Land Ownership

National Landownership

(USDA Forest Service, unless otherwise noted)

-Private non-industrial landowners own about 58% of America’s forest acreage.

-Commercial forest industry nationwide owns about 13%

-Government (including federal, state and local) owns about 29%

-1/3rd or 747 million acres of the 2.2 billion US acres are timberland

-1/3rd or 245 million acres of America’s forests are set aside in national parks, wilderness areas and other noncommercial area (Washington Contract Loggers Association).

Missouri Forest Landownership

(USDA Forest Service, unless otherwise noted)

-Private non-industrial landowners own about 85% of Missouri’s forest acreage.          

-State and Municipal 3.3%

-Federal 11.7%

-14.5 million acres of forest land in Missouri or 32% of the total 44.1 million Missouri acres

-306,900 private landowners in the state (Birch 1996)

-Missouri Department of Conservation owns 615,000 acres of forested land (the department owns or leases 975,515 acres of land)  (MDC 2003)

-12.3 million is privately owned by farmers, individuals, and corporations

-139,000 acres are owned by the forest products industry

-317,000 acres are reserved for parks or wilderness areas