7i.S. foneU SentUce 



yfZ9 CENTRAL STATES FOREST EXPERH^NT STATION 

 y ^ COLUMBUS, Ohio ^ ^^ ot?T. of ^"^f^^^Q^^^, Director 



SEP 211963 



CS-4 R.pRE-P- ^^^""^ ^^^^ 



FOREST AREA IN MISSOURI COUNTIES 



In 1959, Missouri's forests occupied 15,3 million acres 

 or 34.5 percent of the State's total land area. All but 

 about 320,000 acres of this forest land is capable of pro- 

 ducing commercial timber. 



Three Missouri counties — Shannon, Texas, and Reynolds^ — 

 contain more than 400,000 acres of forest land each. Shannon 

 with 517,200 forest acres leads all other counties. Only 

 five counties have less than 25,000 acres of woodland each. 

 Worth County in the northwestern corner of the State has the 

 least forest cover, 16,200 acres. 



Forests occupy more than 75 percent of the total land 

 area in each of six Missouri counties, all located in the 

 heavily forested Eastern Ozarks Region. Ten counties are 

 less than 10 percent forested. The forest area in each 

 county ranges from 6.7 percent in Pemiscot to 85.4 percent 

 in Carter. 



The total forest acreage of the State as a whole has 

 increased only slightly since 1947 when the first compre- 

 hensive forest inventory of Missouri was conducted. How- 

 ever, significant changes have occurred in several counties 

 and in certain regions of the State. Forest acreage has 

 increased in 64 counties and decreased in 49. Forest area 

 has increased in the sparsely forested Northern Prairie 

 Region where many acres of idle cropland and pastureland 

 have reverted to forest. On the other hand, forest area 

 has decreased sharply because of extensive land clearing 

 for agriculture in the alluvial flatlands of southeastern 

 Missouri . 



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