tered throughout the timber stand and are generally 

 smaller in diameter than the live trees, they can sel- 

 dom be economically harvested. This is especially 

 true in rough terrain or where the nontimber impacts 

 of harvesting impose costly harvesting techniques. 

 There is some opportunity to salvage mortality which 

 results from catastrophic loss, but even there the 

 timber value decreases rapidly as the dead trees 

 deteriorate. 



Projected Base Level Timber Inventories 



There are also small increases in growing stock inven- 

 tories on the other major ownerships. In contrast, 

 there are substantial decreases in the sawtimber 

 inventories on the National Forest and forest indus- 

 try ownerships. The reduction in the inventories in 

 these ownerships is concentrated in the Pacific Coast 

 section and is the result of the harvest of old-growth 

 stands. 



The trends outlined above have major impacts on 

 the distribution of the softwood inventory by owner- 

 ships, as indicated in the tabulation below: 



Timber inventories often are considered an indica- 

 tor of the capabiUty of the major ownerships to con- 

 tribute to the Nation's timber supply. The potential to 

 maintain or increase current harvest levels over the 

 next three or four decades depends to a large extent 

 on the present stock of timber. The intensity and 

 character of forest management activities in the near 

 future will have significant impacts on timber inven- 

 tories and harvest levels beyond that time. 



As indicated in the above discussion, the inven- 

 tories of softwood growing stock increased slowly 

 between 1952 and 1977, largely in response to accum- 

 ulations of inventories in the North and South. Soft- 

 wood sawtimber inventories declined slightly. This 

 reflected the reduction in inventories in the Pacific 

 Coast section associated with the harvests of old- 

 growth stands. Softwood sawtimber inventories in 

 the other sections increased, especially in the South, 

 where they rose 59 percent. 



The projections show increases in both softwood 

 growing stock and sawtimber inventories (tables 6.22 

 and 6.23). Softwood growing stock inventories move 

 up from 456 billion cubic feet in 1977 to 532 billion in 

 2030, a rise of 17 percent. Most of the increase takes 

 place before 2010. Sawtimber inventories decline 

 initially, then rise slowly to 2,079 billion board feet in 

 2030, a level about 5 percent above 1976. 



As in the case of nearly all components of the 

 timber resource, there are significant differences in 

 softwood inventory trends among sections and owner- 

 ships (tables 6.24 and 6.25). Inventories of both grow- 

 ing stock and sawtimber rise very rapidly in the North 

 and South. The increase is especially large in the 

 South — sawtimber inventories in this section, for 

 example, move up from 341 billion board feet in 1977 

 to 639 billion in 2030. There is also a small increase in 

 the Rocky Mountain section. However, inventories in 

 the Pacific Coast section decline, in the case of saw- 

 timber, from 1,168 billion board feet in 1977 to 805 

 billion in 2030. 



There are large increases in projected softwood in- 

 ventories on farmer and other private ownerships. 





Ownership distribution 





of softwood sawtimber 



Ownership 



inventory 







''Percent) 





1976 



2030 



National Forests 



50.8 





40.9 



Other public 



II.8 





13.1 



Forest industry 



15.8 





12.6 



Farmer and other 









private 



21.5 





33.5 



Although the National Forests continue to have 

 the largest softwood sawtimber inventory in 2030 

 (reflecting the volumes in residual old-growth 

 stands), the National Forest share of the total drops 

 markedly as does that for forest industry. The share 

 in farmer and other private ownerships increases sub- 

 stantially. There is a related shift in timber volumes 

 from the Pacific Coast to the South. 



The hardwood growing stock inventory increased 

 much more than the softwood inventory between 

 1952 and 1977, from 178.4 to 255.2 bilUon cubic feet. 

 Hardwood sawtimber inventory also rose, although 

 less rapidly, going up from 446.0 to 593.5 billion 

 board feet. 



The inventory of hardwood growing stock is pro- 

 jected to rise 40 percent by 2030 to 357.3 billion cubic 

 feet, and hardwood sawtimber by 48 percent to 877.8 

 billion board feet. The rate of growth is considerably 

 below the rate of accumulation in the 1952 to 1977 

 period. The slowdown is caused by reduced growth 

 resulting from overstocking and increased timber 

 removals. 



Hardwood inventories — growing stock and saw- 

 timber — increase in all sections except the Pacific 

 Coast where the conversion of second-growth hard- 

 wood stands to softwoods is expected to result in 

 some reduction. Inventories also rise on all owner- 

 ships with the largest part on the farmer and other 

 private ownerships. 



246 



