Forest productivity and land ownership in the US Lake States

The characteristics of forest growing stock and its rate of growth are impo rtant determinants of current stand value, silvicultural practice, and futu re productivity. The level of silvicultural practice, or management intensi ty, affects the productive potential of timber yield. Among forest ownershi p groups, the conventional wisdom holds that the forest-products industry m anages lands of relatively higher productivity and applies more intensive s ilvicultural practices to maximize timber production. This appears to be th e case throughout the United States, except in the North Central Region. We analyzed forest inventory data to test whether there are differences in po tential timber productivity across ownerships and examined the relationship s between land ownership and the level of growing stock productivity and ne t annual growth for 101 counties in the U.S. Lake States of Minnesota, Wisc onsin, 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 pro ductive sites in the region are in the national forests, which also carry a verage levels of growing stock that are higher than those of other landowne rs. Constraints on timber supply from the national forests could limit the potential of regional forest products led economic growth in the Lake State s.