OWNERSHIP OF FOREST LAJSTD AND TIMBER 



319 



Table 181. — Area of commercial forest land and volume 0/ timber in Federal holdings other than national 

 forests, in the United States and Coastal Alaska, by section and region, 1953 





Commercial forest land 



Sawtimber 





Section and region 



Total 



Indian • 



Bureau of 

 Land Man- 

 agement 1 



Other 



Growing 

 stock 



North: 



New England . . 



Thousand 



acres 



82 



202 



1, 645 



883 



Thousand 

 acres 



Thousand 

 acres 



Thousand 



acres 



82 



202 



459 



509 



Million 



hd.-ft. 



122 



266 



2, 538 



1,334 



Million 

 cu. ft. 



55 



Middle Atlantic 







155 



Lake States _ _ _ 



1, 119 

 369 



67 

 5 



1, 069 



Central and Plains . . _ 



599 







Total . ._. . 



2,812 



1,488 



72 



1,252 



4,260 



1, 878 







South: 



South Atlantic 



701 

 2,345 



778 



47 

 46 

 24 





654 



2,271 



628 



1, 547 

 4,370 

 1, 254 



470 



Southeast 



West Gulf 



28 

 126 



1,262 

 381 







Total-- 



3,824 



117 



154 



3,553 



7, 171 



2, 113 







West: 



Pacific Northwest 



5, 541 



497 



2, 111 



2,775 



2,763 

 133 



822 

 1, 622 



2, 660 



324 



1, 206 



1,097 



118 

 40 

 83 

 56 



90, 175 



10, 156 



7, 113 



10, 034 



17,201 



California 



1, 825 



Northern Rocky Mountain 



1, 870 



Southern Rocky Mountain - _ - 



2, 014 







Total 



10, 924 



5,340 



5,287 



297 



117,478 



22, 910 



Coastal Alaska 



805 



20 



785 





6,212 



1, 290 









All regions 



18, 365 



6, 965 



6,298 



5, 102 



135, 121 



28, 191 



' Because of different definitions of commercial forest 

 land, figures for these ownerships may vary from published 



Fire protection in the United States and Coastal 

 Alaska has been extended to all but 3 percent of 

 the commercial and noncommercial forest lands in 

 Indian holdings, essentially all of the forests ad- 

 ministered by the Bureau of Land Management, 

 and all but 7 percent of the "miscellaneous" Fed- 

 eral holdings. On 71 percent of the total forest 

 area of these Federal holdings, protection is con- 

 sidered adequate in average years. In 1952 the 

 area burned on Federal lands other than the 

 national forests averaged aboiit 0.3 percent of the 

 area needing protection. 



Tree planting on Federal holdings other than 

 national forests covered about 24,700 acres in 1953, 

 or 3 percent of the area planted by all agencies. 

 Roughly a million acres of these Federal lands is 

 considered plantable commercial forest land. 



STATE AND LOCAL PUBLIC 

 OWNERSHIPS 



Commercial forest lands owned by the States 

 comprise 19.2 million acres, or 4 percent of the 

 total commercial forest land (table 163, p. 291, and 

 table 182). Most of these State holdings— 65 



figures of the public agencies concerned. 



percent — are located in the Northern States, 

 chiefly in Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. 

 About 25 percent of the State lands are found in 

 the West, mainly in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, 

 and Montana. About 10 percent are located in 

 the South. 



County holdings total about 7 million acres of 

 commercial forest land, and municipal and other 

 local public holdings about 1 million acres, or a 

 combined total of 1.6 percent of all commercial 

 forest land. More than 80 percent of these hold- 

 ings are located in the North, chiefly in Minnesota 

 and Wisconsin. 



Present Timber Volumes Relatively 

 Low 



The commercial forests in State and local public 

 ownerships include some well-timbered areas, 

 particularly in the West, but on the average are 

 not as well stocked as the forests held by other 

 owner classes. Thus the State-owned lands ac- 

 count for 3.9 percent of the commercial forest 

 land but only 3.1 percent of the sawtimber 

 volume (table 'l63, p. 291, and table 168, p. 298). 



439296 O— 58- 



-22 



