242 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



Figure 82 



Sectional Differences Significant 



Recently Cut Lands in the West 

 Rank Highest 



Generally the condition of recently cut lands is 

 best in the West, where 74 percent of them were 

 found to be in the upper productivity class (table 

 139). This is primarily a reflection of the owner- 

 ship pattern. In the West, 52 percent of all com- 

 mercial forest land is in national-forest ownership, 

 12 percent is in large private holdings, and 9 per- 

 cent consists of other Federal lands. Thus, about 

 three-fourths of all commercial forest land is con- 

 trolled by three classes of ownership on which 

 substantial portions of recently cut lands attain 

 upper productivity ratings. The result is an over- 

 all situation more favorable than in either the 

 North or the South, where small private owner- 

 ship predominates. Moreover, the proportion of 

 recently cut lands in the upper productivity class 

 on small private ownerships of the West is greater 

 than in the South and about equal to that of the 

 North. 



Notable exceptions to the generally better situ- 

 ation in the West are the State and local public 

 ownerships. Only 58 percent of recently cut 

 lands in these ownerships was found to be in the 

 upper productivity class, as compared to 83 

 percent in the North and 70 percent in the South. 



South Has Poorest Conditions 



Productive condition of recently cut land is 

 poorer in the South than in the other sections. 

 The range of productivity by ownership class has 

 a greater spread here than elsewhere, and while 

 the highest ratings occur in the South, so also do 

 the lowest, and the latter involves by far the 

 greater acreage. 



Recently cut lands on public and on large 

 private ownerships compare very favorably with 

 these holdings in other sections, but the forest 

 area in these ownerships is proportionately smaller 

 in the South. The small private ownerships (less 

 than 5,000 acres) are primarily responsible for the 

 poor average condition of recently cut lands in 

 this section. Only 34 percent of such lands on 

 small holdings were found to be in the upper 

 productivity class, a much lower proportion than 

 in the North and West. The significance of this 

 situation in southern forest economy becomes 

 apparent from the information in table 139 regard- 

 ing ownership of commercial forest land. This 

 shows that two-thirds of all the South's commer- 

 cial forest land is in small holdings, and a total of 

 nearly 1.8 million small owners are involved. 

 Almost 80 percent of the land in these small owner- 

 ships is in tracts of 500 acres or less (Ownership of 

 Forest Land and Timber, p. 292). 



