Forest productivity and land ownership in the U.S. Lake States

The characteristics of forest growing stock and its rate of growth are important determinants of current stand value, silvicultural practice, and future productivity. The level of silvicultural practice, or management intensity, affects the productive potential of timber yield. Among forest ownership groups, the conventional wisdom holds that the forest-products industry manages lands of relatively higher productivity and applies more intensive silvicultural practices to maximize timber production. This appears to be the case throughout the United States, except in the North Central Region. We analyzed forest inventory data to test whether there are differences in potential timber productivity across ownerships and examined the relationships between land ownership and the level of growing stock productivity and net annual growth for 101 counties in the U.S. Lake States of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Results suggest that, in contrast with the rest of the United States, industrial private forest owners of the Lake States operate on sites of inferior quality relative to other forest owners. The most productive sites in the region are in the national forests, which also carry average levels of growing stock that are higher than those of other landowners. Constraints on timber supply from the national forests could limit the potential of regional forest products led economic growth in the Lake States.