114 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



and stands of fir and spruce are widely distributed, 

 mainly at higher elevations. Mid continent in the 

 Plains States there are river-bottom stringers of 

 hardwoods and the pine forests of the Black HUls. 



In the North and South, the softwood and 

 hardwood forests are intermingled and, almost 

 everywhere, are interspersed with farms and other 

 nonforest lands. A wide band of oak-hickory 

 forest stretches from southern New England to 

 Missouri and Oklahoma, separating the pine 

 forests of the South from the maple-birch-beech, 

 spruce-fir, and other types of the North. 



Alaska has dense coniferous forests in a narrow 

 coastal belt along the southeastern panhandle. 

 Less dense coniferous and birch forests extend far 

 into the interior. 



Generally, two classes of forest land are recog- 

 nized, commercial and noncommercial. This re- 

 port is concerned primarily with the commercial 

 lands, for from them must come most of the timber 

 for our future requirements. The noncommercial 

 lands are those which have only limited possibilities 

 for timber production or are reserved. There is 

 also a substantial area in small and scattered forest 

 tracts on land classed as nonforest. 



Usually only the commercial lands are taken into 

 account in appraising the timber resource. As of 

 the beginning of 1953, about three-fourths of the 

 664 million acres of forest land were classified as 

 commercial and one-fourth as noncommercial 

 (table 63). ■ 



Distribution of Forest Areas and 



Types 



Commercial Forest Land 



Three-fourths of the Commercial Forest Land 



Is in the East 



The total area of commercial forest land in the 

 United States is nearly 485 million acres, and 

 Coastal Alaska has an additional 4 million acres. 

 Distribution of the commercial area varies by 

 forest regions (fig. 50). The 8 eastern forest re- 

 gions have three-fourths of it, and the 4 western 

 regions have one-fourth. Three eastern regions, 

 the Southeast, Lake States, and West Gulf, each 

 have over 50 million acres and collectively include 

 41 percent of all the commercial forest land in the 

 United States. Regions having the least com- 

 mercial forest land are the Plains, California, and 

 the Southern Rocky Mountain, each with less 

 than 25 million acres. 



Some forest regions have a much higher per- 

 centage of commercial forest land than others 

 (fig. 51). For example, in New England 76 per- 

 cent of the total land area is classed as commercial 

 forest, whereas the average for the United States 

 and Coastal Alaska is 25 percent. Falling con- 

 siderably below the national average are Cali- 

 fornia, the Northern and Southern Rocky Moun- 

 tain Regions, Coastal Alaska, and the Plains. 



Hardwood and Softwood Types About Equal 

 in Area 



The occurrence and distribution of species 

 associations (forest cover types) are a useful guide 

 as to what to expect in the future timber crop. 

 On the 489 million acres of commercial forest land, 

 20 major forest type groups are recognized, 10 in 

 the East and 10 in the West. The eastern hard- 

 wood types occupy 51 percent of the total acreage. 

 The remainder, except for a relatively small 

 acreage of western hardwood, supports softwood 

 forest types — in area divided almost equally be- 

 tween the East and the West, including Coastal 

 Alaska (fig. 52). 



The most extensive eastern softwood type group 

 is the loblolly -shortleaf pine type group, ^' which 

 accounts for half of the eastern softwood acreage 

 (table 64). Nearly one-fourth of the area is 

 occupied by the longleaf pine-slash pine type 

 group — most of it in the Southeast — upon which 

 the important naval stores industry is based. 

 Together these two pine type groups, occupying 

 some 40 percent of the South's commercial forest 

 land, comprise the major softwood timber-produc- 

 ing area in the East. 



The other eastern softwood type groups, spruce- 

 fir and white-red-jack pine, occur mainly in the 

 northern Lake States and in northern New England. 

 Spruce-fir forests have always been a mainstay of 

 the pulp industry. White-red-jack pine occurs 

 today only as remnants of a once extensive forest. 

 The white pine stands of the Lake States and the 

 Northeast are still of some importance in local 

 areas, but they played their chief role many 

 years ago. 



Oak-Hickory Most Widespread Type in East 



Eastern hardwood types have some highly 

 valuable species, but they are frequently char- 

 acterized by low quality. Oak-hickory, most 

 widespread of all eastern type groups, occupies 

 nearly half of the eastern hardwood area and is 

 represented by a large number of species and types 

 growing on a wide variety of sites. For many 

 years, oak-hickory has presented a problem be- 

 cause of poor quality. "Scrub oak" has become a 

 common local name for a sizable part of the acre- 

 age in this type group. 



The highly valuable maple-beech-birch type 

 group of the Northeast and, to a lesser extent, the 

 Lake States, occupies about one-fifth of the com- 

 mercial forest land in the North. Sugar maple 

 and yellow birch are its most important species. 



2' In all type groups, the species for which the group is 

 named are generally most abundant, but they may be 

 scarce or absent in some parts of the type-group area. 

 In New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts, for 

 example, pitch pine is the chief representative of the 

 loblolly-shortleaf pine type group. In the northern Ap- 

 palachians, Virginia pine is common and loblolly pine 

 may be entirely absent. In the western white pine type 

 group in California, sugar pine is the major species. 



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