Chapter 2. — Forest and Range Lands 



This chapter contains information on the area, 

 characteristics, ownership, and use of the Nation's 

 forest and range lands and associated waters. These 

 lands and waters cover some 1.7 billion acres — 

 nearly 70 percent of the total area in the United States 

 (table 2.1, fig. 2.1). They provide not only tangible 

 resources such as wood, water, wildlife, and forage, 

 but also intangibles such as scenery and opportunities 

 for outdoor recreation and study. 



The Nation's forest and range lands and associated 

 waters are diverse and complex encompassing a wide 

 variety of characteristics, ownerships, productive 

 capabilities, and uses. This chapter gives a brief 

 national overview of that diversity and complexity 

 and then describes the forest and range land and 

 water base of each of four major geographic sections 

 — North, South, Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, 

 and Pacific Coast (see frontispiece). 



The resource base for this Assessment has been 

 divided into three major categories: forest land, range- 

 land, and water areas (table 2.1). 



Forest land is land at least 10 percent stocked by 

 forest trees of any size, including land that formerly 

 had such tree cover and that will be naturally or arti- 

 ficially reforested. Included in these lands are transi- 

 tion zones, such as areas between heavily forested and 

 nonforested lands that are at least 10 percent stocked 

 with forest trees, and forest areas adjacent to urban 

 and built-up lands. 



Rangeland is land on which the potential natural 

 vegetation is predominantly grasses, grass-like plants, 

 forbs, or shrubs; including land revegetated naturally 

 or artificially that is managed like native vegetation. 

 Rangeland includes natural grasslands, savannas, 

 shrublands, most deserts, tundra, alpine commu- 

 nities, coastal marshes, and wet meadows, that are 

 less than 10 percent stocked with forest trees of any 

 size. 



The forest and range land data in this Assessment 

 may differ from those in other reports, due to dif- 

 ferences in definitions. For example, the pinyon- 

 juniper and chaparral plant communities of the 

 western United States, classed as forest ecosystems 

 herein, are sometimes counted as rangelands due to 

 their forage values. The transition zone between 

 forest and nonforest is considered forest here, but 

 rangeland in some studies. The urban fringe forests 

 are included as forest in the report, but other reports 

 have classified them as nonforest. 



Water areas are divided into several categories. 

 Large inland water areas are lakes, ponds, and reser- 

 voirs at least 40 acres in size and streams and rivers at 

 least one-eighth of a mile wide. Small water areas 

 include lakes and ponds that are at least 2 acres but 



less than 40 acres in size, and rivers and streams at 

 least 120 feet wide but less than one-eighth of a mile. 

 Other water includes the Great Lakes, and the estuar- 

 ies of the contiguous States, but excludes the estuar- 

 ies of Alaska and Hawaii. 



Overview 



Vegetative Cover 



The vegetative cover on the 1.6 billion acres of 

 forest and range land in the United States varies 

 greatly from one part of the country to another. The 

 basic vegetative cover largely determines the uses that 

 can be made of the land and is directly related to 

 annual precipitation. In the areas of the Nation that 

 receive substantial moisture throughout the year, the 

 dominant vegetative cover is forests. In arid and 

 semiarid areas, the dominant cover is grasses and 

 shrubs typically associated with rangelands. 



The total forest and range land base of the Nation 

 is almost evenly divided between the two categories, 

 820 million acres of rangeland and 736 million acres 

 of forests. In addition, there are 698 million acres of 

 cropland, improved pasture, developed, or barren 

 land (table 2.1). 



Most of the Nation's rangelands are found in the 

 Great Plains, the western United States, and Interior 

 Alaska (fig. 2.2). Rangelands occupy more than 50 

 percent of the total land area in each of eight States: 

 Alaska, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, 

 Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. These States together 

 account for more than 45 percent of the Nation's total 

 rangeland base. 



The States east of the Great Plains generally sup- 

 port either a highly developed agricultural economy 

 or are heavily forested. They account for only 13 per- 

 cent of the Nation's rangeland. 



Forest land, unlike rangeland, is distributed widely 

 in both the eastern and western United States (fig. 

 2.3). The land east of the Great Plains that has not 

 been cleared for agriculture is usually heavily for- 

 ested. In addition, humid portions of the Pacific 

 Coast and high elevation areas in the West that 

 receive adequate precipitation are also forested. The 

 eastern States account for slightly more than half of 

 the Nation's forest land while the Rocky Mountain 

 and Pacific Coast States account for most of the re- 

 mainder. The Great Plains States have relatively little 

 forest land. 



Vegetative cover on the Nation's forests and range- 

 lands is diverse as a result of differences in climate, 

 topography, and soils. The classification system for 

 forests and for rangelands used in this Assessment is 



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