FOREST RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1992
A supporting technical document for the 1993 Update of the 1989 RPA
Assessment
As part of the development of the periodic RPA Assessments, basic information on the
U.S. forest resource is compiled at one point in time, as for this report. Data are
presented for forest land area and productivity, area of forest types, timberland area and
ownership, timber volume, ownership, species, and diameter, timber mortality, net growth,
and removals, and output of timber products. Many of these measures are reported as series
going back to 1952 for selected intervening years. A foldout forest type map of the
United States is included with the report.
Highlights include the following:
- Forest land area increased slightly (0.1%) between 1987 and 1992, reversing a slight
downward trend dating from 1963.
- Some 737 million acres of land is classed as forest land33% of the total land area.
This amounts to about two thirds of the area that was forested in 1600.
- About 47 million acres of forest land (6% of all U.S. forest land) is reserved from
commercial timber harvest, in wilderness, parks, and other classifications.
- Timber inventories on timberland increased 2.6% between 1987 and 1992.
- For the South, the volume of standing softwood inventory declined 2.5% between 1987 and
1992the first such decline since at least 1952.
- Timber mortality increased substantially between 1986 and 1991, in all regions, on all
ownerships, and for both hardwoods and softwoods.
- In 1991, growth exceeded harvest in all regions. For the United States, hardwood growth
exceeded removals by 80%, and for softwoods, by 9%.
- Timber harvest levels continue at their historically high levels. Average timber harvest
levels have risen each decade since the 1950's.
- Seventythree percent of timberland is privately owned; these lands accounted for 82%
of removals in 1991.
Powell, Douglas S.; Faulkner, Joanne L.; Darr David R.; Zhu, Zhiliang; MacCleery,
Douglas W. 1993. Forest resources of the United States, 1992. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM234.
Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest
and Range Experiment Station, 132 p. + map