RECENT TRENDS IN FOREST LAND AND TIMBER RESOURCES 



11 



resources. Agricultural acreage that is abandoned, 

 and reverts to forest usually remains understocked 

 for many years, except for areas planted to trees. 

 Timberlands shifted to other uses, on the other 

 hand, generally contain timber inventories that 

 are either reserved or largely destroyed as a 

 part of changes in land use. 



Net changes also are often much smaller than 

 areas moving into and out of commercial status. 

 Thus in Florida, for example, about 1.7 million 

 acres of forested lands were shifted to agriculture, 

 urban, and other uses during the 1959-70 period, 

 while 0.7 million acres of farm land reverted to 

 forest — a net loss of forest land of about a million 

 acres. 



Ownership of Commercial Timberlands 



Largely as a result of historical policies which 

 encouraged transfer of public domain lands to 

 private ownership, about 73 percent of all com- 

 mercial timberlands was privately owned in 1970. 

 About 27 percent was in Federal, State, and other 

 public holdings (table 3.) 



Farm and miscellaneous private lands. — Com- 

 mercial timberlands held by business and profes- 

 sional people, wage and salary workers, house- 

 wives, railroad, mining, and other corporations, 

 and other nonfarm owners represent the largest 

 class of forest ownership. In 1970, these owners 

 held 165 million acres, or 33 percent of the total 

 area of commercial timberland. Another 26 per- 

 cent was classed as owned by farmers. 



Many of the farm and miscellaneous private 

 holdings include highly productive timber sites, 

 and most are close to markets for timber products. 

 These ownerships consequently have long been of 

 major importance as a source of timber supplies 

 for the wood-using industries. Nearly half of these 



timberlands were in the South in 1970 and most of 

 the remainder in the North. 



Since 1952 the combined area of farm and mis- 

 cellaneous ownership has not shown much change 

 (fig. 4 ; Appendix I, table 2). However, farm owner- 

 ship dropped about 42.5 million acres between 1952 

 and 1970, while miscellaneous private ownerships 

 increased about the same amount. Farm abandon- 

 ment and a decline in rural populations has typi- 

 cally been associated with sales of land to nonfarm 

 or industrial owners. 



Forest industry ownerships. — The 67 million 

 acres of commercial timberland in forest industry 

 holdings in 1970 — about 14 percent of the total — 

 included some of the Nation's most productive 

 timber growing areas. About 52 percent of these 

 industrial lands were in the South, and 26 percent 

 in the North. Most of the remaining areas were on 

 the Pacific Coast, generally including the more 

 productive lower elevation lands. 



In the 1952-70 period, areas of commercial 

 timberland in forest industry ownerships increased 

 13 percent — close to 8 million acres. Much of the 

 increase was in the South where wood-using com- 

 panies have been actively acquiring forest lands. 

 A substantial part of the added acreage was 

 purchased from farm and miscellaneous owners. 



Forest industries have also turned to leasing and 

 long-term cutting contracts to supplement fee 

 ownership. Thus in the South, an estimated 9 

 million acres of commercial timberlands in non- 

 industrial ownerships were managed by the forest 

 industries in 1970. 



National Forest lands. — Some 92 million acres 

 of commercial timberlands, or 18 percent of the 

 U.S. total, were in National Forests in 1970. 

 These forests are located largely in the Rocky 

 Mountain and Pacific Coast sections. Most are 



Table 3. — Area of commercial timberland in the United States, by type of ownership and section, January 1, 



1970 



Type of ownership 



Total United States 



North 



South 



Rocky 

 Mountains 



Pacific 





Area 



Proportion 



Coast 



Federal: 



National Forest 



Thousand acres 

 91, 924 



4, 762 



5, 888 

 4,534 



Percent 



18 

 1 



1 

 1 



Thousand acres 



10, 458 



75 



815 



963 



Thousand acres 



10, 764 



11 



220 



3,282 



Thousand acres 



39, 787 



2,024 



2,809 



78 



Thousand acres 

 30, 915 



Bureau of Land Management 



Bureau of Indian Affairs 



Other Federal 



2, 652 



2,044 



211 







Total Federal 



107, 109 



21, 423 

 7,589 



67, 341 

 131, 135 

 165, 101 



21 



4 



2 



14 



26 



33 



12, 311 



13, 076 

 6,525 



17, 563 

 51, 017 



77, 409 



14, 277 



2,321 



681 



35, 325 



65, 137 



74, 801 



44, 699 



2, 198 

 71 

 2,234 

 8,379 

 4,051 



35, 822 



State .- . 



3, 828 



County and municipal 



312 



Forest industry 



12, 219 



Farm 



6, 602 



Miscellaneous private 



8, 840 







All ownerships 



499, 697 



100 



177, 901 



192, 542 



61, 632 



67, 622 





