-mountains and the Piedmont maintain forested water- 
sheds. In view of the serious water shortages now 
prevalent in the Piedmont and, to a lesser extent, in 
the Coastal Plain, it seems apparent that watershed 
“management on forest lands has not been sufficiently 
widespread or thorough, particularly in the headwater 
portions of the State’s drainage basins. 
The sharp increase in numbers of beef cattle since 
1940 has been accompanied in parts of the State by 
“greater use of forest land for grazing. This move- 
| ment has been greatest in the Coastal Plain, where it is 
‘combined with commercial timber production. ~The 
bulk of the cattle production in Virginia, however, is 
‘on improved pasture in the Upper Piedmont and 
‘mountains, particularly in the Great Valley, where 
| woods grazing is at a minimum. 
Forest-Land Ownership 
Exact data on forest-land ownership are not avail- 
able, but the latest estimates indicate that about 89 
percent of the total commercial forest area is in pri- 
vate hands. Farm woodlands make up 353 percent, 
and other small nonfarm holdings (less than 5,000 
acres each) comprise 30 percent. Larger private 
Virginia Forest Resources and Industries 
holdings, chiefly corporate, total about | million acres, 
or 6.6 percent (table 2). Of the public commercial 
forests, the largest part is in national forests. The 
noncommercial forest area is largely in public owner- 
ship also, much of it belonging to the United States 
in the Shenandoah National Park, in smaller historical 
parks, and in the national forests. “The noncommer- 
cial area shown in table 2 as “other noncommercial” 
(86,000 acres) is that reported by the Forest Survey 
as being too poor, because of soil or other site con- 
ditions, to support commercial stands of timber. 
Much of it is rock outcrop_.and severely burned areas in 
the spruce type on high ridges in the Alleghany and 
Blue Ridge Mountains, some of it within national- 
forest boundaries, the rest in private hands. 
Of the 950,000 acres of large nonfarm private hold- 
ings, a considerable part is in the Coastal Plain, owned 
by lumber and pulp companies. Another part is in 
the hands of insurance companies, banks, and estates. 
The latter group of owners also control a considerable 
proportion of the tenant-operated farms, with their 
woodlands, throughout both the Coastal Plain and 
Piedmont. 
11 
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