FOREST AREA 



The land area in Northeast Washington totals almost 7.9 million acres 

 of which approximately 50 percent is forest land. The proportion of 

 forest land, however, ranges from 95 percent in Pend Oreille County 

 to less than 1 percent in Whitman County. Forest land predominates 

 in the three northernmost counties as shown graphically on page 4. 



Forest land , according to the resurvey, is estimated to occupy 3,930 

 thousand acres in contrast with an estimate of 4,021 thousand acres 

 by the 1935 survey — a decrease of 91 thousand acres. Some 25 * 

 thousand acres of this decrease is accounted for by backwater from 

 the Grand Coulee Dam. Land clearing and the error limitations of 

 the survey estimates may well account for the remainder. 



Commercial forest land occupies 3,708 thousand acres and constitutes 

 94 percent of the forest land total. Table 4 contrasts the commercial 

 forest land area estimates of the resurvey and initial surveys by 

 stand-size class. The overall estimate, according to the resurvey, 

 is 36 thousand acres less than the 1935 estimate. Although this dif- 

 ference is within the error limitations of the estimates, the trend 

 has been downward since most of the 25 thousand acres of forest land 

 inundated by Grand Coulee Lake was of commercial character. More 

 notable, however, is the trend in deforested areas — an increase of 

 63 thousand acres, or 24 percent over the 1935 estimates. Since there 

 have been no extensive fires in the past 13-year period, it appears 

 that restocking is not keeping pace with cutting. This trend is 

 borne out by observation. The lag in restocking and the fact that 

 appreciable areas classified as seedling- sapling in 1935 have since 

 developed into pole stands account for a reduction of 116 thousand 

 acres, or 12 percent in the seedling-sapling category. The compari- 

 son indicates a slight increase in the area occupied by pole stands. 



The trend of saw-timber stands is downward . Although a comparison 

 of the 1935 and 1948 data shows a reduction of only 33 thousand acres, 

 or 3 percent in this category, differences in classification intensity 

 of the two surveys may tend to minimize this trend. For example, in 

 the initial survey areas were classified in blocks of generally 40 

 acres or larger and thus only the larger blocks that were operable 

 under prevailing extensive management practices were considered saw- 

 timber stands; smaller patches of saw timber were included with other 

 predominating stand-class conditions. In the resurvey stands were 

 classified by 0.4-acre units — 2x2 chain blocks along transect lines. 

 Resurvey saw-timber estimates consequently include much smaller 

 parcels than the 1935 estimates. On the other hand the 1935 estimates 

 of saw timber included small parcels of nonsaw timber which were 

 factored out in the 1948 survey. 



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