FOREST LAND AND TIMBER 



127 



is the growing demand for the reservation of strips 

 of timber along forest highways. 



The acreage devoted to timber growing in the 

 future will reflect the give and take of comi.petition 

 with agriculture, water, recreation, and other land 

 uses. However, it seems likely that the upswing 

 in forest area which started about 1910 has run its 

 course and that the underlying and historic down- 

 ward trend will soon be resumed. 



TIMBER VOLUME 



In contrast to the foregoing discussion of forest 

 land, the following account is concerned primarily 

 with the timber resource. In appraising this 

 resource, important considerations include the 

 regional distribution of the timber, and its species 

 composition, quality, ownership, and accessibility. 

 Such an appraisal places emphasis on the volume 

 of standing timber on commercial forest land; the 

 timber on noncommercial forest land and on non- 

 forest land is of minor importance. 



Volume on Commercial Forest Land 



For the rest of this century, almost all of the 

 Nation's domestic wood supply will be harvested 

 from trees that are now standing on the commer- 

 cial forest land. As of the beginning of 1953, these 

 trees contained more than 600 billion cubic feet 

 of sound wood (table 72). Of this, 86 percent, or 

 517 billion cubic feet, is classified as forest grow- 

 ing stock. The balance, 14 percent, includes the 

 sound volume of cull trees, salvable dead trees, 

 and hardwood limbs. 



The forest growing stock is the significant por- 

 tion of the timber resource. Nearly three-fourths 

 of it is in sawtimber trees; the other fourth is in 

 poletimber trees — smaller trees that may become 

 sawtimber trees in the future. 



The total net volume of sawtimber on commer- 

 cial forest land is 2,094 billion board-feet, meas- 

 ured by the International }4-inch log rule. All of 

 it is in the saw-log portions of sawtimber trees — 

 2,057 billion board-feet in live sawtimber trees 

 and 37 billion board-feet in salvable dead saw- 

 timber trees. Softwood species account for four- 

 fifths of the total sawtimber volume; one-fifth is 

 hardwood. Since live sawtimber comprises the 

 bulk of the timber that is suitable for lumber and 

 most other present uses, this discussion of the 

 timber resources emphasizes the board-foot esti- 

 mates of sawtimber volume. 



Two-thirds of Sawtimber Volume 

 Is in the West 



Two-thirds of all the live sawtimber in the 

 United States and Coastal Alaska is in the four 

 western regions where it is remote from consumers, 

 more than four-fifths of whom live in the East 



(table 73 and fig. 56). Coastal Alaska, generally 

 thought of as a large reservoir of softwood, has 

 about 89 billion board-feet, or only 4 percent of the 

 total. The balance is in the East, 17 percent in the 

 South and 13 percent in the North. The fact that 

 three States — Oregon, Washington, and Cali- 

 fornia — contain 54 percent of all the sawtimber 

 volume (table 74), has resulted in a heavy concen- 



Table 72. — Net volume of all timber and sawtimber 

 on commercial forest land in the United States and 

 Coastal Alaska, by class oj material, softwood 

 and hardwood, January 1, 1953 



ALL TIMBER 



Class of material 



Total 



Soft- 

 wood 



Hard- 

 wood 



Growing stock: 



Live sawtimber trees:' 



Saw-log portions 



Upper stems 



Billion 

 cu. ft. 

 331 

 48 



Per- 

 cent 

 55 

 8 



Billion 

 cu. ft. 

 262 

 29 



Billion 

 cu. ft. 

 69 

 19 



Total ^ ^ 



379 

 138 



63 

 23 



291 

 64 



88 



Live poletimber trees ^ 



74 



Total, growing stock 



Cull trees 



Salvable dead trees: 



Sawtimber trees ' 



Poletimber trees ^ 



Hardwood limbs _ _ 



517 

 56 



? 



23 



86 

 9 



1 



4 



355 



18 



7 



1 



162 

 38 



1 

 (') 

 23 







Total, all timber 



605 



100 



381 



224 







Proportion of total ^ _ . 



Per- 

 cent 

 100 





Per- 

 cent 

 63 



Per- 

 cent 

 37 







SAWTIMBER 5 



Live sawtimber trees ■ 



Salvable dead sawtimber 

 trees ' 



Billion 

 bd.-ft. 

 2,057 



37 



Per- 

 cent 

 98 



2 



Billion 

 bd.-ft. 

 I, 648 



34 



Billion 

 bd.-ft. 

 409 



3 



Total, sawtimber volume. 



2, 094 



100 



1,682 



412 



Proportion of total _ 



Per- 

 cent 

 100 





Per- 

 cent 

 80 



Per- 

 cent 

 20 







' Trees of commercial species that contain at least one 

 merchantable saw log as defined by regional practice and 

 that are of the following minimum diameters at breast 

 height: Eastern regions: Softwoods 9.0 inches, hardwoods 

 11.0 inches. Western regions: All species 11.0 inches. 



2 Trees of commercial species that meet regional specifi- 

 cations of soundness and form, and are of the following 

 diameters at breast height: Eastern regions: Softwoods 

 5.0 to 9.0 inches, hardwoods 5.0 to 11.0 inches. Western 

 regions: All species 5.0 to 11.0 inches. 



' Less than 500 millioil cubic feet. 



* Less than 0.5 percent. 



5 Included in all-timber cubic volume but also measured 

 in board-feet. 



439296 O — 58- 



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