88 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



of the State, county, and municipally owned 

 forest land occurs in the North. Of all publicly 

 owned commercial forest land, 62 percent is in the 

 West, 25 percent in the North, and 13 percent in 

 the South. 



National Forests Mainly Reserved From Pub- 

 lic Domain 



The great bulk of the national forests is made 

 up of lands reserved from the public domain. 

 Frequently overlooked is the fact that 85 percent 

 of the national forests have never been in private 

 ownership, as indicated by the following summary 

 of national-forest acreage by origin as of June 30, 



1956: Area 



Thousand 

 acres Percent 



Reserved public domain 153,938 85.0 



Purchases 18,397 10.2 



Exchanges 6,727 3.7 



Transfers from other Federal agencies__ 1, 589 . 9 



Donations 408 .2 



Total 181,059 100.0 



National-forest acreages have been reasonably 

 stable in recent years. In fiscal years 1950-56, 

 there was a net increase of 685,000 acres, com- 

 prised mainly of exchanges of land for land and 

 some purchases The rate of increase has been 

 steadily downward since the late 1930's and in 

 1954-55 there was a net decrease in national- 

 forest land of 27 1 ,000 acres. These figures demon- 

 strate that the national forests, which comprise 

 the bulk of the publicly owned forest land, are not 

 undergoing significant changes in area. The 

 balance between private and publicly owned 

 forest land is relatively stable at the present time. 



Over Half the Softwood Sawtimber Is Publicly 

 Owned 



Of outstanding significance is the fact that 56 

 percent of the softwood sawtimber volume is in 

 public ownership. Although the amount in forest 

 industry ownership is not known, it is believed 

 that public agencies and forest industry together 

 own close to three-fourths of the Nation's softwood 

 sawtimber. Forty-five percent is in the national 

 forests. 



Hardwood sawtimber is relatively unimportant 

 on public ownerships — only 12 percent of the 

 national total. The national forests with 17 per- 

 cent of the commercial forest area have 6 percent 

 of the hardwood sawtimber. 



Publicly owned forests average 7,500 board-feet 

 of sawtimber per acre, which is nearly twice the 

 national average. This is due in part to the large 

 residual volumes of old-growth timber on the 

 national forests in parts of the West, and in part 

 to the longtime forest management policies in 

 effect on most publicly owned forest lands. 



With respect to national forests alone, there is 

 heavy concentration of both area and volumes in 



the West. Of the commercial forest land in the 

 national forests, 72 percent occurs in the West, as 

 does 84 percent of the sawtimber volume. The 

 North and South each have 12 percent of the 

 commercial forest land in the national forests, but 

 together support only 5 percent of the sawtimber 

 volume. Coastal Alaska, with 4 percent of the 

 commercial forest area, currently has more than 

 twice the sawtimber volume of all the national 

 forests in the East. The geographic distribution 

 of timber on the national forests will more nearly 

 resemble the acreage distribution after the old- 

 growth timber in the West has been cut and the 

 productivity of the eastern national forests has 

 been more fully restored. 



Key Conclusions 



The above comparisons show that the greatest 

 advancements in forestry, the best conditions on 

 recently cut lands, and the largest timber volumes 

 occur on lands of the forest industries and public 

 agencies. They also show that the farm and 

 "other" private ownerships have the poorest cut- 

 over conditions, are largest in acreage, and largest 

 in number of owners. Potentially, they are the 

 largest also in timber volumes. 



In summary, conclusions with respect to owner- 

 ship appear to be these: 



1. A key to the future timber situation of the 

 United States lies with farmers and other non- 

 forest industry private owners. These ownerships 

 are in greatest need of improvement. 



2. Conversely, forest industry holdings and 

 those of the public agencies, although they lead 

 the way with respect to application of forestry, 

 probably wUl grow not more than half of our long- 

 range futm"e timber supplies. 



3. The principal source of softwood supplies, 

 both currently and for some time in the future, is 

 centered in the forest industries and the national 

 forests. 



TIMBER SUPPLY OUTLOOK 



A major goal of American forestry must be to 

 grow enough timber of the necessary sizes and 

 kinds to meet prospective demands of a growing 

 population. Only by doing this will advantage 

 be taken of the renewable character of the timber 

 resource and thus will its gradual depletion be 

 avoided. 



Thus far, this summary section has dealt with 

 (1) The prospective increases in demand for 

 timber products in 1975 and 2000, and (2) the 

 supply of land and timber in 1952-53 with par- 

 ticular reference to such key factors affecting 

 futm-e supplies as growth and utilization, forest 

 protection, planting, productivity of recently cut 

 lands, and forest ownership. 



<'ii 



