Montana's forest resources /

Montana has about 22.5 million acres of forest land, almost all of it timberland.Three-fifths of the forest land is administered by the National Forests.The estimated volume of wood on timberland is almost 31 .6 billion cubic feet.Net annual growth in 1 988 was just under 658.0 million cubic feet.This report high- lights additional resource information including total land area, timberland area, volume, growth, mortality, and removals.The mission of the Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis program is to improve the understanding and management of our Nation's forests by maintain- ing a comprehensive inventory of the status and trends of the country's diverse forest ecosystems, their use, and their health.The McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928 initially authorized what was then known as the Forest Survey.The current legislative mandate is the Renewable Resources Research Act of 1978.The Interior West Resource Inventory, Monitoring, and Evaluation Program, headquartered at the Intermountain Research Station, Ogden, UT, administers the Forest Inventory and Analysis activities for the Interior West States of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.These inventories provide information on the extent and condition of the forests-their wood volume, wood growth, removals, and mortality for most forest lands outside the National Forest System.These data, when combined with similar information on National Forest lands, provide a basis for forest policies and programs for the orderly development and use of renewable resources.