May 18, 2026
The commercial importance of privately owned forests in the United States
The risk assessments of hardwood producing States produced independently using the AHA framework for jurisdictional risk assessment of legal compliance collectively have brought great insight onto the forest governance associated with American hardwood production.
Over 50% of U.S. forest land is owned and managed by more than 10 million private owners. Most of this land is family and individually owned and the average parcel size is smaller than 25 acres / 10 hectares. These owners represent a diverse group of people who have many reasons for owning their forests.
Non-corporate, individual and family forest ownerships control 39% of the forestland in the U.S., excluding interior Alaska. An estimated 93% of this family-owned forestland is in holdings of 10 or more acres, but most (62%) family forestland owners have holdings between 1 and 9 acres in size. Nationwide (excluding interior Alaska), there are an estimated 3.7 million family forestland owners of 10+ acres who collectively own 253 million forested acres, or 34% of U.S. forests.
The latest National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS) report released in February 2021 gives a picture of what “family forestland owners” look like. According to survey respondents, the most common reasons for owning family forests are “to enjoy beauty or scenery,” “to protect or improve wildlife habitat,” “to protect nature or biological diversity,” and “for privacy”.
Forest management practices are occurring on many family-owned forests, but written management plans, receiving professional advice in the previous five years, and participating in assistance programmes are relatively uncommon. Data from 2021 suggests around 24% of private forest owners have a formal written forest management plan.
Family forest owners’ most common concerns include “high property taxes”, “keeping land intact for future generations,” and “trespassing or poaching”. 2021 survey data suggests that nationally timber production is “very important” or “important” to 18 and 14 percent of private forest owners respectively. Conversely the same survey reveals that timber production is “not applicable” (10%), “not important” (28%) or “of little importance” (14%) to owners. Very generally speaking, timber production is quite low down on the agenda of most private owners.
The NWOS suggests that 55% of ownerships had harvested timber “during the landowners' tenure” (suggesting 45% had not harvested at all during their tenure which could be very lengthy) and of these only 6% had harvested for commercial use. The same survey reveals that around 1% of ownerships “participate in green certification programs”. By this measure all forms of third-party forest certification can be deemed to have had a very modest uptake despite being available for more than two decades.
The NWOS also considered the ownerships by “to what extent the landowners agree that owners want their wooded land to remain wooded”. Fifty five percent strongly agreed and 24% agreed with this statement. Conversely, 11% disagreed and 1% strongly disagreed. The vast majority of private owners can be characterised as wanting to keep their forest as forest.
The 33 States assessed are believed to contain more than 10.3 million private forest owners with both Texas and Georgia containing over a million owners each. Other states with very large numbers of private ownerships (over 400,000 per state) include Virginia, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and North Carolina.
The significance of private forests to hardwood supply
Timber from private forest owners is the mainstay of the forest industries in many States. For the 33 States assessed in 2024, 88% of all wood harvested for commercial use originates on privately owned land. Hardwood harvested from private owners account for over 49% of the entire commercial wood harvest within the States assessed.
Note: Data compiled by Dovetail from: USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Evalidator Tool for 2023.
Private owners as a source of hardwood supply are incredibly important in many of the States assessed. Private owners supply over 80% of the log supply for both hardwood and softwood in West Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware and Tennessee. Hardwood supply from private owners makes up more than fifty percent of all wood supply in numerous states: New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vermont amongst others. The importance of private of private forest owners to the supply of hardwoods cannot be understated.
The assessments reveal that the forests industries make a significant contribution to the economies in all the States assessed. The figures provided include the economic contribution of the forest industries per se rather than just the hardwood sector alone. Given the preponderance of hardwoods in many of the states it can be surmised that the economic contribution of the hardwood forest to these State’s economy is significant. Of the States where hardwood production alone dominates, Pennsylvania’s $39 billion contribution is most outstanding. Other States with economically very large forest industries include California, Washington, Minnesota, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Alabama.
In states such as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi and Oregon the forest industries contribute over 5% of the state’s GDP. Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Washington also see the forest industries making a significant contribution to GDP at over 4%.