United States Department of Agriculture

Forest Service | September 2018

RESOURCE UPDATE FS-174

Forests of West Virginia, 2017 

This publication provides an overview of the forest 

resources in West Virginia based upon inventories 

conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and 

Analysis (FIA) program of the Northern Research Station. 

Information about the national and regional FIA program 

is available online at www.fia.fs.fed.us.

Since 2004, FIA has implemented an annual inventory 

measuring 14 percent of sample plots each year. For the 

2017 inventory, estimates for current variables, such as 

area, volume, and biomass, are based on 2,424 (2,086 

forested) plots inventoried from 2011–2017. Change 

variables, such as net growth, removals, and mortality, are 

based on 2,003 (1,676 forested) plots inventoried in 2009–

2012 and resampled in 2011–2017. Estimates from earlier 

annual and periodic inventories are included for 

comparison. See Bechtold and Patterson (2005) and 

O’Connell et al.(2017) for definitions and technical details.

Additional data and reports are available online 

(www.nrs.fs.fed.us/fia/data-tools/state-reports/WV). A 

complete set of inventory tables is available at 

https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-174.

Overview

West Virginia contains an estimated 12.1 million acres of 

forest land (Table 1) and covers 78.5 percent of the land 

area in the State. Most of the forest land, 97.1 percent, is 

classified as timberland, meaning that it exceeds a 

minimum level of productivity and is not legislatively 

reserved from timber harvesting.

On the forest land in West Virginia, there are an 

estimated 6.1 billion live trees that are at least 1 inch in 

diameter (Table 1). These trees have a total above ground 

biomass of 840.4 million tons and trees at least 5 inches 

in diameter have a total net volume of 29.1 billion ft3. 

The ratio of net growth to removals is 2.1:1.

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Table 1.—West Virginia forest statistics, 2017 and 2012. Volumes are for trees 5 inches and larger in diameter. 

Number of trees and biomass are for trees 1 inch and larger in diameter. Sampling errors and error bars shown in 

tables and figures in this report represent 68 percent confidence intervals.

2017 

Estimate

Sampling 

error 

(percent)

2012 

Estimate

Sampling 

error 

(percent)

Change 

since 2012 

(percent)

Forest Land

Area (thousand acres) 12,073 0.6 12,161 0.7 -0.7

Number of live trees (million trees) 6,131 1.6 6,328 1.7 -3.1

Aboveground biomass of live trees (thousand oven-dry tons) 840,367 1.1 814,461 1.1 3.2

Net volume of live trees (million ft3) 29,070 1.2 28,122 1.2 3.4

Annual net growth of live trees (thousand ft3/yr) 470,218 3.8 610,894 4.3 -23.0

Annual mortality of trees (thousand ft3/yr) 297,672 4.5 259,696 5.9 14.6

Annual harvest removals of live trees (thousand ft3/yr) 217,702 10.9 231,445 14.0 -5.9

Timberland

Area (thousand acres) 11,723 0.7 11,795 0.8 -0.6

Number of live trees (million trees) 5.948 1.7 6,124 1.8 -2.9

Aboveground biomass of live trees (thousand oven-dry tons) 810,994 1.2 784,203 1.2 3.4

Net volume of live trees (million ft3) 27,989 1.2 27,030 1.3 3.5

Net volume of growing stock trees (million ft3) 25,895 1.3 25,217 1.3 2.7

Annual net growth of growing stock trees (thousand ft3/yr) 416,764 3.3 547,956 3.9 -23.9

Annual mortality of growing stock trees (thousand ft3/yr) 214,262 5.1 185,302 6.7 15.6

Annual harvest removals of growing stock trees (thousand ft3/yr) 181,739 11.1 197,748 14.1 -8.1
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RESOURCE UPDATE FS-174

Forest Area

West Virginia’s forest land area has decreased slightly

since 2012 (Fig. 1). An estimated 86.5 percent of the forest

land is privately owned and 13.5 percent is publicly owned

(Fig. 2).

Currently, 79.6, 14.5, and 5.7 percent of the timberland in 

West Virginia is in large, medium, and small stand sizes, 

respectively (Fig. 3).

The most common forest-type group is oak/hickory, 

representing 73.2 percent of West Virginia’s forest land 

area (Fig. 4). The next most common forest-type groups 

are maple/beech/birch, oak/pine, and 

elm/ash/cottonwood.

Figure 1.—Area of forest land and timberland, West Virginia. Figure 2.—Area of forest land by ownership group, West 

Virginia, 2017.

Figure 3.—Area of timberland by stand-size class, West Virginia. Figure 4.—Area of forest land by forest-type group, West 

Virginia, 2017. 
Forest Composition

West Virginia’s forests contain a wide variety of tree species with 

over 111 species sampled in 2017. This composition looks different 

depending on whether the number or volume of trees are 

examined.

In terms of volume, yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) is the 

most common tree in West Virginia followed by chestnut oak 

(Quercus prinus) and red maple (Acer rubrum) (Table 2). 

Collectively, the 10 most voluminous tree species account for 72.1 

percent of the total volume of live trees on forest land in West 

Virginia. Of these species, black cherry (Prunus serotina), chestnut 

oak, and sugar maple (Acer saccharum) showed the most 

substantial increases in volume since 2012.

In terms of number of trees, red maple is the most numerous 

species in West Virginia with 14.3 percent of the tree stems in the 

State (Fig. 5). Other common species include sugar maple, 

American beech (Fagus grandifolia), yellow-poplar, and blackgum

(Nyssa sylvatica). The ten most common species, in terms of 

numbers of stems, account for 58.9 percent of the trees in the State.

Table 2.—Net volume and percent change in net volume on forest land; sawtimber volume and percent change on 

timberland, West Virginia, 2017 (top 10 species by net volume).

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RESOURCE UPDATE FS-174

Literature Cited

Bechtold, W.A.; Patterson, P.L., eds. 2005. The enhanced forest inventory 

and analysis program: National sampling design and estimation 

procedures. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-80. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of 

Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 85 p. 

https://doi.org/10.2737/SRS-GTR-80.

O’Connell, B.M.; Conkling, B.L.; Wilson, A.M. [et al.]. 2017. Forest 

Inventory and Analysis database: Database description and user guide for 

phase 2, version 7.0. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 830 p. 

https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/library/database-documentation (accessed May 26, 

2017).

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender

The published report is available online at https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-174

How to Cite This Publication

Morin, Randall S. 2018. Forests of West Virginia, 2017.

Resource Update FS-174. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. 

Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 

Northern Research Station. 3 p.

https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-174.

Northern FIA: http://nrs.fs.fed.us/fia/

National FIA: http://fia.fs.fed.us

Contact Information

Randall S. Morin, Research Forester

USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station

11 Campus Blvd., Ste. 200

Newtown Square, PA 19073

Ph: 610-557-4054 / Fax: 610-557-4250

rsmorin@fs.fed.us

Figure 5.—Number of trees at least 1 inch in diameter by 

species, West Virginia, 2017.