-fourths 

 of the forest area in this category is in small 

 holdings (under 5,000 acres) and 60 percent is in 

 holdings of less than 500 acres. 



The average size of holding is 118 acres, which 

 is over twice that of the average farm holding, 

 but only a small fraction of the average industry 

 holding. The probable explanation of this dis- 

 persion is that there are some large holdings in 

 this group which lessen but do not overshadow 

 the influence of the tremendous number of mis- 

 cellaneous small holdings. It is evident from 

 table 54 that one-half of the 1.1 million ownerships 

 have less than 50 acres each, and account for 

 3 percent of all commercial forest land. 



Combining the farm and "other" private owner- 

 ships, 50 percent of the 4.5 million private owner- 

 ships have less than 30 acres of forest land apiece, 

 and together they own 6 percent of the commercial 

 forest land (fig. 43). 



Although timber volumes were not determined 

 separately for "other" private ownerships, it is 

 believed that they are reasonably similar to farm 

 ownerships in this regard. If so, the timber runs 

 more heavily to hardwoods than to softwoods. 

 Because the "other" private ownerships exceed 

 forest industry ownerships in area by 2 to 1 , it can 

 be assumed that the timber volumes held by this 

 group are substantial inasmuch as the two owner- 

 ships together have 37 percent of all sawtimber. 



About half of the recently cut lands in this 

 own ei ship classification qualify for the upper 

 productivity class. This is much below the 



439296 O — 58 7 



JU PERCENT OF 

 THE 4 1/2 MILLION 

 PRIVATE OWNERS 

 HAVE LESS THAN 

 30 ACRES EACH 





AND THEY 

 p OWN ONLY 

 ) PERCENT OF 

 THE COMMERCIAL 

 FOREST 



-i 



includes Coastal Alaska 



Figure 43 



average for forest industry ownership or for public 

 ownerships, but is appreciably more than the 

 average for farm ownership. 



Public Ownerships 



One-Fourth of Commercial Forest Land Pub- 

 licly Owned 



Public ownerships of commercial forest land 

 comprise one-fourth of the national total — about 

 the same in area as the "other" private owner- 

 ships, twice the area owned by forest industry, but 

 significantly smaller than the area in farm owner- 

 ships. The principal public ownership, in terms 

 of area and timber volume, is the national forests 

 with 17 percent of the Nation's commercial forest 

 land and 37 percent of the sawtimber volume. 



The geographic location of publicly owned 

 forest lands follows a distinctly different pattern 

 from that of farm, forest industry, or "other" 

 private. Public ownership is concentrated in the 

 West because of the overriding influence of the 

 national forests. On the other hand, a majority 



f:: 



