f 



U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 

 ^T ! ™rV AGRWHT'RA! !.!8RARY 



1 (U.S. FOREST SERVICE,;"''?-' 



OCT 3- 1963 



I h 



CURRENT SERIAL RECORDS 



RESEARCH NOTE LS-25 



[lake states forest experiment stati 





F ' 



) 



The total area of forest land in Minnesota, 

 now 19 million acres, has decreased less than 

 3 percent in the last 30 years. This relatively 

 small loss is due primarily to increased urban- 

 ization and new rights-of-way that have been 

 cleared for highways and utility lines. Land- 

 clearing activities have more than offset any 

 additions to forest land from natural restock- 

 ing and tree planting. Most tree planting is 

 done on land already classified as forest — 

 this does not change the total forest area. 



Although the patterns are indistinct, sig- 

 nificant changes in forest area have occurred 

 in several counties and certain sections of the 

 State. Counties with the greatest reductions 

 in forest area are Beltrami, Pine, Aitkin, and 

 Roseau. Those with the largest increases in- 

 clude Becker, Otter Tail, and Anoka. Forest 

 area increased in 40 counties between 1953 

 and 1962, but decreased in another 47 (table 

 1 ) . Only 7 of the counties in the northern 

 half of the State had increases, and all of the 

 counties in the Red River Valley have less 

 forest area now than a decade ago. 



Commercial forest land, at first glance, 

 shows a decrease in area of about 6 percent 

 in the last 10 years. However, this decrease 

 very probably reflects improved survey pro- 

 cedures rather than an actual change in com- 

 mercial forest acreage. When forest area dis- 

 tributions by ownerships and forest types are 

 available a more accurate analysis of the 

 change can be made. The commercial forest 

 area is now estimated as 17.1 million acres, 

 compared with 18.1 million recorded in the 

 last survey. Newer aerial photos, more widely 



July 1963 





ON,- U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



t 



orest Area Trends in 



b 



Minnesota Counties 



dispersed sampling, and more objective 

 methods of site determination account for 

 a part of this decrease, particularly in Bel- 

 trami County. A small part of this change re- 

 sulted from expansion of parks and other re- 

 served recreational areas. The reported de- 

 crease in commercial forest land should not 

 result in decreased timber volume because 

 most of the excluded area is marginal for 

 growing tree crops. 



Commercial forest land, as a percent of 

 all land, declines across Minnesota from 

 northeast (about 80 percent) to southwest 

 (less than 1 percent). Minnesota's Arrow- 

 head country is in large measure her wood- 

 shed, containing all of the most heavily for- 

 ested counties ( fig. 1 on last page ) . 



The sampling error for forest areas from 

 this survey is less than 1.5 percent (at one 

 standard deviation) per million acres, and is 

 somewhat smaller in the northern counties 

 which were sampled more intensively. 



The forest area information reported in 

 this Note is part of the results of the Third 

 Minnesota Forest Survey made during 1960- 

 63 by the Office of Iron Range Resources and 

 Rehabilitation and the Lake States Forest Ex- 

 periment Station in cooperation with other 

 public and private agencies. Other publica- 

 tions giving details of Minnesota forest areas, 

 timber volumes, growth, and cut are being 

 prepared and will be published during the 

 next 12 months. 



ROBERT N. STONE 



Research Forester 



Lake States Forest Experiment Station 

 ALEXANDER M. VASILEVSKY 



Forester, Minnesota Office of 



Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation 



MAINTAINED AT ST. PAUL Ji MINNESOTA, IN COOPERATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 



