April-June, 2007
Missouri Forest Inventory and Analysis Report Available
The first completed 5-year annual inventory of Missouri's forests reports more than 14.6 million acres of forest land. Softwood forests make up 4 percent of the total forest land area; oak/hickory forest types make up about three-fourths of the total hardwood forest land area. Missouri's forests have continued to increase in volume, with all-live tree volume on forest land in Missouri an estimated 18 billion cubic feet compared to 9 billion cubic feet in 1972. All-live tree biomass on forest land in Missouri amounted to 573 million dry tons in 1999-2003. Almost 9 percent was in small trees, 74 percent was in growing-stock trees, and 17 percent was in non-growing-stock trees. Softwood growth was 44.1 million cubic feet per year and hardwood growth was 585.3 million cubic feet per year. Oak species constitute roughly three-fourths of the volume and three-fourths of the harvest. Total net all-live volume of oaks on timberland increased by 24 percent between 1989 and 2003. More than 82 percent of Missouri's forest land is held by private landowners.
Field work and analysis were conducted by the Missouri Department of Conservation and the United States Forest Service. For more detail or a copy of the report, please visit the United States Forest Service web site (http://www.fs.fed.us/).