AGE OF THE COMMERCIAL FOREST 
IN WESTERN MONTANA 
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Ficure 22. 
The Volume of Timber in Montana 
Approximately 93 percent of the timber cut in 
Montana is from live, sound trees of saw-timber 
size of which there are 56 billion board feet. It is 
to be expected that a large part of the timber 
production will always come from saw-timber trees. 
However, there is an additional and only partially 
tapped supply of wood in pole-timber, dead, and 
cull trees which is suitable for certain purposes. A 
large part of the mature lodgepole pine, for ex- 
ample, is only pole size, that is, 5.0 to 11.0 inches 
in diameter. Many other stands need to be thinned, 
and they would provide a substantial volume of 
usable wood of all species. 
As shown in the following tabulation, the total 
stand of live and dead timber in the State is 17 
billion cubic feet. 
Total timber stand 
in Montana 
Billion 
cubic feet Percent 
Sawlog portion of saw-timber trees ioreion aati oy) t 48 
Pole-timber trees ..... ; ae a Mee 42 
Gulletrees see eS a nas eS ee 3 2 
Dead: trees= 22435 . : 4 5 3 
Top portion of saw-timber trees... Saw 9 5 
otal: BN a Dee ice pee Ra Ee aa 17.0 100 
should not be cut for many years, it is apparent that 
the existing timber volume as a whole is more than 
Forest Resources of Montana 
ample in relation to the use which has so far been 
made of it. ‘The total cut of live and dead timber 
of all kinds has averaged less than 100 million 
cubic feet per year. Thus, if size and quality 
could be disregarded, there is enough timber to 
keep logging operations going at the present rate 
for 170 years or more without any additions to the 
volume by growth. 
Although only 3 percent of the total usable 
volume in the State as a whole is dead wood, the 
situation varies considerably by locality. In Beaver- 
head County, for example, 14 percent of the usable 
timber of all species and 20 percent of the lodge- 
pole pine are dead. 
Two-thirds of the dead timber in Montana is 
lodgepole pine killed by the mountain pine beetle 
(Dendroctonus monticolae) . In 1909 an infestation 
of this beetle was reported on what is now the 
Flathead National Forest. That was the beginning 
of an epidemic which eventually swept southward 
across the western part of the State into the Bitter- 
root Valley and Big Hole Basin. During the three 
decades the epidemic raged, it killed billions of 
board feet of mature timber, mostly lodgepole pine. 
This single epidemic probably killed as much or 
maybe more lodgepole pine of saw-timber size 
than is standing today. Figure 23 shows the general 
location of the major bodies of dead timber in the 
State. 
Timber Growth in Montana 
Net annual growth of all timber 5.0 inches and 
larger in Montana is 241 million cubic feet, nearly 
2 percent of the total for all of the United: States. 
The net annual growth of saw-timber trees in 
Montana is 606 million board feet, about 114 
percent of the national total. These are indeed 
small percentages, considering that approximately 
31% percent of the Nation’s commercial forest lies 
in Montana. This situation is accounted for first 
by the fact that Montana forest land at its best 
will not grow timber as fast as the forest land of 
several other regions. Secondly, growth in Montana 
is currently low because the forest is in an un- 
developed condition, much of it being overmature 
and slow growing. Figures are not available to 
show what portion of the total growth capacity 
in the United States is in Montana, but there is 
no question but that the following figures will be 
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