FOREST LAND AND TIMBER 



133 



material; salvable dead trees, 10 percent; and 

 limbs about 30 percent (table 80). 



The net volume of sound wood in cull trees, 

 56 billion cubic feet, is widely distributed — about 

 43 percent in the South, 30 percent in the North, 

 and 27 percent in the West and Coastal Alaska. 

 In the East, most of the cull-tree volume is hard- 

 wood, 37 billion out of 41 billion cubic feet, and 

 more than half of it is in sound cull trees. In the 

 West and Coastal Alaska, softwood accounts for 

 14 billion cubic feet of the total cull tree volume 

 of 15 billion cubic feet; nearly all this total volume 

 of sound wood is in rotten cull trees. 



The net volume of sound wood in salvable dead 

 trees is 9 billion cubic feet, including 37 billion board- 

 feet of salvable dead sawtimber volume. Almost 

 90 percent is in the West; the East has less than 

 1 billion cubic feet, mostly dead chestnut. In 

 sawtimber terms, the salvable dead softwood in 

 the West measures some 34 billion board-feet, of 

 which 23 billion occurs in the Douglas-fir subregion 

 alone. 



Hardwood limb volume, 23 billion cubic feet, 

 is concentrated in the East. More than half of it 

 is in the North. 



Additional Volume on Other Land 



In addition to the timber on commercial forest 

 land, there is considerable timber on noncommer- 

 cial forest land and on nonforest land. Since 

 most of this timber has no commercial value or is 

 restricted from cutting, no estimate has been made 

 of its total volume. 



The forest lands withdrawn from timber use for 

 parks, monuments, and natural and wilderness 

 areas carry a substantial volume of sawtimber. 



Other noncommercial forest lands, such as subal- 

 pine forests and swamps, often have much small 

 timber and in the aggregate this volume may be 

 considerable, too. The extensive areas of pinyon 

 pine-juniper and noncommercial hardwood types 

 in the West and Plains are estimated to have over 

 400 million cords of wood suitable for fuel and 

 fence posts: 



Hardwood 

 _ . Pinyon pine-juniper (million 



Kegion: (million cords) cords) 



Southern Rocky Mountain 284. 5 43. 5 



California 37.4 39.5 



Plains (west of 100th meridian).. 3.7 6.8 



Northern Rocky Mountain 1.4 8.8 



Pacific Northwest .2 .7 



Total 327.2 99.3 



Large as these volumes are, the timber they 

 represent has such limited use, present and 

 prospectively, that it is not included in national 

 estimates of sawtimber and growing stock. 



On nonforest land there is also an additional but 

 unmeasured volume of timber. In this category 

 are the trees in open country along water courses, 

 fence rows, shelterbelts and windbreaks, and 

 highways. Also included is the volume of trees 

 in suburban areas, city parks and streets, orchards, 

 and the volume on scattered timbered plots less 

 than 1 acre in the East or less than 10 acres in the 

 West. Although widely scattered and generally 

 of little value except for fuel, the volume of wood 

 on such areas is unquestionably great. From the 

 viewpoint of meeting the requirements of the 

 forest industries, timber on both the noncommer- 

 cial forest land and the nonforest land has limited 

 economic significance and is not normally con- 



Table 80. — Net (sound- wood) volume of cull trees, salvable dead trees, and hardwood limbs, by section of 



United States and Coastal Alaska, January 1, 1.953 



Class of material 



All sections 



North 



South 



West 



Coastal 

 Alaska 



Cull trees: 



Sound 



Rotten 



Billion 



cu. ft. 

 25. 5 

 30.8 



Billion 



cu. fl. 



7.7 

 9.3 



Billion 

 cu. ft. 

 16.2 

 8.2 



Billion 



cu. ft. 



1. 4 

 8.3 



Billion 



cu. ft. 



0. 2 

 5. 







Total 



56.3 



17. 



24. 4 



9.7 



5.2 



Salvable dead trees: 



Sawtimber '_ - - 



7. 4 

 1.3 



.4 

 .2 



.2 

 . 1 



6.7 

 1.0 



. 1 



Poletimber 









Total 



8.7 



. 6 



.3 



7.7 



. 1 







Hardwood limbs 



23.3 



13.6 



8. 1 



1.6 



(') 







Total, all classes 



88. 3 



31. 2 



32.8 



19.0 



5. 3 







' Including 37 billion board-feet of salvable dead sawtimber. 

 2 Less than 50 million cubic feet. 



