Figure 6. — A large share of the 

 Minnesota forest land consists 

 of deforested and partially re- 

 stocked areas. Pine sawtimber 

 on such lands exists mainly as 

 scattered clumps or isolated 

 trees. {Photo courtesy Minne- 

 sota Conservation Department.) 



wood types (table 3). Of the hardwood area, aspen 

 claims almost 65.4 percent, making it the dominant 

 individual type in the State (fig. 7). 



Table 3. — Commercial forest area, by forest type and geographic 

 division, Minnesota, 1953 





Total 



Division 



Forest type 



North- 

 eastern 



South- 

 eastern 



Western 



Softwood : 

 White pine 



Thousand 



acres 



US 



166 



986 



1,233 



1,169 



482 



284 



Thousand 



acres 



121 



163 



932 



1,226 



1,143 



433 



283 



Thousand 

 acres 

 4 

 3 



17 



2 



1 



28 



Thousand 

 acres 



Red pine 







37 



Spruce-fir. _ 



5 



Black soruce 



Tamarack . 



25 

 21 



Cedar 



1 









Total 



4,445 



4,301 



55 



89 







Hardwood : 



1,182 



1,145 



846 



5,997 



186 



596 



520 



5,142 



844 

 244 

 235 

 374 



152 



Elm-ash-cotlonwood_ 



\Iaple-birch 



305 

 91 





481 







Total... 



9,170 



6.444 



1,697 



1,029 









4,483 



3.681 



414 



388 









18,098 



14,426 



2,166 



1,506 







Softwood types are important chiefly in the north- 

 eastern division where they account for 30 percent of 

 the forest area (fig. 8). Largest individual type is the 

 spruce-fir, which is a mixture of balsam fir, white 

 spruce, aspen, paper birch, and a wide variety of other 

 softwoods and hardwoods able to grow- on cool, 

 moist sites. Another large type is the black spruce, 

 which occupies more than 1 million acres of swamp- 

 land (fig. 9). White pine and red pine types have 

 been reduced to a rather small acreage, but jack pine 

 covers nearly 1 million acres in the northeastern divi- 

 sion. Tamarack and cedar also grow in the northern 

 swamps. 



Hardwood types extend throughout the State. As- 

 pen has come in following logging, burning, and land 

 clearing in the northeastern division. Oak is the prin- 

 cipal type in the southeastern division. The elm-ash- 

 cottonwood type occupies stream bottoms and river 

 terraces throughout the State. Species composition, 

 of course, varies for the several divisions. The maple- 

 beech-birch type (which in Minnesota lacks beech 

 entirely and has much more basswood than yellow 

 birch) is at the western extremity of its range but occu- 

 pies significant acreage. 



Of the nonstocked land, which makes up about one- 

 fourth of the total forest area, 2,735,000 acres are classi- 

 fied as lo\v]and brush, which means that they are of 



Minnesota's Forest Resources 



