The Resource Base—Its 
Size and Ownership 
Forest, Rangeland, and Water 
Areas 
Some 1.7 billion acres (about 66 
percent of the Nation’s total area) are 
classified as forest or rangeland or are 
covered with water (fig. 4, app. table 
2). A little less than half of this 
Figure 4—Forests, rangelands, and water cover 
two-thirds of the Nation's total area. 
territory is currently classified as 
rangeland. This is land on which the 
native vegetation (climax or natural 
potential plant communities) is 
predominantly grasses, grasslike plants, 
forbs, or shrubs suitable for domestic 
livestock or wildlife grazing or 
browsing use. It includes natural 
grasslands, savannas, most deserts, 
shrublands, tundra, alpine plant 
communities, coastal marshes, wet 
meadows, and introduced plant 
communities managed like rangelands. 
Most of the rangeland is found from 
the Pacific coast east to include the 
Great Plains, and in Alaska. Most of 
the land east of the Great Plains is 
forested or managed in such a way as 
to preclude its classification as 
rangeland. 
Almost half of the 1.7 billion acres is 
also classified as forest and transition 
land—land that is at least 10 percent 
stocked with trees, or formerly had 
such cover, and not developed for other 
purposes. The two-thirds of the forest 
land (482 million acres) that can grow 
more than 20 cubic feet of industrial 
wood per acre per year is called 
timberland. In 1986, about 90 percent 
of the timber harvested came from this 
area. 
Nearly three-quarters of the timberland 
is in the eastern half of the country. 
Most of the timberland in the West is 
located in the Pacific Coast States and 
in Montana, Idaho, and Colorado. 
The Nation’s forests and rangelands are 
underlain by extensive mineral 
resources. The greatest concentrations 
occur in the Western Overthrust Belt, 
the Northern Great Plains, and the 
Appalachian region. 
The rest of the area of the United 
States, about 5 percent or 109 million 
acres, 1s covered by water. A little over 
half of this area is in lakes (exclusive of 
the Great Lakes), ponds, and 
waterways. The rest is in the Great 
Lakes and coastal waters such as bays, 
sounds, and straits. 
Ownership of Forest and 
Range Lands and Water 
Forest Land and Rangeland—Same 
41 percent of the Nation’s rangeland is 
in Federal ownership (fig. 5, app. table 
3). Most of this 1s in the arid and 
semiarid lands of the Southwest and 
the tundra, shrub, and muskeg-bog 
lands of interior Alaska. The rangeland 
in private ownership is concentrated in 
the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains 
States. 
A little more than one-third of the 
Nation’s forest land is in Federal 
ownership. These lands are 
concentrated in the Rocky Mountains 
and Pacific Coast States. Their wood 
volume is mostly timber that has never 
been harvested, and they contain a 
large part of the Nation’s softwood 
timber inventory. Some of the high- 
elevation forests also have great scenic 
beauty and contribute in important 
ways to meeting the demand for 
outdoor recreation. 
About three-fourths of the Nation’s 
privately owned forest land is in the 
eastern part of the country. Much of 
this area has good soils and other 
conditions favorable for growing trees 
and is close to the largest markets for 
timber products. These private forests 
are likewise closest to the most highly 
populated areas of the country and 
provide opportunities for many kinds 
of outdoor recreation. 
Water—Ownership of inland water is 
difficult to define because the concept 
of ownership and access to water can 
vary by State with private, State, and 
Federal rights at stake. Water resource 
laws can originate from several 
sources, such as Federal and State 
constitutions and acts of Congress and 
State legislatures interpreted by the 
courts and issued by various Federal 
and State agencies in the form of 
administrative laws. 
In the United States, there are two 
general doctrines in water law—the 
appropriation and the riparian. The law 
of appropriation, which is generally 
associated with the West, has two basic 
tenets: (1) a water right can be acquired 
by the party diverting the water from 
the water course and applying it to a 
beneficial use and (2) in accordance 
with the date of acquisition, an earlier 
acquired water right will have priority 
over other, later acquired water rights. 
