Figure 18. — A Clearwater County /ouster marks a fire-scarred tree 

 Jor removal in a stand-improvement operation. Minnesota counties 

 own significant acreages of young limber suitable for management. 

 {Photo courtesy Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Commission.) 



Other Privately Owned Timber of Mixed Character 



About 1,191 million cubic feet is growing on 3,059,- 

 000 acres of private land other than farms. This gives 

 an average of 390 cubic feet (4.9 cords) per acre. 

 Sixty percent of the volume is hardwood. The aver- 

 age volume per acre of sawtimber is 640 board-feet 

 (54 percent hardwood), of pulpwood 2.7 cords (54 

 percent aspen). 



Hardwood Volumes Have Increased 



Timber volumes as a whole are greater now tlian in 

 1936 — growing stock by 13 percent and sawtimber 

 by 11 percent. However, the volume of softwood 

 timber has declined. Growing stock volumes of white 

 pine, red pine, jack pine, and the spruces all sho\v 



substantial reductions offset only partially by increases 

 in volume of balsam fir and tamarack. Reduction in 

 softwood sawtimber volume is even more pronounced. 

 The present volume of 5.0 billion board-feet is 20 

 percent below the 1936 estimate. Again the decline 

 is found in the more valuable pines and spruces (fig. 

 20). 



A comparison of 1936 and 1953 estimates of timber 

 volume on commercial forest land, by species group, 

 follows: 



1936 1953 



.11 .1 Million Million 



All t^Mowing Stock: ,„^, ^„y, 



Softwoods 3, 027 2, 829 



Cottonwood-aspen 1, 514 1, 862 



Other hardwoods 1, 879 2, 544 



Total 6, 420 7, 235 



c _• 1 1 Million Million 



.Sawtimber volume: i,j.j,_ i,j,j, 



Softwoods 6, 300 5, 039 



Cottonwood-aspen 1, 630 1, 927 



Other hardwoods 3, 320 5, 572 



Total 11,250 12,538 



Opposing this decline in softwoods has been the rise 

 in hardwood volumes. Both growing stock and saw- 

 tinil)( r volumes are greater now than in 1936 — grow- 

 in<x stock by 30 percent and sawtimber by 51 percent. 

 .\1 though practically all hardwoods have increased to 

 some extent, the largest gains in volume have been in 

 the elms, oaks, basswood, and aspen. 



Undoubtedly, the average quality of sawtimber has 

 declined between surveys. Changed grading stand- 

 ards make direct comparison impractical, but com- 

 parison can be made on the ba.sis of tree size. The 

 proportion of total volume in the larger diameters, 

 19 inches and over, declined about one-half between 

 1936 and 1953. This trend helps to explain why two- 

 thirds of the present hardwood volume is in No. 3 or 

 tie-and-timber log grade. 



A comparison of 1936 and 1953 estimates of diam- 

 eter-class distriinitiun for all merchantable hardwood 

 sawtimber follows: 



1936 1953 



Diameter class (inches): (ptrum) {percent) 



11.0-14.9 48 62 



15.0-18.9 26 24 



19.0 and up 26 14 



Net Annual Growth 



Table 14 shows the estimated rate of annual growth 

 by species while table 15 separates the group totals 

 among the major divisions of the State. 



18 



Forest Resource Report No. 13, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



