An analysis of New York's timber resources (1984) (18170488521)

Title: An analysis of New York's timber resources
Identifier: analysisofnewyor80cons (find matches)
Year: 1984 (1980s)
Authors: Considine, Thomas J; Northeastern Forest Experiment Station (Broomall, Pa. )
Subjects: Timber New York (State); [booksubjectForests_and_forestry_New_York_State_Forest_management_New_York_State_ Forests and forestry New York (State)
Forest management New York (State)]
Publisher: Broomall, Pa. : U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station
Contributing Library: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
Digitizing Sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library



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The area covered by seediing-sapling stands dropped as New York's forests continue to mature. In terms of acreage changes, remember that commercial forest land increased by nearly a million acres. This new forest land entered either the nonstocked or sapling-seedling categories. Despite the influx, non- stocked stands showed a net decline of over 700,000 acres and sapling- seedling stands had a net decline in excess of 2.1 million acres. Obviously, stands grew out of these categories much faster than they were being replaced. The net gainers were poletimber (increase of 1.7 million acres) and sawtimber stands (increase of 2.1 million acres). Changes of this mag- nitude highlight the dynamic nature of New York's forests and reveal the woods to be more vigorous than usually imagined. Unless timber har- vesting increases markedly, or some massive disturbance (e.g. hurricane or insect plague) occurs, the future will bring an even higher proportion of sawtimber stands and a lower pro- portion of immature stands. A plau- sible scenario of what New York's stand-size structure might be by 1990 may be derived from looking at neigh- boring Pennsylvania's situation. The stand-size distribution at the time of Pennsylvania's second survey (1965) showed a strong resemblance to New York's distribution in 1980. The third survey of Pennsylvania (1978) showed that sawtimber stand concentration climbed from 44 to 48 percent of the commercial forest land base (Powell and Considine 1982). Extrapolating this trend to New York means that sawtimber stands would increase by 10 percent and cover about 46 percent of the commercial forest-land base by decade's end. Of course, a continued expansion of New York's forest land base would dilute the sawtimber stand percent- age increase. Pennsylvania, in fact, had a slight decrease in commercial forest land between surveys. The historical decline in farm- land and the shift to a more mature stand-size distribution have a number of implications for the state's timber and nontimber resources. A summary of the effects of these trends includes: increasing timber volume, growth, and removals; reduced total wildlife habi- tat diversity; increased potential for forest related outdoor recreational activities such as hiking, camping, cross-country skiing, and hunting of "big woods" game such as bear and turkey. Hunting potential should de- cline for game species such as rabbits and grouse that prefer habitats of im- mature timber and forest-agriculture land mixtures. 19