United States 

Department of 

Agriculture 

Forest Service 

A Forested Tract-Size 

Profile of Virginia's NlPF 

Landowners 

Southern Research 

Station 

Research Paper Michael T. Thompson 

SRS- I Tony G. Johnson 
A Forested Tract-Size Profile 

of Virginia's NlPF Landowners 

Michael T. Thompson 

Tony G. Johnson 

Abstract 

lnformation gathered from 3,221 permanent Forest Survey 

sample plots showed that nearly 1.3 million acres, or 11 percent of the nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) timberland in 

Virginia is in forested tracts 10 acres or less. Forested tracts 

ranging from 11 to 100 acres accounted for the largest 

proportion of NIPF timberland. Forested tract size varied 

significantly by NIPF-ownership group and broad management 

class. By NIPF-ownership group, the other corporate group 

recorded the highest average forested tract size of 684 acres. 

By management class, natural pine stands recorded the lowest 

average forested tract size of 128 acres. Volume and net 

annual growth of growing stock were stable across ail forested 

tract-size categories. Softwood growing-stock removals were 

stable across all forested tract-size categories, whereas hardwood growing-stock removals increased successively up to the 

largest tract-size category. 

Keywords: Timberland, forest ownership, forested tract size, 

timber volume, timber growth, timber removals. 

Introduction 

Future demand for timber products are expected to 

increase. As a group consisting of farmers, private 

individuals, and corporations that do not manufacture 

forest products, nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners in Virginia have the potential to meet some of 

this increasing demand for three reasons. First, these 

owners control vast quantities of forest land and timber 

volume. Second, public forests will probably play a 

smaller role in timber production as constraints in 

budgets continue and environmental groups pressure to 

reduce levels of timber harvesting increases. And third, 

substantial amounts of forest industry land are shifting 

to corporate and individual ownership (Thompson and 

Johnson 1 994). 

In Virginia, NlPF landowners control more than threefourths of the State's 15.4 million acres of timberland 

(Thompson and Johnson 1994). In landowner surveys, 

Hodge and Southard (1 992) found trends suggesting a 

pattern of fragmentation of large forested parcels that 

will increase the numbers of NIPF owners in Virginia. If 

this fragmentation continues, managing timber on small 

privately owned tracts will become more significant and 

deserve greater attention. 

Tract size affects timber management decisions. The 

high costs of managing tracts less than 5 0 t o 100 acres 

in size must be considered by landowners when evaluating management alternatives (Society of American 

Forests 1979). Cost sharing and technical assistance 

programs, such as the Soil Bank Program of the 1950's 

and the Conservation Reserve Program of 1985, are 

more appealing to forest landowners who either own 

large acreages or already actively manage their lands for 

timber production (Kingsley and Birch 1977). The 

Forestry Incentives Program adopted in the 1970's 

established a 10-acre minimum as a guideline for 

assistance to NlPF owners. 

Because increasing numbers of landowners control 

smaller tracts and because incentive and cost sharing 

programs continue to benefit owners of large tracts, the 

Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) work unit began 

collecting new information in Virginia's sixth inventory 

(1 992). This information consists of tract size and the 

proportion of forested acreage in each tract. In this 

paper we summarize forested tract-size acreage 

distribution of NIPF-owned lands in Virginia by specific 

owner group, region, broad management class, and 

stand age. We also examine the differences among 

these variables. Finally, we review the relationship 

between forested tract size and volume, growth, and 

removals of growing stock. 

The Procedure 

The sampling scheme in this study follows the sampling 

design used by the FIA work unit at the Southern 

Research Station. lnformation was gathered from a 

subsample containing 3,221 permanent Forest Survey 

sample plots visited periodically by USDA Forest Service 

inventory crews in Virginia. Field crews used county 

courthouse records and tax maps to collect ownership 

information for each timberland sample. For each 

inventory plot sampled in the NlPF category, the acreage 

of the tract was recorded. The proportion of a tract 

covered by forest as determined by aerial photography 
was applied to the total tract acreage to calculate the 

acreage of forest on the particular tract, This acreage, 

referred to as forested tract size or forested parcel, was 

used for analysis in this study. Forested tract-size 

differences among stand area variables, volume, growth, 

and removals were determined using the General Linear 

Model (GLM) test (SAS Institute 1988). 

The collection of forested tract size is limited to the 

forested acreage contained in the tracts found in the 

subsample and does not include the total acreage the 

individual or corporation may own elsewhere in the 

county, State, or outside the State. Because trend 

information is unavailable until the next inventory of 

Virginia, the present examination of the timberland 

resource will be confined primarily to the current 

estimate of timberland area and volume. No tract-size 

data was collected from previous periods, therefore, 

comparisons of timber removals and harvest activities 

are confounded by timber harvesting on larger parcels 

that have been subsequently subdivided. Once trends 

have been established, forested tract size will provide a 

measure of resource fragmentation and may establish a 

connection between tract size and the NlPF !andownerSs 

attitude about timber management. Forested tract size, 

and many other stand variables may also serve as 

additional timber availability screening tools. 

Of the 1 1.9 million acres of NlPF timberland in Virginia, 

nearly 1.3 million acres, or 1 1 percent, were concentrated in forested tracts 10 acres or less (table 1 ). 

Forested tracts exceeding 500 acres totaled almost 1.0 

million acres, or 8 percent, of all NIPF timberland in the 

State. Forested parcels ranging from 1 1 to 100 acres 

accounted for the largest proportion (51 percent) of 

privately owned timberland; tracts 101 to 500 acres the 

remaining 30 percent. 

Ownership Group 

Within the NIPF group, three owner categories are 

recognized: (1) farmer-owned land owned by farm 

operators, excluding incorporated farm ownerships; (2) 

other private-individual land owned by individuals other 

than farm operators; and (3) other corporate land owned 

by corporations that do not manufacture forest 

products, including incorporated farm ownerships. 

Across all owner categories, forested tract size averaged 

221 acres. Mean forested tract size varied significantly 

among the three owner categories (table 1). Farmerowned land recorded the smallest average parcel size 

(140 acres), and the other private-individual category 

indicated an average parcel size of 162 acres. Forested 

tract size averaged nearly 684 acres for the other corporate category. Mean tract size by owner category does 

not signify variations in acreage distribution among the 

three categories. Most other private-individual land is 

concentrated in forested parcels less than 101 acres, 

with 15 percent in forested parcels less than 11 acres. 

In contrast, the majority (65 percent) of timberland 

owned by other corporations is in forested tracts larger 

than 100 acres, with 25 percent in forested tracts larger 

than 500 acres. The bulk of farmer-owned timberland is 

in forested tracts I I to 200 acres. These facts demonstrate that other private-individual owned timberland in 

Virginia is considerably more fragmented than the other 

two owner categories. 

Table 1 -Acreage by forested tract size and NlPF owner group, Virginia, 1992 

NIPF-owner group 

Forested tract- All Farmer- Other Other 

size class classes owned corporate private-individual 

Acres 

0 -10 1,275,629 208,178 82,461 984,990 

11 - 50 3,495,691 1 ,I 66,849 263,144 2,065,698 

51 - 100 2,616,960 1,067,743 199,638 1,349,579 

101 - 200 2,051,753 803,541 260,947 987,265 

201 - 500 1,500,142 449,875 357,570 692,697 

501 + 969,326 174,180 385,775 409,371 

All classes 1 1,909,501 3,870,366 1,549,535 6,489,600 

Mean * 220.9 139.9 683.7 162.4 

*(F=102.14, P= 0.0001) 
Region 

When forested tract size was compared on a regional 

basis, results indicated the Northern Piedmont contained 

the highest proportion of tracts smaller than 11 acres 

(fig. 1). This finding is not surprising because this 

region of the State is characterized by extensive 

urbanization and a high ratio of other privately owned 

timberland. The mountain survey units contained the 

largest amount of timberland in tracts larger than 500 

acres, primarily a result of other corporate holdings. 

Fifty-four percent of the total timberland acreage in 

these large forested tracts was located in the Northern 

and Southern Mountain Survey Units. 

Broad Management Class and Stand Age 

Comparisons of forested tract size were based on 

four broad management classes: (1) pine plantation, 

(2) natural pine, (3) oak-pine, and (4) hardwood. 

Examination of mean forested parcel size indicated 

significant differences between broad forest types 

(F = 3.69, P = 0.01 14). Natural pine types were 

contained in forested parcels averaging 1 28 acres-the 

lowest recorded mean of the four types (fig. 2). Hardwood types were found in forested tracts averaging 

nearly 248 acres, the highest mean. Pine plantations on 

NIPF land occupied about 764,000 acres, with 6 percent of this acreage in forested tracts less than 11 acres 

(table 2). Eight percent of the NIPF land planted in pine 

was in tracts larger than 500 acres, with the remaining 

86 percent evenly distributed in tracts 1 1 to 500 acres. 

When these planted stands are displayed in 10-year age 

classes, almost 64 percent are in stands less than 20 

years old. Of those plantations under 10 years, 8 

percent were forested parcels less than 1 1 acres and 

only 4 percent were in tracts greater than 500 acres. 

These findings showed that few of the youngest pine 

plantations were in large tracts. By NIPF owner group, 

other corporations had a substantially higher proportion 

of their pine plantations in larger tracts than farmers and 

other individual owners. Fifty-eight percent of planted 

pine stands on corporate land were in tracts greater 

than 200 acres. Many of these plantations were recent 

acquisitions from the forest industry group (Thompson 

and Johnson 1 994). 

Southern Mountains Southern Piedmont Coastal Plain 

Figure 1 -Average forested tract size for NIPF lands by county in Virginia, 1992. 
Planted pine Natural pine Oak-pine Hardwood 

Figure 2-Average forested tract size by broad forest type, Virginia, 1992, 

Table 2-Area of planted pine stands by forested tract size and stand-age class for 

NIPF lands in Virginia, 1992 

No Stand-age class (years) 

Forest tract- All manageable 

size class classes stand 0- 9 10-1 9 20-29 30 + 

0- 10 49,122 - 19,214 15,042 12,250 2,616 

11 - 50 150,094 - 45,770 42,141 40,404 2 1,779 

51 - 100 161,387 2,619 50,654 84,646 1 1,025 12,443 

101 - 200 197,819 4,512 64,975 45,765 60,786 21,781 

201 - 500 144,989 - 45,110 39,711 37,710 22,458 

501 + 60,838 - 9,061 25,601 16,417 9,759 

All classes 764,249 7,131 234,784 252,906 178,592 90,836 

Natural pine stands controlled by NDPF owners occupied 

over 1.5 million acres and more than 16 percent of this 

area resided in forested tracts of less than 10 acres 

(table 3). Under 5 percent of natural pine acreage was 

concentrated in forested tracts greater than 500 acres. 

A GLM test indicated that natural pine stands differed 

significantly from the other three types combined (F = 

8.1 2, P = 0.0044), suggesting that natural pines stands 

are the most fragmented resource. The forested 

tract-size category containing the largest amount of 

natural pine acreage was the 1 1-50 acre class, 

accounting for 35 percent of the total area. 

Examination of natural pine stands on NIPF land in 

Virginia revealed some differences when compared to 

planted pine stands. A noteworthy difference is the 

distribution by stand-age class. More than 19 percent 

of natural pine stands less than 10 years were in 

forested parcels ress than 11 acres. These differences in 

forested tract-size distribution and stand-age distribution 

suggest that either small tracts are being harvested or 

medium to large tracts are being harvested and 

subsequently subdivided. 

Oak-pine is a transitory forest type in which hardwoods 

comprise a plurality of all live-tree stocking, but softwoods comprise 25 to 50 percent of the stocking. The 

distribution of acreage classified as an oak-pine forest 

type generally follows the same overall pattern for all 

types combined. On timberland controlled by NIPF 

owners, oak-pine stands covered about 1.5 million 

acres. Under 10 percent of oak-pine stands were 

concentrated in forested tracts less than 11 acres and in 
Table 3-Area of natural pine stands by forested tract size and stand-age class for NIPF lands in Virginia, 1992 

No Stand-age class (years) 

Forest tract- All manageable 

size class classes stand 0- 9 10-1 9 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60 + 

Acres 

0- 10 248,624 8,461 1 8,417 43,528 30,879 37,080 54,847 34,101 21,311 

11 - 50 524,117 35,758 26,917 67,579 86,535 70,309 85,782 92,022 59,209 

51 - 100 31 2,913 8,470 19,067 27,241 68,744 45,281 51,207 39,660 53,243 

101 - 200 21 7,278 13,328 15,201 19,300 19,138 39,709 31,074 43,959 35,569 

201 - 500 130,928 2,619 1 1,372 5 0,003 10,067 1 5,085 32,650 27,046 22,086 

501 c 69,080 7,673 5,370 7,795 7,788 3,798 5,081 9,813 21,762 

All classes 1,502,934 76,309 96,344 175,446 223,151 21 1,262 260,641 246,601 21 3,180 

forested parcels greater than 500 acres (table 4). About 

51 percent of the oak-pine area is in tracts 11 to 100 

acres; 32 percent in forested parcels 101 to 500 acres; 

and the remaining 8 percent in tracts greater than 500 

acres. 

Nonindustrial private forest owners held more than 8.1 

million acres of timberland classified as hardwood forest 

type. The proportion of hardwood-type acreage varied 

by forested tract size from a low of 9 percent in the 

501 acre and larger category to a high of 30 percent in 

the 11 -50 acre category (table 5). Hardwood stands in 

Virginia are an aging resource compared to the other 

three broad forest types-almost 63 percent of NlPF 

hardwood stands are over 39 years (Thompson and 

Johnson 1994). Almost 10 percent of these NIPFowned older, hardwood stands were located on forested 

parcels larger than 500 acres. In comparison, only 5 

percent of hardwood acreage under 40 years resided in 

this largest forested tract-size category. This difference 

may be attributed to the higher ratio of large tracts in 

the mountain regions dominated by old, hardwood 

stands in areas characterized by steep slopes and other 

adverse site conditions that inhibit timber harvesting. 

Volume, Growth, and Removals 

Examination of growing-stock volume indicated some 

variation by forested tract size, however these differences were not determined significant (fig. 3). The 

highest growing-stock volume per acre was recorded in 

the smaflest and largest forested tract-size categories. 

Growing-stock volume for softwoods and hardwoods 

combined averaged 1,840 cubic feet per acre in the 

0-1 0 acre category. Softwood volume per acre was 

highest in this category, averaging over 486 cubic feet 

per acre. Forested parcels larger than 500 acres 

showed an average growing-stock volume of 1,831 

Table 4-Area of oak-pine stands by forested tract size and stand-age class for NIPF lands in Virginia, 1992 

No Stand-age class (years) 

Forest tract- All manageable 

size class classes stand 0-9 10-1 9 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60 + -- 

Acres 

0-10 137,433 13,679 9,600 24,728 15,869 9,427 13,935 21,008 29,787 

11 - 50 385,798 25,164 55,075 83,404 21,323 34,601 30'61 6 30,858 104,757 

51 - 100 385,497 43,912 64,999 23,809 26,442 19,817 23,632 60,188 7 22,698 

101 - 200 287,610 29,062 59,939 53,719 24,364 14,085 12,772 39,441 54,228 

201 - 500 197,669 30,026 35,724 35,389 15,668 12,184 7,029 23,030 38,619 

501 + 126,866 29,309 8,426 5,651 9,536 7,546 2,981 15,324 48,093 

All classes 1,520,873 171,152 233,763 226,100 1 Z 3,202 97,660 90,965 189,849 398,182 
Table 5-Area of hardwood stands by forested tract size and stand-age class for NIPF lands in Virginia, 1992 

No Stand-age class (years) 

Forest tract- AIf manageable 

size class classes stand 0-9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60 + 

Acres 

All classes 8,121,445 1,248,785 509,494 476,280 327,159 471,639 761,090 1,147,156 3,179,842 

0-1 0 1 1-50 51-100 101-200 201 -500 501 + 

Forested tract-size category 

@ Softwood a Hardwood 

Figure 3-Average softwood and hardwood volume per acre 

by forested tract-size category, Virginia, 1 992. 

cubic feet per acre. This forested tract-size category 

contained the highest hardwood volume per acre at 

1,469 cubic feet and the lowest softwood volume per 

acre at 3132 cubic feet. The lowest average growingstock volume per acre was recorded in the 101 -200 

acre category, averaging slightly over 1,682 cubic feet. 

Net annual growth of softwood growing stock was also 

relatively stable across all forested tract-size categories 

when examined on a per-acre basis. Average softwood 

growth ranged from over 18 cubic feet per acre in 

forested parcels greater than 500 acres to 21 cubic feet 

per acre in the 201 -500 acre category (Pig. 41, The 

level of softwood removals was aDss stable across all 

tract-size categories, ranging from just under 11 cubic 

feet per acre in the 201 -500 acre category to 14 cubic 

feet per acre in the 0-10 acre category, Softwood 

growth exceeded removals in all forested tract-size 

categories. The largest margin of growth over removals 

was recorded in the 281 -500 acre category, where 

softwood growth exceeded removals by a margin of 

1.94 to 1. 

Net annual growth of hardwood growing stock was 

relatively constant across all forested tract-size classes, 

ranging from 35 cubic feet per acre in the 201 -500 

acre category to 39 cubic feet in the 0-1 0 acre 

category (fig. 5). However, the level of hardwood 

removals indicated some differences by forested tract 

size. Hardwood removals in the 8-7 8 acre category 

averaged 15 cubic feet per acre and increased successive!~ by forested tract-size class to 29 cubic feet per 

acre in the 20G-500 acre category. The tendency for 

the larger tracts to display lower hardwood 

growthlremoval ratios (e.g., higher removals) is 

important information about hard-wood availability. If 

this trend continues, smaller forested parcels will 

become an increasingly important source of hardwood 

volume. 
0-1 0 1 1-50 51-100 101-200 201-500 501 + 

Forested tract-size category 

asl Growth a Removals 

Figure 4-Average softwood growing-stock growth and removals per acre 

by forested track-size category, Virginia, 1992. 

0-1 0 1 1-50 51-100 101-200 201-500 501 + 

Forested tract-size category 

sl Growth a Removals 

Figure 5-Average hardwood growing-stock growth and removals per acre 

by forested tract-size category, Virginia, 1992. 

In the very largest tract-size category, however, annual 

removals of hardwoods dropped off sharply, averaging 

under 17 cubic feet per acre. Perhaps the low level of 

hardwood removal in the 500-acre and larger category 

reflect the unwillingness of some NlPF owners with 

large acreages to sell timber? Because decisions about 

timber harvesting are influenced by a multitude of social 

and economic reasons, identifying a single contributing 

factor to the hardwood growth surplus on large tracts is 

difficult. One possible explaination surmises that many 

of these large private corporations that have interests 

other than timber production own many of these large 

tracts. 

Comparisons of growth and removals could be 

somewhat misleading, especially for smaller parcels. 

Many small tracts may be the result of subdividing the 

large tracts reported in previous inventories. Growth 

and removals statistics will be more meaningful when 

tracts that have remained the same size over an 

extended period can be isolated for comparison. 
Summary and Conclusion 

Examination of forested tract size in Virginia indicated 

that over haff the timberland area controlled by NIPF 

owners was concentrated in 1 1 - to 100-acre tracts. 

Most forested tracts under 1 1 acres were controlled by 

the other private-individual category. Natural pine 

stands appeared to be more fragmented than other 

broad management cfasses, and a substantial portion of 

these stands in small forested parcels were less than 10 

years. Comparison of softwood growing-stock volume 

per acre indicated that many small forested tracts 

contained large amounts of softwood volume. 

Growth:removal relationships for hardwoods indicate 

successively smaller ratios up to the largest tract-size 

category. 

Anticipated demands for increasing timber production in 

Virginia and elsewhere in the Southeast will shift more 

attention to the timber resource on NIPF land. By 

monitoring forested tract size over successive periods of 

time throughout the South, we will learn how the 

diverse NIPF-~wnership group behaves in terms of land 

and timber management. Trend information by forested 

tract size will enable accurate monitoring and evaluation 

of resource fragmentation and the level of timber 

removals from small parcels. With this information, we 

will be able to identify factors affecting timber 

availability and production on NIPF lands in the Southern 

United States. 

Literature Cited 

Hodge, Sandra S.; Southard, Lou. 1992. A profile of 

Virginia NIPF landowners: results of a 1991 survey. 

Virginia's Forests. Richmond, VA. 4 p. 

Kingsley, Neal P.; Birch, Thomas W. 1977. The 

forest-land owners of New Hampshire and Vermont. 

Resour. Bull. NE-51. Upper Darby, PA: U.S. 

Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 

Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. 4'7 p. 

SAS Institute lnc. 1988. SASISTAT user's guide. 

Version 6. 4th ed. Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc. 

1686 p. Vol. 2. 

Society of American Foresters. 1979. Improving 

outputs from nonindustrial private forests. Study 

report. Washington, DC: Society of American 

Foresters. 1 1 p. 

Thompson, Michael T.; Johnson, Tony G. 1994. 

Virginia's forests, 1992. Resour. Bull. SE-151. 

Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest 

Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station. 

103 p. 
The Forest Service, U.S. Department 

of Agriculture, is dedicated to the principle of 

multiph use management of the Nation's forest resources 

for sustained yields of wood, water, forage, wildlife, and 

recreation. Through forestry research, cooperation with the 

States and private forest owners, and management of the 

National Forests and National Grasslands, it strives-as 

directed by Congress-to provide increasingly greater service 

to a growing Nation. 

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discrimination in its programs on the basis of race, color, 

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Communications at (202) 720-2791. To file a complaint, write 

the Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

Washington, DC: 20250, or call 1202) 728-7327 (voice) or 

(202) 720-1 127 (TDD). USDA is an equal employment 

opportunity employer. 

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