FOREST LAND AND TIMBER 



John R. McGuire 

 M. B. Dickerman 



The present status of forest land and the present 

 volume of timber on it are major considerations 

 in reviewing the Nation's timber resources. With 

 more accurate and comprehensive information 

 being assembled about the condition and extent 

 of forest land and the volume, kind, and quality 

 of timber, it is now possible to form a clearer 

 picture than heretofore of the domestic timber 

 supply. To show the major relationships involved, 

 this chapter describes our forest land and timber 

 resources. The text is keyed chiefly to regional 

 data.2° 



FOREST LAND 



Of the Qearly 2 billion acres of land in the 

 United States and Coastal Alaska, 34 percent, or 



'" More detailed statistics and a discussion of the ade- 

 quacy of the estimates appear in the appendix. 



664 million acres, are classified as forest land (fig. 

 49). This is the land which Americans and even 

 others must look to for a future supply of forest 

 products. How it is used, where it is located, 

 who owns it, and what its capacity is to produce, 

 are all considerations bearing heavily on the 

 welfare and security of the Nation. 



The forest area is far from homogeneous. There 

 are concentrations of softwood (coniferous) forests 

 ia the West, but these are often broken up by 

 agricultural valley lands or by wide stretches of 

 grazing land. West of the Cascade Range in 

 Washington and Oregon there are extensive areas 

 of Douglas-fir. Redwood, Douglas-fir, and mixed 

 conifers predominate in California. East of these 

 coastal forests, ponderosa pine forests are most 

 prevalent, but white pine and larch are common in 

 the Northern Rockies, and lodgepole pine forests 



34% /^, . 



FOREST LAND ^JT 



commercial 25°/y^^p/cROPlAM0 



21% 



FOREST LAND 



commercial 



noncommercial 



CROPLAND 



PASTURE 

 & RANGE 



OTHER 



TOTAL LAND AREA 



Figure 49 



UNITED 



STATES 



COASTAL 

 ALASKA 



TOTAL 



in thousands of acres 



647,686 

 484,340 

 163,346 



411,148 



693,246 

 151,744 



1,903,824 



16,508 



4,269 



12,239 



3 



91 

 18,917 



35,519 



664,194 

 488,609 

 175,585 



411,151 



693,337 

 170,661 



1,939,343 



113 



