RECENT TRENDS IN FOREST LAND AND TIMBER RESOURCES 



Table 1. — Land area of the United States, by type of land and section, January 1, 1970 



Tvpe of land 



Total United States 



North 



South 



Rocky 

 Mountains 



Pacific 





Area 



Proportion 



Coast 



Commercial timberland 



Million acres 

 499.7 



Percent 

 22.0 



Million acres 

 177.9 



Million acres 

 192.5 



Million acres 

 61.6 



Million acres 



67. 6 







Other forest land: 



Productive-reserved 



17. 2 



2. 7 

 233. 9 



. 8 



. 1 



10.3 



4. 3 



1. 7 



7.9 



2.3 



66.5 



3. 3 



Deferred 



. 4 



Unproductive _ 



4.2 



17.6 



145. 6 







Total ... --.- 



253. 9 



11. 2 



8.6 



19.3 



76.6 



149. 3 







Total forest land 



753.5 



427.0 



1, 089. 5 



33. 2 



18.8 

 48.0 



186. 5 

 260. 2 



181. 4 



211.9 

 103. 7 

 197. 2 



138.2 



37.4 



379. 7 



216. 9 



Cropland ._ 



25. 7 



Other land - . 



331. 3 







Total land area. 



2, 270. 1 



100.0 



628.0 



512. 8 



555. 3 



573. 9 







Land Area of the United States 



commercial timberland i other forest land 



cropland 



other nonforest land including range 



■ 



400 600 



MILLION ACRES 



Figure 2 



Area of forest land in the 

 United States by section 



j other forest land 



commercial timberland 



'PACIFIC /* 

 COAST 



200 r m 



January 1, 1970-million acres 



Figure 3 



Coast. In the Central region, about 15 percent of 

 the total land area is in the commerical timberland 

 category. 



The one-quarter of the Nation's commercial 

 timberland located in the West is concentrated in 

 the Pacific Coast States of Oregon, Washington, 

 and California, and in the Rocky Mountain States 

 of Montana, Idaho, and Colorado. 



Other Forest Lands 



Additional areas of productive timberland in 

 public ownership on which timber harvesting is 

 excluded have been classed as "reserved" areas. 

 These totaled 17.2 million acres in 1970. Also, 

 about 2.7 million acres of productive timberland 

 in National Forests were classed as "deferred" in 

 1970 while under study for possible inclusion in 

 the wilderness system. 



The remaining one-third of the total forest 

 land — some 234 million acres — includes lands" of 

 low productivity for timber, that is, generally of 

 less than 20 cubic feet per acre per year of timber 

 growth capacity. These areas largely support 

 stands of pinyon-juniper, woodland-grass, chapar- 

 ral, subalpine forests, or forests in the interior of 

 Alaska. 



As in the case of commercial timberlands, these 

 other forests are of considerable importance for 

 nontimber uses, such as recreation, watershed 

 protection, wildlife habitat, and livestock produc- 

 tion. The timber on these lands, as well as on 

 "nontimber" lands, also supply limited quantities 

 of roundwood products. 



The interior of Alaska contains an estimated 106 

 million acres of forest land, or about 32 percent of 

 Alaska's total land area. An estimated 22.5 million 

 acres of these forests have a growth potential in 

 excess of 20 cubic feet per acre. However, because 

 of geographic and economic remoteness, none of 

 the forest land in the interior of Alaska has been 

 included in the statistics for commercial timber- 

 land, as in similar previous timber appraisals. 



