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Douglas fir, spruce, and ponderosa pine, are located at somewhat higher elevations. For the most part, these are along the eastern slopes of the Continental Divide and on a number of mountain ranges to the east. At still higher elevations extending to the upper timberline, there are additional noncommercial areas of rugged sites with scrubby trees, largely subalpine fir, whitebark pine, and spruce. Pulpwood is One of the Products Harvested in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, Montana Timber Inventory The sound wood in the bole or trunk of live growing trees, cull trees, and salvable dead trees on commercial forest land makes up the basic timber inventory in the basin. The total volume of sound wood in forest growing stock over 5 inches in diameter is 19.1 billion cubic feet I . Sixty-five percent of it is in sawtimber-size trees (softwood trees over 9 inches and hardwood trees over II inches in diameter at breast height and sufficiently straight and sound to contain one or more 12-foot saw logs). This wood, 85 percent of which is softwood, is both the base for future timber growth and a stockpile of standing logs from which industries may draw their requirements. Timber Growth and Cut Comparison of timber growth and cut provides a rough indication of the degree of undercutting or overcutting. Net annual growth of all growing stock in the Missouri Basin is estimated to be 306 million cubic I Growing timber is measured in terms of cubic feet and includes all trees over 5 inches in diameter at breast height. Sawtimber is measured in terms of board-fect and includes only trees over 9 inches in diameter at breast height. 28 feet, while growth per acre amounts to abou t 13 cubic feet. Growth of sawtimber totals 961 million board-feet. The forest land area as a whole is currently producing only about one-third of the timber volume of which it is capable. Most of the timber stands, particularly in the western portion of the basin, are old'growth forests. In this section, most of the sawtimber stands are over- mature and subject to heavy mortality loss. Timber cutting is low, amounting to 104 million cubic feet in 1962, or about 34 percent of the net annual growth. The sawtimber cut of about 5S4 million board-feet was 57 percent of the growth. Timber products in the basin totaled 138.9 million cubic feet in 1962, ninety-two percent of this from roundwood and the balance from plant by-products. About 461 million board-feet were produced from saw logs comprising S5 percent of the total output from roundwood. Seventy- five percent of the saw logs was cut in the western subbasins. Another 471,000 cords, or 26 percent of the total output from roundwood, were used for fuelwood, chiefly in the Lower Missouri Subbasin. The cut of veneer logs and pulpwood together totaled 6 percent. An additional I S million cubic feet were used for industrial wood and minor products. MINERALS Mineral resources in the Missouri Region can be discussed conveniently if grouped in to three broad categories-metallics, nonmetallics, and fuels. The fol- lowing discussions on each of the minerals groups proceed in terms of available resources, historic and current production, and markets for each group of resources. Metallics Metallic mineral resources are generally associated with mountainous areas and their peripheral outwash plains. This generalization is clearly applicable to the region. Metallic ores are produced in significant quanti- ties in the western part of the region from the mountainous areas of central Montana, central Wyo- ming, north-central Colorado, and the somewhat isolated Black Hills of South Dakota (figure 8). Metallic mining in the region has followed a rather typical sequence of development. The initial attraction was the discovery and production of precious metals (gold and silver) in the Black Hills of South Dakota and in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado and west-central Montana during the last half of the 19th century. Subsequently, the geologically associated and deeper-sea ted veins of base metals (copper, lead, and zinc) were exploited. More recently, ferroalloys and minor metals, such as tungsten, vanadium, chromium,