348 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTUHE 



Relation of North American Forest 

 Resources to Those of the Free 

 World and World 



A comparison of forest resoui'ces of North 

 American countries is presented in table 193. It 

 seemed desirable in these comparisons to rely on 

 pertinent statistics for the different countries, ap- 

 pearing in other sections of this report, which are 

 more or less similar to the standards adopted by 

 the United States in reporting on its forest re- 

 sources. However, comparison of resources be- 

 tween all countries and regions of the world must 

 be on the basis of statistics which are reasonably 

 comparable for the various countries considered. 

 Thus world forest resource statistics as published 

 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the 

 United Nations are used for this purpose. Be- 

 cause F. A. O. used different standards and defini- 

 tions, the North American data used in world 

 comparisons is somewhat different than North 

 American data in table 193 and elsewhere in the 

 Timber Resource Review. 



A partial summary of these world statistics b}^ 

 country and region is given in table 194. Al- 

 though these same statistics for North America 

 and the Free World appear in tables 190 and 191 

 they are duplicated here in order that significant 



relationships between these and other parts of the 

 world may be readilj^ apparent. 



United States Resources in Relation to 

 Those of North America 



About 1.8 billion acres or 36 percent of the land 

 area of North America is forested, and slightly 

 more than 60 percent (1.1 billion acres) of the 

 forested area is considered commercial (table 193). 

 The United States and Alaska have 48 percent of 

 the commercial forest area, Canada 48 percent, 

 and Mexico 4 percent. Whereas the United States 

 and Alaska have a smaller acreage of softwoods 

 than Canada, they have a greater proportion of 

 the softwood volume — fifty-two percent as com- 

 pared with 45 percent for Canada. Annual tim- 

 ber growth and cut are also much higher in the 

 United States, where both growth and cut equal 

 approximately 70 percent of the total for all of 

 North America. Canada accounts for all but a 

 small fraction of the remainder in both categories. 



North American Resources in Relation 

 to Those of the Free World 



Both Latin America and Africa have more forest 

 area than North America. But it is the relative 

 distribution of the softwood resources among na- 



Table 193. — Forest resources oj North America, 1953 



Item 



United 



States 



Alaska ' 



Canada 2 



Mexico 



North 

 America 



Total land area . _ _ . _ . 



Million 



acres 



1,904 



648 



Million 



acres 



366 



136 



Million 



acres 



2, 218 



951 



Million 

 acres 

 487 

 64 



Million 

 acres 

 4,975 



Total forest land . - . . 



1.799 







Total commercial forest land .. 



485 



44 



529 



49 



1, 107 







Softwood 



230 

 255 



33 

 11 



396 

 133 



16 

 33 



675 



Hardwood _ .. . . . 



432 







Noncommercial forest land _ _ . _ 



163 



92 



422 



15 



G92 







Timber volume on commercial forest land: 

 Softwood- 



Billion 



cu. ft. 



336 



162 



Billion 

 cu. ft. 

 41 

 9 



Billion 

 cu. ft. 

 328 

 69 



Billion 

 cu. ft. 

 19 

 40 



Billion 



cu. ft. 



724 



Hardwood. ._ .. 



280 







All Species . _____ 



498 



50 



397 



59 



1,004 







Net annual timber growth ' 



Timber cut ^ _ 



14. 2 

 10.8 



1. 



' 4. 5 

 3.6 



. 5 



. 7 



20. 2 

 l."). 1 







' Combines Coastal and Interior Alaska. 



2 Excludes Labrador. 



' Of growing stock on commercial forest land. 



* Questionable estimate. Growth on the 190 million 

 acres of commercial forest land under exploitation is esti- 

 mated to be 2.4 billion cubic feet. Growth on areas not 



under exploitation is probably less than on areas now 

 being exploited. If the stands were comparable, total 

 growth on commercial forest land would be- about 6.6 billion 

 cubic feet. The estimate shown is about halfway between 

 these two extremes. 



' Less than 0.05 billion. 



