TIMBER RESOURCES OF NORTH AMERICA 



AND THE WORLD 



INTRODUCTION 



Any realistic appraisal of the future timber 

 supply situation of the United States must 

 consider the forest resources in Interior Alaska,*^ 

 Canada, Mexico, and more remote parts of the 

 world that might carry on timber trade with the 

 United States. Accordingly, this section will 

 review briefly the timber resources of North 

 America and the world, emphasizing the relation- 

 ship of those resources to comparable resources in 

 the United States and to possible United States 

 import and export opportunities. This discussion 

 is oriented mainly with respect to the Free World 

 because trade barriers between the nations of the 

 Free World and the Communist nations must be 

 faced. Until normal trade between these two 

 groups is resumed, the considerable supply of 

 softwood timber in the U. S. S. R. and associated 

 CO im tries is largely unavailable to the Free World. 

 For present purposes, it seems safer to consider 

 the timber supplies of the Free World alone, with 

 reference to timber supplies in Communist coun- 

 tries mainly for comparative purposes. If, at a 

 later date. Communist timber resources become 

 freely available in international trade, the needs 

 of some of the timber importing nations can be 

 met more easily. 



In appraising the world timber supply situation, 

 it must also be recognized that the knowledge of 

 the forest resource in only a few countries is based 

 on statistically reliable field surveys. In many 

 countries, accounting for considerable timber 

 volume, the only available data are estimates made 

 by experienced technicians acquainted with the 

 local conditions. 



INTERIOR ALASKA'S TIMBER 

 SITUATION 



Future development of Alaska's vast Interior 

 (fig. 101) is endangered by forest fires which have 

 burned an average of over a million or more acres 

 every year since 1940. Almost every acre in the 



*2 Authors who participated in the preparation of this 

 section are George F. Burks, I. Irving Holland, Karl R. 

 Mayer, Ray F. Taylor, and Robert K. Winters, all of the 

 Forest vService. R. R. Robinson, Bureau of Land Manage- 

 ment, Department of the Interior, collaborated in preparing 

 the report on Interior Alaska. 



Interior has been burned at one time or another, 

 yet there is a forest resource of at least 180 billion 

 board-feet on 40 million acres of commercial forest 

 land. Even under the reduced growth caused by 

 fire, insects, and diseases, there is an estimated 

 net yearly growth of almost four billion board-feet. 

 Alaskans now use only three-tenths of one percent 

 of this, yet they import annually some seven 

 million dollars' worth of wood and wood products. 

 The development of forest industries in the 

 Interior would do much to reduce the import and 

 would contribute to the industrial growth and 

 economic development of the Territory. The 

 forests under adequate protection are capable of 

 supporting substantial forest industries, as do 

 somewhat similar forests of southern Canada and 

 northern Maine. 



Forests Cover More Than One -Third 

 OF Interior Alaska 



Alaska's interior forests cover almost 120 

 million acres, or 35 percent of the total land area. 

 Roughly, another third consists of grassland, 

 brusli, swamps, and tundra, with a small fraction 

 in agricultural crops. The balance is barren rock 

 or ice and snow, largely at high elevations. The 

 land area of Interior Alaska by major classes of 

 land is as follows: 



Area 



Forest land : Thousand acres Percent 



Commercial 40,000 12 



Noncommercial 79,700 23 



All forest land 119,700 35 



Nonforest land: 



Agricultural cropland in use 10 



Possible cropland, not used 3, 850 1 



Gra-ssland 23,140 7 



Brushland 23,000 7 



Swamps and tundra 62,200 18 



Barren, rocks, ice 99,000 29 



All nonforest 211,200 62 



Total land area 330,900 97 



Water (rivers and lakes) 8, 790 3 



Total area Interior Alaska 339, 690 100 



" The forest resources of other United States territories 

 and possessions — the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 

 Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Guam — while of local impor- 

 tance are not large enough to have any overall effect on 

 the United States situation. 



325 



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