Forest2Market recently completed an economic impact study for the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) in the US, which quantifies the contribution that forestry-related industries make to state, regional and national economies, and analyzes the most forested regions of the United States based on the most recent year of data available (2016). Source: Timberbiz
Of the 1.2 billion acres of land in the study area, 563.0 million acres (45%) are forested. Most (81%) of this forested land is classified as timberland according to the definition under the US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program.
Timberland covers 455.9 million acres (36.6%) of the study area with 46% of timberland located in the South, which also contains 48% of all forested land.
Of the 455.9 million acres of timberland within the 32-state study area, 335.5 million acres (74%) are privately-owned while only 120.4 million acres (26%) are publicly-owned. This translates into a much stronger economic impact associated with private timberlands.
As a whole, 74% of timberland in the study area was owned by private entities, such as Timberland Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), corporate entities and private landowners.
Regionally, the Northeast and South have the highest percentages of private ownership at 89% and 87%, respectively. Appalachia has a slightly lower percentage of private ownership at 83%, and 66% of timberland is privately-owned in the Midwest.
Only 37% of timberland in the Northwest is privately-owned.
You can read the full study and use the interactive state data feature on NAFO’s website. https://nafoalliance.org/issues/working-forests/
