Biomass statistics for the northern United States

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United States
Department of
Agriculture

Forest Service

Northeastern Forest
Experiment Station

Research
Note NE-318

1984

Eric H. Wharton
Gerhard K. Raile

Abstract

The USDA Forest Service now estimates biomass during periodic resource
inventories. Such biomass estimates quantify more of the forest resource than
do traditional volume inventories that concentrate on tree boles. More than 48
percent of the aboveground tree biomass in the northern United States can be
found in woody material outside of the boles. Tree biomass in the Northeastern
and North Central regions of the United States is compared by state.

Forests today must supply more
than wood for conventional products
such as sawlogs and pulpwood. Con-
straints placed upon the economy in
the 1980’s will force the forest prod-
ucts industry to use more of the avail-
able supply of timber to increase
production and decrease costs. Al-
ready, timber harvesters are respond-
ing by producing whole-tree chips that
may be converted to energy, pulp and
paper products, reconstituted wood
products, or agricultural uses.

The use of all woody material
above the ground is becoming a com-
mon practice. Wood from the tops of
trees and from poorly formed, rotten,
and small trees once considered un-
usable is now removed. This increased
use of our forest resource has created
a need to determine the total supply
of wood fiber.

In response, the USDA Forest
Service (1981) has estimated the sup-

ply of live, aboveground biomass on
timberland in the United States. The
Northeastern and North Central For-
est Experiment Stations cooperated
in this national effort to evaluate the
net green weight of woody material in
all live trees above the ground (ex-
cluding foliage). We found that almost
a third of the nation’s tree biomass is
located in the northern United States.

Northern Biomass

More than 11.6 billion green tons
of biomass grow on timberland in the
four sections of the North (Table 1).
The largest amount, 4.0 billion green
tons, is in the Middle Atlantic sec-
tion. The remainder is evenly distrib-
uted between the New England, Lake
States, and Central States. Six of the
states— Maine, New York, Pennsyl-
vania, West Virginia, Michigan, and
Kentucky—each contain more than
1 billion green tons.

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Biomass Statistics
for the Northern United States

The Northeastern States

In the New England section, 58
percent of the total tree biomass is in
Maine. Of its 1.4 billion green tons,
almost half is material that is in tree
boles. The remaining 0.7 billion green
tons is from unconventional sources
of fiber including tree tops, trees less
than 5.0 inches dbh, and cull trees.

The biomass in tops consistently
averages about 17 percent of the total
biomass in the New England section;
the proportion of biomass in cull trees
differs considerably. Only in Rhode
Island and Vermont are cull trees a
significant proportion, representing
about a quarter of the total biomass
in each of these two states.

In the Middle Atlantic section,
Pennsylvania, New York, and West
Virginia account for nearly 89 percent
of the total tree biomass. While Penn-
sylvania’s 1.5 billion green tons repre-
sent the greatest amount, only 0.6
billion green tons come from uncon-
ventional sources. This is only 39
percent of the total biomass in the
State—lower than every Middle At-
lantic State except Delaware.

The proportion of biomass in tree
tops is lower in the Middle Atlantic
States than in New England by 2 per-
cent. Even so, as much as 1.9 billion
green tons, or 46 percent of the sec-
tion’s biomass, are from unconven-
tional sources and theoretically are
available for fiber-based products.

Table 1.—Total green weight of aboveground tree biomass on commercial forest
land in the North by class of timber, section, and state?
(Million green tons)

Section Tree Tree Cull Small Total
and state bole? tops* trees? trees® biomass
New England
Connecticut 63.2 W7eU Hall 12.5 100.5
Maine 685.2 249.2 233.8 252.1 1,420.3
Massachusetts 101.1 29.9 20.4 23.5 174.9
New Hampshire 192.0 61.7 58.6 62.0 374.3
Rhode Island 10.3 2.9 4.4 2.9 20.5
Vermont 174.2 50.6 98.0 43.4 366.2
Total 1,226.0 411.4 422.9 396.4 2,456.7
Middle Atlantic
Delaware 25.9 5.9 2.8 5.9 40.5
Maryland 156.1 40.9 59.8 24.8 281.6
New Jersey 72.9 19.1 11.4 24.2 127.6
New York 426.1 132.5 251.1 191.0 1,000.7
Pennsylvania 912.1 269.7 118.2 196.7 1,496.7
West Virginia 581.7 143.7 218.3 157.1 1,100.8
Total 2,174.8 611.8 661.6 599.7 4,047.9
Lake States
Michigan 515.6 239.6 93.5 181.7 1,030.4
Minnesota 302.7 147.2 76.8 135.6 662.3
North Dakota 6.1 2.8 4.3 2.7 15.9
South Dakota (East) 4.9 2.4 3.6 0.7 11.6
Wisconsin 338.5 154.6 105.5 95.5 694.1
Total 1,167.8 546.6 283.7 416.2 2,414.3
Central States
Illinois 90.8 41.6 19.5 15.5 167.4
Indiana 112.5 51.8 24.5 27.0 215.8
lowa 34.3 15.7 17.0 9.0 76.0
Kansas 17.8 8.3 26.5 5.6 58.2
Kentucky 632.7 161.6 126.7 90.6 1,011.6
Missouri 228.3 101.8 154.3 105.7 590.1
Nebraska What 8.8 10.9 1.3 38.7
Ohio 317.9 99.4 56.7 89.0 563.0
Total 1,452.0 489.0 436.1 343.7 2,720.8
Total, North 6,020.6 2,058.8 1,804.3 1,756.0 11,639.7

aBased upon the year in which the most recent inventory was made.

>The main stem of all trees, except cull trees and small trees, between the ground and 4-inch top diameter outside the bark.
cThe tops of all trees, except cull trees and small trees, above a 4-inch top diameter excluding the foliage.

‘The bole and tops of cull trees above the ground.

®Above the ground, and between 1 and 5 inches in diameter at breast height (d.b.h.).

In contrast, only 1.2 billion green tons
are available in New England. Yet,
this material from both sections rep-
resents almost 48 percent of the total
biomass in the Northeast.

The North Central States

Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minne-
sota account for 99 percent of the 2.4
billion green tons of total tree biomass
in the Lake States section. Michigan
has the greatest percentage of the
total at 43 percent, Wisconsin has
29 percent, and Minnesota accounts
for 27 percent. Forty-eight percent of
the total tree biomass for these three
states is from tree boles. Only 12
percent of the biomass is in cull trees,
while 17 percent is in small trees.
North and South Dakota combined
comprise only 1 percent of the Lake
States’ total biomass, and have high
percentages of biomass in cull trees.
Twenty-three percent of the biomass
in the Lake States is in tree tops. This
is a greater proportion than that in
any other section in the North.

The highest percentage of bio-
mass in the Central States section is
in Kentucky, which has 37 percent of
the total. Ohio and Missouri also con-
tain high percentages of the section’s
total biomass, 21 and 22 percent of
the total, respectively. An average of
16 percent of the section’s total bio-
mass is in cull trees. In contrast to
the Lake States, only 13 percent of
the Central States’ biomass is in
small trees, and only 18 percent of
the total tree biomass in the Central
States is in tops.

Prospective Biomass Estimates

Estimates of the total wood fiber
supply can provide valuable informa-
tion to policymakers at the national
and regional levels. Admittedly, this
information is broad in nature and
may be of limited value to local re-
source planners. We must provide
detailed biomass statistics at a local
level if such statistics are to become
a useful tool. Already, such proce-
dures are being incorporated into
inventory processes.

Biomass information for state
and geographic units is now being
published as a part of the timber
resource bulletins as each state is
inventoried. For more information
write to Forest Inventory and Analysis
staff at the Northeastern Forest Ex-
periment Station, 370 Reed Road,
Broomall, PA 19008, or the North
Central Forest Experiment Station,
1992 Folwell Avenue, St. Paul, MN
55108.

Literature Cited

USDA Forest Service. Tree biomass—
a state-of-the-art compilation. Gen.
Tech. Rep. WO-33. Washington,
DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Forest Service; 1981. 34 p.

Eric H. Wharton is a research
forester, Northeastern Forest Experi-
ment Station, Broomall, Pennsylvania.
Gerhard K. Raile is a research forester,
North Central Forest Experiment Sta-
tion, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Manuscript received for
publication 14 July 1982

wx U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1984—705-029/509

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