softwood removals and 67 percent of all hardwood 

 removals were used in this way. Total product use 

 amounted to 11.8 billion cubic feet of roundwood, 

 including 59 billion board feet of sawtimber. Logging 

 residues accounted for most of the remaining 

 removals. 



Timber Growth-Removal Balances 



Comparisons of net annual growth and removals 

 shown in tables 6.19 and 6.20 provide an important 

 indicator of the present timber situation including the 

 physical availability of timber for harvest. ^^ 



Softwoods. — In the past two and one-half decades, 

 net annual growth of softwoods in the eastern sec- 

 tions of the United States has been considerably 

 higher than removals. For example, in 1976, net 

 growth of eastern softwood growing stock exceeded 

 removals by 2.6 billion cubic feet, or 50 percent. 



Most of the excess of softwood growth over re- 

 movals in the East was in the South. These generally 

 favorable growth-removal balances indicate that 

 eastern forests, and especially those in the South, can 

 support larger softwood timber harvests. But large 

 areas are still understocked, and a growth surplus will 

 be needed for some time if inventories are to be built 

 to more desirable levels. In addition, some part of the 

 growth is on land held primarily for recreation or 

 other nontimber purposes, and at any given time may 

 not be available for harvest. 



For the western United States, removals of soft- 

 wood growing stock in 1976 exceeded net annual 

 growth by 0.3 billion cubic feet, or 7 percent. Re- 

 movals of softwood sawtimber totaled some 30 bil- 

 hon board feet, or nearly 8 billion board feet more 

 than net annual growth. 



These apparent imbalances in the West do not in 

 themselves represent a serious problem on some 

 ownerships and in some areas because a sizable part 

 of the western -timber harvest is drawn from old- 

 growth stands where allowable harvest can exceed net 

 growth for some time to come. Generally speaking, 

 deficit cutting in the West is occurring on the Pacific 

 Coast; the Rocky Mountain section is maintaining a 

 favorable growth-removal balance. 



Although it is not general, removals on the Pacific 

 Coast, and particularly on forest industry owner- 

 ships, are at levels that cannot be sustained for long, 

 given recent investments in management programs. 

 As indicated in a following section, a substantial 

 reduction in harvests is inevitable on these owner- 

 ships within the next decade or so. 



-'5 Many other factors such as species composition, volumes per 

 acre, accessibihty, size of trees, ownership objectives, and prices 

 influence the volume of timber actually available for harvest. 



In the last two and a half decades, net annual timber growth in 

 eastern forests has been larger than removals, and inventories have 

 been increasing. 



Hardwoods. — Net growth of eastern hardwoods 

 in 1976 substantially exceeded removals, particularly 

 in the South. For the entire East, net growth of hard- 

 wood growing stock was 8.7 billion cubic feet — 1 16 

 percent above removals. Net growth of hardwood 

 sawtimber was 22.9 billion board feet, 66 percent 

 more than removals. Although overall growth- 

 removal balances for hardwoods were generally 

 favorable, in areas where extensive clearing has 

 occurred — as along the river bottom lands in the 

 West Gulf region in the South — net growth of hard- 

 woods was less than removals. 



Hardwood removals tend to be concentrated on 

 preferred species such as walnut, sweetgum, yellow 

 birch, and the. larger diameter trees. As a result, re- 

 movals were above or close to net annual growth for 

 some species. 



Projected Base Level Changes 

 in Timber Resources 



The current growth-removal balances show that 

 domestic hardwood forests and eastern softwood 

 forests can now support additional timber harvest. 

 These balances will, of course, change; future supplies 

 and particularly those in the last decades of the pro- 

 jection period can vary over a wide range. However, 

 one of the objectives of this work is to prepare base 

 level projections that will show the likely trends in 



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