The map above shows who owns forests in the United States, from governments (federal, state,bal local and tribal) to companies (corporate) to individuals (private).
While forest ownership in the US is complex, a few patterns do emerge. Most cooperate owned forests (mostly for lumber) tend to be near the coasts or other major waterways as it reduces extraction costs.
Private forest ownership is more common in the Eastern and Southern United States compared to the West where Federal ownership of forests is more the norm.
Finally, you can clearly see the large tribal ownership in the Southwest US.
Data source:
Hewes, Jaketon H.; Butler, Brett J.; Liknes, Greg C. 2017. Forest ownership in the conterminous United States circa 2014: distribution of seven ownership types – geospatial dataset. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2017-0007
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Liz Koozmin says
What I find interesting is the prevalence of State, local, and tribal ownership in the Upper Midwest. It’s so different from the rest of the country and I’m wondering what political forces were at work to cause that.
Rachel Conine says
Surprised at how much of the forest ownership in the West is government and how much of the Southeast is Private.
Eric B Rasmusen says
Is this missing state forests in Indiana?