RECENT TRENDS IN FOREST LAND AND TIMBER RESOURCES 



27 



Timber growth and removals, 1970 



growth I 1 removals 



GROWING STOCK 



Sawtimber growth and removals per acre, 

 by ownerships, 1970 



eastern softwoods S8 



eastern hardwoods 

 western softwoods 



BILLON CUBIC FEET 

 SAWTIMBER 



eastern softwoods 



eastern hardwoods 



western softwoods 



BILLION BOARD FEET 



Figure 11 



Utilization of hardwoods is highly oriented to 

 preferred species such as walnut, sweetgum, and 

 yellow birch (Append. I, table 24). Relatively 

 heavy cutting of large diameter trees has also 

 led to a decline in quality of hardwood inventories, 

 and a buildup of smaller diameter trees and 

 nonpref erred species of hardwoods. 



On the Pacific Coast hardwoods such as alder 

 have occupied many areas following cutting of 

 the softwood stands, and hardwood growth has 

 been far above removals. 



Net annual growth per acre in 1970 ranged from 

 about 3 times removals on National Forests in 

 the East to 1.2 times on eastern farm and miscel- 

 laneous private ownerships (fig. 12). In the West, 

 on the other hand, removals per acre ranged from 

 3 times growth on forest industry lands to a small 

 excess of growth on farm and miscellaneous 

 private holdings. 



Timber removals per acre were relatively high 

 on forest industry lands, as a result of high sites, 

 heavy stands of timber, and relatively high levels 

 of forestry investments. Nationwide, removals of 

 sawtimber on industry lands averaged about 5 

 percent of the inventory of standing timber, 

 compared with somewhat more than 1 percent 

 on public ownerships. 



TIMBER INVENTORIES 



During the next few decades most timber 

 harvests must come from trees now standing on 

 commercial timberlands. The volume, species 

 composition, location, quality, and ownership of 

 this standing timber is thus of major importance 



national other industry (arm and 

 lorest public misc 



Figure 12 



in appraising the present and prospective timber 

 situation. 



Total Timber Volumes 



Commercial timberlands of the United States 

 supported some 715 billion cubic feet of sound 

 wood in 1970 (table 18 and Append. I, table 10). 

 About 64 percent of this total volume was in saw- 

 timber trees (trees large enough to contain at least 

 one log suitable for the manufacture of lumber) 

 (fig. 13). Another 27 percent was in pole timber 

 trees (trees from 5 inches in diameter at breast 

 height to sawtimber size and now or prospectively 

 suitable for industrial roundwood) . The remaining 

 9 percent of all sound wood volumes was in rough 

 and rotten trees and salvable dead trees. Some of 

 this latter material is suitable for lumber and 

 veneer but most of it is usable only for pulp and 

 other products where log quality requirements are 

 more flexible. 



Softwood Inventories 



Softwoods predominate in the Nation's timber 

 inventory, accounting for about 64 percent of the 

 total volume of all classes of timber, and 75 per- 

 cent of the total sawtimber volume. These inven- 

 tories of softwoods are mostly on the Pacific Coast 

 (table 19). This distribution, in contrast to that 

 for commercial timberland, which is mostly in the 

 East, reflects the concentration of timber in west- 

 ern old-growth stands with relatively high volumes 

 per acre. 



About 27 percent of the Nation's softwood saw- 

 timber inventory in 1970 was Douglas-fir — the 

 Nation's most important softwood species (table 

 20). Three-fifths of this Douglas-fir inventory was 

 located in western Washington and western 

 Oregon. Western hemlock, true firs, ponderosa 



