How much timberland exists in the United States and who owns it?
A. Two-thirds of the United States forestland, (about 504 million acres) are classified as “timberland” i.e. forestland capable of growing 20 cubic feet of commercial wood per acre per year. The annual growth of America’s commercial forests exceeds harvests by 47 percent each year. Of the 504 million acres of commercial timberland in the U.S., the Forest Products industry owns approximately 70 million acres, federal and state governments own approximately 140 million acres and private individuals own the remaining 290 million acres. Over the last 15 years, a fundamental change has occurred in the ownership of a significant part of these commercial timberlands. Institutional investors, such as public and private pension funds, endowments, foundations and high net-worth individuals, are purchasing large tracts of timberlands from these forest products companies, and selling the logs harvested from these lands on the open market.
