; FOREST LAND AND TIMBER 



121 



TOTAL U.S. & COASTAL ALASKA 



Figure 54 



Sixty-five percent of the public holdings in the 

 United States and Coastal Alaska are in national 

 forests. State, county, municipal, and other local 

 forest holdings make up 21 percent of the total, 

 and other Federal lands, mostly administered by 

 the Department of the Interior, 14 percent. Of 

 the national-forest lands, totaling nearly 85 million 

 acres, 72 percent are in the West, 12 percent in the 

 South, 12 percent in the North, and 4 percent in 

 Coastal Alaska. 



State, county, and municipal lands are im- 

 portant segments of ownership in some sections. 

 In the North, these holdings encompass 2^ times 

 as much land as in the South and West combined. 

 They account for nearly two-fifths of the commer- 

 cial forest land in Minnesota, about one-fifth in 

 Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and more 

 than 10 percent in Massachusetts. Washington is 

 the only State outside the North where more than 

 10 percent of the commercial forest land is owned 

 by State and local governments. Most of the 

 public lands in this category in the cutover coun- 

 ties of the Lake States were acquired through 

 tax delinquency. 



Size of private holdings, by sections of the coun- 

 try, shows some striking differences too (table 68) . 

 Small holdings are especially typical of the eastern 

 regions, where they account for 77 percent of all 

 private land. In the West the percentage of large 

 holdings is greater, amounting to 34 percent of the 

 total, as compared to 11 percent in the North, 16 

 percent in the South, and 16 percent nationally. 

 As is shown in another part of this report, the 

 distribution of private lands by size of holding is 

 closely related to the progi-ess and status of 

 forestrj^ 



Noncotninercial Forest Land 

 Mostly Public 



Nearly two-thirds of the noncommercial forest 

 land in the United States and Coastal Alaska is in 

 Federal ownership. State, county, and local pub- 

 lic holdings are relatively small. Most of the re- 

 mainder is privately owned. 



The Federal noncommercial acreage is equally 

 divided between national forest and other Federal 

 holdings. Almost all of the portion in national 



