New Mexico's forest area and timber volume

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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
FOREST SERVICE

INTERMOUNTAIN FOREST & RANGE EXPERIMENT STATION

OGDEN U TAH

U.S. Forest Service
' Research Note INT-32 1965

NEW MEXICO'S FOREST AREA AND TIMBER VOLUME

Henry J. Pissot, Resource Analyst
Division of Forest Economics and Recreation Research

ABSTRACT

One-third of New Mexico's 18 million acres of forest land
is classed as commercial. Sixty-nine percent of the com-
mercial forest area is publicly administered; 55 percent
is in National Forests. Ponderosa pine, the principal
species, occupies 69 percent of the commercial timber-
growing area and accounts for more than half of the
growing stock and sawtimber volume in the State.

Twenty-three percent (18.2 million acres) of New Mexico's land area is forested;
however, only 6.3 million acres, or slightly more than one-third of the forested area
is commercially important for timber production. The remaining 66 percent is in two
broad classes of noncommercial forest land. About 561,000 acres is productive but
excluded from the commercial classification because it is reserved from timber
harvesting in National Forest wild, wilderness, and primitive areas, and in National
Monuments. The major portion of the noncommercial area (11.4 million acres) is
unproductive land incapable of producing trees of commercial size and quality. The
pinyon-juniper forest type occupies 94 percent of this unproductive category.

Public agencies manage 4.3 million acres, or 69 percent of the commercial
forest. Of this, 80 percent is National Forest land and 14 percent is tribal lands within
Indian Reservations. The remaining public lands are largely in State ownership.

Private holdings amount to 2 million acres, or 31 percent of the commercial area.
Four-fifths of this is in farms and ranches.

Ponderosa pine, the most extensive commercial forest type in New Mexico,
covers 4.3 million acres, or 69 percent of the commercial area. The other important
softwood types are Douglas-fir and fir-spruce, which make up about 16 and 8 percent,
respectively, of the commercial forest. Aspen, the only hardwood type in the
commercial forest, occupies 6 percent of the area.

Sawtimber stands support 98 percent of the total board-foot volume, occupy 87
percent of the commercial forest land, and average 5,072 board fect per acne.) ihe
total cubic volume in sound live trees 5 inches in diameter and larger is 6.6 bil-
lion feet. Fifty-eight percent of it is ponderosa pine, which leads all species in saw-
timber volume, with 16 billion of the State's total of 28 billion board feet.

* * Kk * *K

Statistics shown in the following tables were compiled from several sources. The
principal sources were inventories by National Forests, the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
and the Forest Survey staff of the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station.
A combination of photo interpretation and field examination of sample areas was used
to obtain data for most areas. Fieldwork was completed in 1962, compilations in 1964.

More comprehensive timber estimates will be included in an analytical report for
the State of New Mexico that will be published later this year.

Table 1.--New Mexico area by land classes Table 2,.--Area of commercial forest land in New
Mexico by ownership classes

Land class ; Thousand acres -
- Ownership class * Thousand acres
Commercial forest landt 6,269 :
Unproductive forest land~ TSO National Forest 3,458
Productive-reserved forest land~ 561 Other Federal:
SS Bureau of Land Management Wl
Total forest land 185167 Indian* 617
ee eee 59,579 Miscellaneous Federal 9
All land 4 77,766 Total other Federal 703
* Forest land that is producing or is capable of plate ue
; i : ; Farmer-owned IAS y/
producing crops of industrial wood and not withdrawn .
: Bg oe Other private 379
from, timber utilization.
25 ; : nae
orest land incapable of growing crops of in All ownerships 6,269

dustrial wood because of adverse site conditions.
° Productive forest land withdrawn from timber
utilization through statute or administrative regu-
lation.
* From U.S. Bureau of the Census, Land and
Water Area of the United States, 1960.

1 Indian tribal lands and trust allotments;i.e.,
lands held in fee by the Federal Government but
administered and managed for Indian tribal groups
or allotted in trust to individual Indians.

Table 3.--Area of commercial forest land in New Mexico by stand-size and ownership classes

Stand-size class ; All ownerships : National Forest ; Other public Private

ee Thousand acres - - - - ----- -

Sawtimber stands 2 5,454 2,950 833 1,671
Poletimber stands 426 PAT ASS 19 152
Sapling and seedling stands ~ 169 16 20 133
Nonstocked stands 220 217 3 --

All classes 6,269 3,458 875 1,936

+ Stands at least 10-percent stocked with growing stock trees with a minimum net volume per acre of
1,500 board feet in sawtimber trees.

Stands failing to meet sawtimber stand specifications, but at least 10-percent stocked with poletimber
and larger (5.0 inches d.b.h. and larger) trees and with at least half the minimum stocking in poletimber
trees.

° A stand not qualifying as either a sawtimber or poletimber stand, but having at least 10-percent stock-
ing of trees of commercial species and with at least half the stocking in sapling and seedling trees (less than
5.0 inches d.b.h.).

* A stand not qualifying as a sawtimber, poletimber, or a sapling-seedling stand; i.e., normally a stand
less than 10-percent stocked.

Table 4.--Area of commercial forest land in New Mexico by forest types
and ownership classes

: All : : : .
Forest type Sipopmecciinns Public : Private
SSS S55 Thousand acres = = = = = -

Douglas-fir 1,000 582 418
Ponderosa pine 4,334 3,262 1,072
Limber pine 43 10 33
Fir-spruce 20 290 235
Aspen 367 189 178
All types 6,269 ASS 1,936

Table 5.--Area of noncommercial forest land in New Mexico by forest types

$ Productive : :
Forest type : All areas : reserved : ep aCe

‘ eae areas
er Thousand acres - - = - = -

Douglas-fir 122 120 2
Ponderosa pine 347 307 40
Fir-spruce 129 122 : 7
Aspen 33 12 21
Chaparral 652 Se 652
Pinyon-juniper 10,635 -- 10,635

All types 11,918 561 1357

Table 6.--Volume of growing stock and sawtimber on commercial forest land in
New Mexico by species

Species

Douglas-fir 941,567 5,025,065
Ponderosa pine SOOT LO 16,188,163
Limber pine 157,656 639,953
True firs © 594, 262 1,975,857
Engelmann spruce 706,389 3,280,615
Aspen 379,074 1,233,056

All species 6,616,239 28,342,709

Growing stock :

Thousand cubic feet

Sawtimber

Thousand board feet =

+ Net volume in cubic feet of live merchantable sawtimber and poletimber trees from a
1-foot stump to a minimum 4.0-inch top inside bark.
2 4 i
International 4-inch log rule.
o Corkbark, subalpine, and white fir.

Table 7.--Volume of growing stock and sawtimber on commercial forest land
in New Mexico by ownership classes

Ownership class

National Forest 3,386, 868 14,859,252
Other public 1,368,926 6,243,006
Private 1,860,445 7,240,451

All classes 6,616,239 28,342,709

* International }-inch log rule.

Table 8.--Volume of growing stock and sawtimber on commercial |
forest land in New Mexico by stand-size classes |

Stand-size class

Sawtimber stands 6,320,179 27 , 662,064
Poletimber stands 230,691 492,421
Sapling and seedling stands 38,062 63,398
Nonstocked stands 27,307 124,826

All classes 6,616,239 28,342,709

1 International }-inch log rule.

Growing stock

Thousand cubic feet

Growing stock

Thousand cubic feet

Thousand board feet ig

Thousand board feet *

Sawtimber

Sawtimber

DPSU/65/1496- 19 }