A comparative analysis of hardwood sawtimber quality of national forests versus adjacent lands

Since the mid 1980s, increased public scrutiny of timber sales in national forests and changes in Forest Service policy have resulted in delayed or reduced sales of hardwood sawtimber. As a result, the hardwood industry has become increasingly concerned about future supplies of timber from national forests. On the surface, these concerns seem difficult to understand since national forests contain only 7 percent of the nation's hardwood sawtimber. To determine the validity of these concerns, the relative quality of sawtimber on national forest lands was compared with that on adjacent lands for 41 eastern Forest Service survey units. This analysis found large variations in the relative quantity and quality of hardwood sawtimber on national forests. Many national forests in the Appalachian region have proportionately more high-quality timber than adjacent lands, while the quality of hardwood on national forests in the South appears to be similar to that on private lands. Because of a lack of data on tree quality, the proportional volumes of quality timber on public and private lands could not be determined for the Central region.