Laserfiche WebLink
wet. In total, 227,511 acres or 17 percent of the total Forest Service <br />ownership is classified as non - forest. The balance of NFS lands, 1,107,593 <br />acres or 83 percent of the total ownership, is cover typed as forestland. <br />Specie composition on the forested land consists of 61,869acres of aspen <br />(5.6 percent of forested area), 1 2,257 acres of douglas fir (1.1 percent of <br />forested area), 11,546 acres of Limber pine (1.0 percent of forested area), <br />87,849 acres of ponderosa pine (7.9 percent of forested area), 306,000 acres <br />of spruce -fir (27.6 percent of forested area). Lodgepole pine occupies <br />627,963 acres or 57 percent of the total forest area. Rocky Mountain <br />Juniper occupies about 70 acres and will not be considered further in this <br />analysis. I <br />Average size class of the stand represented by the polygon further <br />characterizes forest cover type. Size classes for each stand (polygon) <br />consisted of N (non- stocked), E (seedlings 0.0 -0.9" DBH), S (seedlings 1.0- <br />4.9" DBH), M (saplings 5.0 —8.9" DBH), L (poles 9.0 -15.9" DBH), and V <br />( sawtimber 16" + DBH). For purposes of further analysis, some of the <br />classes were combined and four general size class categories were retained <br />1) non - stocked (l), 2) seedlings (E + S), 3) poles (M), and 4) sawlogs (L +j <br />V). The lumping was necessary to coincide with the stand age data also <br />provided by the Forest Service. Approximately one percent of all Forest <br />Service land currently typed as forested is non - stocked (N), 10 -11 percent is <br />in the seedling stage (E +S), 30 percent is in the pole class, and the balance <br />of over 55 percent is in the sawtimber class (L +V). However, only two <br />percent of the total forested area is occupied by sawtimber stands that <br />average 16" DBH and larger. The percentages are similar across all <br />management classes (e.g. Wilderness, Suitable for Harvest, etc.). <br />Secondary Data <br />Age Distributions <br />In addition to the GIS- generated polygon data, file data from field surveys <br />were also provided that describe average stand age by species for the four <br />size classes. Initially, separate stand age data was provided by each of the <br />three forests but regression analysis did not demonstrate significant <br />differences in the age /size class relationships between forests, so the data <br />were combined. Models were then fit to predict average basal area (Y) for <br />each of the stand size classes, as a function of age (X) for each forest I <br />24 1 <br />