South Dakota's forest resources outside the Black Hills National Forest, 1996

As we indicated in the Foreword, information in this report pertains largel y to South Dakota's timberland outside of the Black Hills National Forest ( BHNF). In 1996, there were 664 thousand acres of forest land(1) in South Da kota outside the BHNF. We estimate that the BHNF contains 959 thousand acre s of forest land. Therefore, within South Dakota, there are an estimated 1. 6 million acres of forest land. In the Appendix, supplemental table 53 prov ides estimates of timberland area by stand size class for the State, includ ing the BHNF. Again, this report and the following highlights pertain to th e forest outside of the BHNF. In addition to the 664 thousand acres of forest land in South Dakota outsid e the BHNF, there are 1.3 million acres of land with trees present. These a reas include wooded strips, farm and field windbreaks, wooded pasture, aban doned cropland, and urban forests. Timberland accounts for 87 percent (575 thousand acres) of South Dakota's f orest land area outside the BHNF.