134 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



sidered a part of the timber resource available for 

 industrial use. 



Ownership of Timber ^^ 



Slightly more than half of the total sawtimber 

 volume of the United States and Coastal Alaska 

 is on private forest land. The rest is public 

 timber in Federal, State, countj^, and municipal 

 forest. Of the total forest growing stock, private 

 forests contain a somewhat larger share — nearly 

 three-fifths (fig. 57 and table 81). Slightly more 

 than half of the privately owned sawtimber 

 volume and nearly two-thirds of the privately 

 owned growing stock is in the East. About 90 

 percent of all the timber in the East — measured 

 either as sawtimber or as growing stock — is on 

 private land. Forest industries and other non- 

 farm owners have somewhat more than half of 

 the private timber and farm owners somewhat less 

 than half. Public timber in the East is mostly in 

 national forests, although there are sizable State 

 holdings, especially in the North. 



2* A more complete discussion of forest ownership can 

 be found in Ownership of Forest Land and Timber, p. 289. 



The West, in sharp contrast to the East, con- 

 tains more than four-fifths of the Nation's pub- 

 licly owned timber, both growing stock and 

 sawtimber. Some 40 percent of the western 

 timber is on private land; about 60 percent is on 

 public land. Forest industry and other nonfarm 

 timberlands have most of the private timber; the 

 volume of farm-owned timber in the West is small. 

 National forests contain most of the public timber 

 in the West, whUe smaller amounts are adminis- 

 tered by other Federal agencies and by the States. 

 In Coastal Alaska, nearly all of the timber is in 

 public holdings, chieflj^ the national forests. 



Nationally, the ownership pattern has marked 

 contrasts with respect to tree species (table 82). 

 Private forest lands have nearly 90 percent of the 

 total hardwood sawtimber, but less than 45 percent 

 of the softwoods. National forests now carry 

 slightly more softwood sawtimber than all private 

 forest land. Of the softwood sawtimber on private 

 holdings, forest industries, and other nonfarm 

 owners hold 80 percent. Farm forests have only 

 20 percent of the privately held softwood, but close 

 to half of all the hardwood sawtimber on private 

 lands. 



OWNERSHIP: 



Private 



Public 



Private 

 Public 



LIVE SAWTIMBER 



10 20 30 40 50 60 



PERCENT 



West ^^ Coastal Alaska 



Figure 57 



