The 7.6 million acre area of chaparral stands — 

 dense evergreen, woody shrubs — is almost entirely in 

 California; it is the predominant form of forest cover 

 in the mountains in southern California, and is found 

 in coast ranges and the Sierra Nevada to the north. 

 Most of the 6.3 million acres of miscellaneous wood- 

 lands is also found in CaHfornia, where it is the lowest 

 elevation forest community in the foothills of the 

 coast range and Sierra Nevada surrounding the Great 

 Central Valley. Several species of oaks and Digger 

 pine are most common in this ecosystem. The pinyon- 

 juniper forests are found in eastern Oregon and in 

 California, generally east of the Sierra Nevada and in 

 the mountains of southern California. 



These three ecosystems, due to type and yield of 

 vegetation, have very limited value for production of 

 wood products. But they are important as wildlife 

 habitat, and beneficial for watershed protection. To 

 stockmen, these forests are a nuisance. Because graz- 

 ing is their predominant use, the main treatment has 

 been designed to get rid of the cover by burning or 

 mechanical means. The hardwoods, long used for 

 home fires, are now being considered as a possible 

 source of energy on a larger scale. 



The forests of Alaska total 119 million acres, 56 

 percent of the total forest area of the Pacific Coast 

 region (table 2.1). In productivity and timber vol- 

 umes, the Alaska forests are much less important 

 than those to the south. Only in southeast Alaska are 

 there substantial areas of productive forest land 

 accessible for timber harvesting. The 12.7 million 

 acres of hemlock-Sitka spruce — the dominant coastal 

 ecosystem — are found from sea level to an elevation 

 of 2,000 feet on the islands and along the fiords of the 

 Alexander Archipelago and southeast Alaska. 



The interior forests of Alaska are an extension of 

 the Canadian taiga and aspen-birch forests. The 83.4 

 miUion acres of the fir-spruce ecosystem and 22.7 mil- 

 Hon acres of hardwood forest are in some places 

 locally important for timber processing. However, 

 most of these forests are far from markets, inaccessi- 

 ble, and some 80 percent are not capable of growing 

 more than 20 cubic feet per acre annually. The more 

 productive forests are limited to the major interior 

 river valleys. 



Both the interior forests and those of southeast 

 Alaska include vast untrammeled areas that support 

 wildUfe in wilderness or near-wilderness settings. 

 Many of the streams contain spawning areas that 

 support the major salmon fishery of North America. 

 Some of these forests, which are intermingled with 

 spectacular mountains, are being considered by Con- 

 gress for inclusion in the National Park System and 

 the National Wildlife Refuge System. In addition, a 



number of major areas are being reviewed for wilder- 

 ness designation. 



Trends in area — Forest areas have decreased sig- 

 nificantly in parts of the Pacific Coast section since 

 1952. The decline in forest areas in the lower Pacific 

 Coast States since 1952 totals over 3 million acres, 

 and includes 1.2 million acres capable of producing 

 more than 20 cubic feet of wood per acre per year and 

 1.8 million acres of lesser capability. For the 1.2 mil- 

 lion acres in the higher productivity group, the great- 

 est causes of loss were road building and grazing 

 clearings in Oregon, and urban expansion in the 

 Puget Sound area in Washington. 



In California, clearing for grazing and reservoir 

 construction were the leading causes of forest land 

 losses. Almost all of the decline in forest land area for 

 the lower productivity groups occurred in California, 

 where about 1.7 million acres' of oak and chaparral 

 have been converted to rangeland since 1952" and 

 100,000 acres have been converted to roads, reser- 

 voirs, and other clearings. The decline in California 

 more than offsets an increase in areas of these lands 

 in Oregon and Washington. Juniper woodland has 

 expanded markedly on calcareous soils in eastern 

 Oregon. This is a result of overgrazing in the early 

 1900's followed by fire control, which favored juniper 

 over the bunchgrass and sagebrush. Foothill and 

 mountain meadows have steadily closed in due to 

 encroachment of trees and brush. Fire control and 

 changing water tables are thought to be the primary 

 causes. 



In recent years, the rate of conversion of timber- 

 lands and brushlands to farm and open grazing lands 

 has decreased rapidly in California, due in large part 

 to limitations on the use of fire for conversions. It is 

 anticipated that these and other limitations will serve 

 to slow the rate of such conversions in the future. 



Road, reservoir, and powerline development, as 

 well as urbanization in some areas, will likely con- 

 tinue to make inroads into the acreage of forests on 

 the Pacific Coast. 



Ownership — Almost three-fourths of the 214 mil- 

 lion acres of forest land on the Pacific Coast are 

 administered by agencies of the Federal government 

 (table 2.3). In Alaska, 94 percent of the forest area is 

 currently under Federal administration; but selection 

 of State lands and native claims from public domain 

 lands will change the distribution considerably. Cur- 

 rently, the Bureau of Land Management administers 

 80 percent of the Federal forests in Alaska, the Forest 

 Service, 1 1 percent. 



"State of California Division of Forestry. Brushland Range 

 Improvement. (Annual report). 1954-1974. 



47 



