United States Department of Agriculture / Forest Service

Rocky Mountain Research Station

General Technical Report

RMRS-GTR-311

October 2013

Regional and Forest-Level Estimates of 

Carbon Stored in Harvested Wood Products 

From the United States Forest Service 

Northern Region, 1906-2010

Nathaniel Anderson, Jesse Young, Keith Stockmann, Kenneth Skog, 

Sean Healey, Daniel Loeffler, J. Greg Jones, James Morrison
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Anderson, N.; Young, J.; Stockmann, K.; Skog, K.; Healey, S.; Loeffler, D.; Jones, J.G.; Morrison, J. 

2013. Regional and forest-level estimates of carbon stored in harvested wood products 

from the United States Forest Service Northern Region, 1906-2010.Gen. Tech. Rep. 

RMRS-311. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain 

Research Station. 114 p.

Abstract __________________________________________________

Global forests capture and store significant amounts of CO2 through photosynthesis. When carbon is removed from forests through harvest, a portion of the harvested carbon is stored in wood 

products, often for many decades. The United States Forest Service (USFS) and other agencies are 

interested in accurately accounting for carbon flux associated with harvested wood products (HWP) 

to meet greenhouse gas monitoring commitments and climate change adaptation and mitigation 

objectives. National-level forest carbon accounting has been in place for over a decade, but there 

is an increasing need for accounting at the scale of smaller administrative units, including USFS 

Regions and individual national forests. This paper uses the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 

Change (IPCC) production accounting approach and the California Forest Project Protocol (CFPP) 

to estimate HWP carbon storage from 1906 to 2010 for the USFS Northern Region and its eleven 

national forests, which span northern Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and eastern Washington. For 

the Northern Region as a whole, carbon stocks in the HWP pool were increasing at one million 

megagrams of carbon (MgC) per year in the mid-1960s, with peak cumulative storage of 28 million 

MgC occurring in 1995. Net positive flux into the HWP pool over this period is primarily attributable 

to high harvest levels in the middle of the twentieth century. Harvest levels declined after 1970, 

resulting in less carbon entering the HWP pool. Since 1995, emissions from HWP at solid waste 

disposal sites have exceeded additions from harvesting, resulting in a decline in the total amount of 

carbon stored in the HWP pool. The Northern Region HWP pool is now in a period of negative net 

annual stock change because the decay of products harvested between 1906 and 2010 exceeds 

additions of carbon to the HWP pool through harvest. Though most individual national forests mirror Regional-level trends in harvest and carbon flux, the timing and magnitude of change differs 

among forests with some forests departing notably from Regional trends. Together with estimates of 

ecosystem carbon, Regional and Forest-level estimates of HWP carbon flux can be used to inform 

management decisions and guide climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts by the agency. 

Though our emphasis is on national forests in the Northern Region, we provide a framework by which 

these accounting methods can be applied more broadly at sub-national scales to other regions, land 

management units, and firms.

Keywords: harvested wood products, carbon accounting, carbon management, greenhouse gas 

emissions, carbon sequestration
Authors________________________________________________

Nathaniel Anderson (corresponding author) is a Research Forester with the U.S. Forest Service, 

Rocky Mountain Research Station, Missoula, Montana.

Jesse Young is a Forestry Research Technician with the U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain 

Research Station, Missoula, Montana.

Keith Stockmann is an Economist with the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Region, Missoula, 

Montana.

Kenneth Skog is a Project Leader with the Economics and Statistics Research unit of the U.S. 

Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin. 

Sean Healey is a Research Ecologist with the Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, U.S. 

Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Ogden, Utah. 

Daniel Loeffler is an Economics Research Associate with the College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana. 

J. Greg Jones is a Research Forester (retired), U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research 

Station, Missoula, Montana. 

James Morrison is a Regional Climate Change Coordinator (retired), U.S. Forest Service, 

Northern Region, Missoula, Montana.

Acknowledgments_______________________________________

Funding was provided by the USFS, Northern Region Resource Information Management 

Board, NASA, and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Forest Inventory 

and Analysis Timber Product Output officers Todd Morgan, Pat Healey, and Chuck Keegan 

assisted with estimating the dates when various processing operations commenced in our 

study area. Critical reviews by Chris Woodall, Cindy Swanson, Larry Scott Baggett, Andrew 

Pugliese, Greg Kujawa, and Marilyn Buford were all very helpful. We also thank the three 

anonymous peer reviewers whose comments helped improve this work.

Website________________________________________________

Online tools to help forest managers monitor carbon in HWP and quantify tradeoffs associated with different levels of harvesting have been developed from this work. For tools 

and resources, please visit: http://maps.gis.usu.edu/HWP/.
Contents

Background.............................................................................................................. 1

Objectives..................................................................................................... 3

Methods.................................................................................................................... 3

Accounting Approaches................................................................................ 3

Data Sources................................................................................................ 7

Computational Methods................................................................................ 9

Uncertainty ................................................................................................. 12

A Note about Life Cycle Assessment.......................................................... 14

Results for the Northern Region.......................................................................... 15

Regional-Level Estimates..................................................................................... 21

National Context......................................................................................... 21

Applications of These Approaches ............................................................. 22

Harvested Wood Products Carbon by National Forest............................... 24

Conclusions................................................................................................ 25

National Forest Reports........................................................................................ 26

Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest..................................................... 26

Bitterroot National Forest............................................................................ 35

Custer National Forest................................................................................ 43

Flathead National Forest ............................................................................ 51

Gallatin National Forest.............................................................................. 58

Helena National Forest............................................................................... 66

Idaho Panhandle National Forest............................................................... 74

Kootenai National Forest............................................................................ 81

Lewis and Clark National Forest................................................................. 88

Lolo National Forest ................................................................................... 96

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest..................................................... 103

References ............................................................................................................111
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 1

Background _____________________________________

Recent estimates of net annual storage, or flux, indicate that the world’s forests are an important carbon sink, removing more carbon from the atmosphere 

through photosynthesis than they emit through combustion and decay (Pan and 

others 2011). The forest sector of the United States (U.S.) currently stores about 

48 billion megagrams of carbon (MgC) (USEPA 2010), or the equivalent of 

about 20 years of U.S. fossil fuel emissions at the 2008 rate. The net additions 

to ecosystem and harvested wood products (HWP) pools have been estimated 

at 216 million MgC yr-1 (USEPA 2010), with U.S. forests functioning as a sink 

and offsetting about 11 percent of the country’s annual fossil fuel emissions.

About 5 percent of total U.S. forest sector carbon stocks and 11 percent of the 

annual flux is attributable to carbon in HWP. Though the HWP fraction of the 

pool is small compared to ecosystem carbon, it is an important component of 

national level carbon accounting and reporting. As defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), HWP are products made from wood 

including lumber, panels, paper, paperboard, and wood used for fuel (Skog 2008). 

The HWP carbon pool includes both products in use and products that have been 

discarded to solid waste disposal sites (SWDS). Additions to the HWP pool are 

made through harvesting, while emissions are from decay and combustion of 

wood products.

Increasing social and managerial interest in mitigating rising atmospheric CO2

concentrations and the resulting impacts on climate has focused attention on the 

ecosystem service of forest carbon storage, including storage in HWP. Forest 

management can affect the quantity of carbon stored in both ecosystems and forest 

products over time, and management activities in the United States frequently 

include silvicultural treatments that produce HWP. Credible information on forest 

ecosystem and HWP carbon stocks and fluxes can inform forest managers and 

the public of the tradeoffs between carbon storage and other forest management 

Regional and Forest-Level Estimates 

of Carbon Stored in Harvested Wood 

Products From the United States Forest 

Service Northern Region, 1906-2010

Nathaniel Anderson, Jesse Young, Keith Stockmann, 

Kenneth Skog, Sean Healey, Daniel Loeffler, J. Greg Jones, 

James Morrison
2 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

objectives, and between the short-term and long-term carbon consequences of 

alternative forest management strategies (Galik and Jackson 2009; McKinley 

and others 2011; Ryan and others 2010).

As governments contemplate mitigation and adaptation options, there is growing interest among forest managers in monitoring and managing forests for 

sequestration of carbon as an ecosystem service. For example, during 2010, the 

U.S. Forest Service (USFS) developed a climate change scorecard that is to be 

completed annually for each of the 155 national forests and national grasslands 

managed by the agency (USFS 2011). The scorecard includes four categories of 

scored elements: organizational capacity, engagement, adaptation, and mitigation and sustainable consumption. Elements under mitigation and sustainable 

consumption direct individual national forests to develop a baseline assessment 

of carbon stocks, as well as an assessment of the influence of disturbance and 

management activities on these stocks. These assessments are meant to guide 

adaptation actions and continued monitoring. Managers are explicitly expected 

to begin integrating carbon stewardship with management of their forest for 

traditional multiple uses and other ecosystem services.

These requirements necessitate robust and accessible monitoring systems that 

provide quantitative metrics to gauge progress. Policies and guidelines regarding 

the appropriate level of accuracy needed for completing carbon assessments and 

for informing forest management decisions at the individual national forest level 

are currently under development. Fortunately, national and state level monitoring 

systems provide a solid foundation for forest level accounting.

HWP carbon monitoring systems have been implemented at the national level 

(IPCC 2006; Skog 2008; USEPA 2010), as well as at the level of an individual 

harvest (Smith and others 2006). Robust inventory-based methods for estimating 

carbon stocks and flux in forest ecosystems are well established in the United 

States with several tools available to forest managers (Galik and others 2009; 

Smith and others 2004, 2006; Zheng and others 2010). However, many of the 

tools used to estimate carbon stored in forests, such as the Carbon On Line Estimator Version 2.0 (Van Deusen and Heath 2007) and the U.S. Forest Carbon 

Calculation Tool (Smith and others 2007), do not provide estimates of HWP 

carbon and other tools are restricted to national level HWP accounting (e.g., 

WOODCARB II, Skog 2008).

While these tools are relevant for public and industrial timber producers interested 

in documenting the carbon fluxes associated with harvesting activities (Healey 

and others 2009), they do not serve the needs of forest managers at their current 

scales of analysis. Managers need similarly accessible and practical tools for 

estimating and monitoring carbon stocks and flux in HWP (Ingerson 2011) at 

the agency or firm level.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 3

Objectives

There is a clear need for the means to monitor the contribution of HWP to 

carbon pools and greenhouse gas mitigation at sub-national scales. Currently, 

forest managers do not have the tools they need to accomplish monitoring goals 

that have been established at the national level. Developing these tools is an important step in facilitating carbon assessment and stewardship and in informing 

management actions on the ground. Our objectives with this study are to (1) use 

established accounting approaches to make estimates of HWP carbon stocks and 

fluxes for the USFS Northern Region as a demonstration of sub-national HWP 

accounting; (2) provide similar estimates for each of the eleven national forests 

that make up the Region; (3) provide a framework with clear metrics and estimation methods that can be applied to other regions and land management units; and 

(4) provide guidance to managers concerning the differences between alternative 

approaches with regards to data and resource requirements. We do not develop 

a system for evaluating the future impacts of specific management actions, nor 

do we advocate any particular course of action to improve carbon stewardship.

Methods ________________________________________

The methods used to estimate carbon stored in HWP for the Northern Region and 

for individual national forests are discussed in four parts: accounting approaches, 

data sources, computational methods, and uncertainty. The first part provides a 

general overview of the frameworks used for carbon accounting, including defining the scope of analysis, relevant carbon pools, and associated fluxes. The “Data 

Sources” section describes the origins of the data used in this analysis, with an 

emphasis on understanding what inputs are required and how data quality can 

vary over time. Computational methods provides detailed information about the 

calculations that transform harvest data into carbon accounting metrics, including 

annual flux; and finally, we describe the quantitative treatment of uncertainty in 

light of limitations of the approaches, data, and computational methods. Following 

the description of these methods, we provide a brief comparison to Life Cycle 

Assessment (LCA), which is a well-established methodology that is commonly 

used to evaluate the environmental impact of manufactured products, including 

HWP, especially with regards to energy inputs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Accounting Approaches

We use the IPCC production accounting approach, which has been adopted 

by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; hereafter referred to as 

the IPCC/EPA approach), and the California Forest Project Protocol (CFPP; 

Climate Action Reserve 2009) to estimate annual changes in HWP pools from 

1906 to 2010 for the USFS Northern Region (fig. 1). The Northern Region 

contains approximately 10.9 million hectares of Federally owned land in the 

States of Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, and eastern Washington; 

approximately 8.1 million hectares are forested. We chose this region because 
4 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

it represents a management unit of the desired sub-national scale, and managers in this region are particularly interested in developing tools to meet carbon 

stewardship objectives.

In the IPCC/EPA production accounting approach, the annual carbon stock 

change for the total forest sector (ΔS) is a function of carbon flow among the 

atmosphere, forest ecosystems, and HWP, and is calculated as:

ΔS = (NEE – H) + (ΔCR1)

where

NEE = the annual net ecosystem exchange between the atmosphere and Northern 

Region forests from all ecosystem processes including photosynthesis, decay, 

and natural and anthropogenic fire;

H = the annual harvest of wood from Northern Region forests for products; and

ΔCR1 = the annual change in carbon stored in HWP that was made from wood 

harvested from Northern Region forests (table 1, fig. 2).

Figure 1—Map of the study area. The U.S. Forest Service Northern Region (Region 1) administers approximately 8.1 million hectares of Federaly owned forestland in the States of Montana, Idaho, South 

Dakota, and northeastern Washington.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 5

Table 1—Variable definitions for the IPCC/EPA production accounting approach shown in Figure 2 (Skog 

2008). Units for all variables are MgC yr-1.

Variable Definition

ΔS Annual carbon stock change, which is calculated as ∆S=(NEE-H)+(∆CR1) in the 

production accounting approach.

NEE Annual net ecosystem carbon exchange, the annual net carbon that moves from the 

atmosphere to forests.

H Annual harvest of wood for products, which includes wood and residues removed from 

harvest sites, but excludes resides left at harvest sites.

HWP Harvested wood products in use or at solid waste disposal sites.

ER1

Annual emission of carbon to the atmosphere in the Northern Region from products 

made from wood harvested in the Northern Region.

EIM

Annual emission of carbon to the atmosphere in the Northern Region from products 

made from wood harvested outside of the Northern Region and imported into the 

Northern Region.

PEX

Annual exports of wood and paper products out of the Northern Region, including 

roundwood, chips, residue, pulp and recovered (recycled) products.

PIM

Annual imports of wood and paper products into the Northern Region, including 

roundwood, chips, residue, pulp and recovered (recycled) products.

EEX R1

Annual emission of carbon to the atmosphere in areas outside of the Northern Region 

from products made from wood harvested in the Northern Region.

EOTHER

Annual emission of carbon to the atmosphere in areas outside of the Northern Region 

from products made from wood harvested outside the Northern Region. 

CR1

Stock of harvested wood products carbon in use or at solid waste disposal sites where 

products used wood from the Northern Region harvests.

ΔCIU R1

Annual change in carbon stored in harvested wood products in products in use where 

products used wood from the Northern Region harvests.

ΔCSWDS R1

Annual change in carbon stored in harvested wood products at solid waste disposal 

sites where products used wood from the Northern Region harvests. 

ΔCR1

Annual change in carbon stored in harvested wood products in products in use and 

at solid waste disposal sites where products used wood from the Northern Region 

harvests. ΔCR1 = ΔCIU R1 + ΔCSWDS R1
6 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

ATMOSPHERE

NEE ER1 EIM EEX R1 EOTHER

Forest

Ecosystem

HWP in

use or in

SWDS

HWP in

use or in

SWDS

H

USDA‐FS REGION 1 OUTSIDE REGION 1

PEX PIM

CR1 – Stock of HWP carbon in products in use or in

SWDS where wood came from Region 1 harvest

Figure 2—Carbon flows and stocks associated with forest ecosystems and harvested wood products 

(HWP). These flows are used to illustrate the IPCC/EPA production accounting approach (adapted 

from Skog 2008).

As discussed previously, the HWP pool is a relatively small but important fraction 

of the forest carbon flux in the United States, accounting for about 11 percent of 

the annual carbon stock change of 216 million MgC yr-1. In this approach, the 

annual change in carbon stored in HWP (ΔCR1) is the sum of the net change in 

carbon stored in products in use (ΔCIU R1) and the net change in carbon stored 

in products at solid waste disposal sites (ΔCSWDS R1).

Most people are familiar with imports and exports in the context of international trade, but the concept can be applied to any area of interest. For example, 

HWP manufactured in a USFS region may be used locally by consumers inside 

the region or exported outside the region for use elsewhere. Similarly, HWP 

produced outside the region may be imported for use within the region. It is 

important to understand the treatment of imports and exports in the production 

accounting approach. Figure 2 shows that carbon emissions attributed to HWP 

from the Northern Region (indicated with solid boxes) include both emissions 

to the atmosphere from the Northern Region products that were used within the 

region (ER1) and emissions to the atmosphere from wood products harvested 

in the Northern Region that were exported outside the region (EEX R1). Exports 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 7

(PEX) include wood and paper products, as well as roundwood, chips, residue, pulp, and recovered (recycled) products from wood harvested in the 

Northern Region. Under the production accounting approach, imports from 

other regions (indicated with dotted lines around the right side portions for both 

boxes showing HWP in use or in SWDS) are not included in Northern Region 

accounting because the emphasis is on the location of harvest (H). Emissions 

(ER1 and EEX R1) are further categorized as emitted with energy capture (e.g. 

fuelwood) and emitted without energy capture (e.g. decomposition and burning 

for waste disposal).

Referring back to the equation for the annual carbon stock change for the total 

forest sector (ΔS), by estimating stocks and emissions for Region 1 HWP carbon 

on an annual basis, we can calculate the annual stock change in the HWP carbon 

pool (ΔCR1), which is the relevant metric for this accounting approach.

The CFPP was designed for application to smaller geographic areas and uses 

a simpler accounting approach focused on carbon storage for a single harvest 

year rather than net annual carbon change due to current year additions to product pools and current year emissions from those pools. The relevant metric for 

CFPP accounting approach is 100-year average carbon stored from the current 

year’s harvest, known as “the 100-year average.” Like the production approach, 

the CFPP approach is applied to a specified area of land, and includes carbon 

stored in both products in use and SWDS. The approach uses mill efficiency 

factors and decay curves for individual product classes to estimate the average 

amount of carbon that is likely to remain stored in wood products from a given 

year’s harvest over a 100-year period (Miner 2006; Smith and others 2006). 

The specific calculations used in both approaches are discussed in detail in the 

“Computational Methods” section.

Data Sources

For both approaches, data quality impacts the uncertainty and reliability of 

our estimates, and the data used in this analysis provide a good illustration 

of the challenges associated with using historical data in carbon accounting. 

Northern Region harvesting activity since 1980 has been reported in detailed 

cut and sold reports. These reports include the value and volume of timber 

sold and harvested in the Region, which are reported by both fiscal and 

calendar year (USDA 2010a). In addition, the total harvest is partitioned by 

sale value, timber product class (e.g. softwood sawlogs), tree species, and 

by each national forest within the region.

Beginning in 2001, volumes have been reported in both thousand board feet (mbf) 

and hundred cubic feet (ccf). Between 1980 and 2000, volumes were reported 

in mbf only; regional conversion factors for specific timber products were used 

to convert volumes from mbf to ccf (table 2).
8 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Records for annual harvest prior to 1980 are more difficult to obtain. Paper 

records are available in the Northern Region archives for fiscal years 1946 to 

1979, but these do not report the harvest by timber product classes and vary 

in their reporting for individual national forests. Furthermore, the forestland 

included in the Northern Region and the administrative designations of specific 

forests has changed over time. Whenever possible, we used forest-specific data 

to standardize harvest totals from 1946 to 1979 to the modern boundary of the 

Northern Region. For example, the harvest for Colville National Forest, which 

was transferred to the Pacific Northwest Region in 1975, was removed from the 

harvest totals reported for the Northern Region from 1946 through 1974.

Documents from the archives also report the annual harvest in mbf for fiscal 

years 1906 to 1920, calendar years 1921 to 1936, and fiscal years 1937 to 1945. 

In these records, the harvest is divided into three administrative designations for 

years 1914 to 1945, but data for individual forests and timber products are not 

reported for the period 1906 to 1945. Again, we adjusted annual harvest data in 

an attempt to standardize the harvest to the modern boundaries of the Northern 

Region. For years prior to 1946, the annual harvest reported for the Northern 

Region was reduced by 5.3 percent, which is the average proportion of the Northern Region annual harvest attributable to Colville National Forest from 1946 

to 1971. The proportion of the harvest attributable to Colville National Forest 

stayed relatively constant over this period, ranging from a low of 2.4 percent in 

1946 to a high of 7.2 percent in 1965.

For the period 1906 through 1979, annual harvest totals for the Northern Region 

reported in mbf were converted to ccf using a conversion factor of 2.2 ccf per mbf 

(table 2). Harvest records during this period do not partition the harvest among 

different timber product classes. To split the harvest among the different product 

classes, we first worked with our local Timber Product Output specialists (USDA 

2009a) to estimate the dates when various processing operations commenced in 

our study area. Next, we applied the average annual proportion of the harvest 

represented by each timber product class from 1980 through 2009 to the annual 

harvest for each year 1906 through 1979 (table 3). By standardizing boundaries 

and units and partitioning the harvest among different timber product classes, we 

created a continuous dataset spanning 1906 through 2009 that meets the criteria 

for estimation established by the IPCC (IPCC 2006).

Table 2—Conversion factors used in this analysis.

Conversion Units

2.2 ccf per mbf, timber harvest

1.75 to 2.56 ccf per mbf, timber products

33 to 42 lbs per cubic foot, primary products

2204.6 lbs per Mg

0.95 to 1.0 Mg wood fiber per Mg product

0.5 Mg carbon per dry Mg wood fiber

0.711 to 0.919 MgC per ccf, primary products 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 9

Computational Methods

A series of complex calculations use harvest data to estimate carbon storage 

metrics for the Northern Region and each of its national forests. Figure 3 provides a flow chart of the computational methods used to calculate annual stock 

changes and emissions from HWP for the IPCC/EPA production accounting approach. This approach does not apply simple storage ratios to the harvest; rather 

it tracks carbon through the product life cycle from harvest to timber products 

to primary products to end use to disposal, applying appropriate ratios and halflives at each stage.

Table 3—The average annual proportion of the 

Northern Region harvests distributed 

to timber product classes between 1980 

and 2009.

Product class Mean (%) Std. error

Sawtimber, softwood 78.7 1.70

Pulpwood, softwood 6.9 0.78

Fuelwood, softwood 8.6 1.11

Non-saw, softwood 2.0 0.82

Other products 3.8 0.41

Figure 3—A schematic of calculations to quantify HWP storage and emissions. The calculations 

quantify HWP in use and in SWDS, emissions with energy capture, and emissions without energy 

capture using the IPCC/EPA approach.
10 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Annual volumes of output for specific timber product classes (e.g. softwood 

sawlogs) are distributed to specific primary products (e.g. softwood lumber, 

softwood plywood, etc.) using average primary product ratios for the Rocky 

Mountain Region from Smith and others (2006). Primary product outputs are 

converted from their reporting units to MgC using standard conversion factors 

for primary products (Smith and others 2006; table 2).

The recalcitrance of carbon in harvested wood products is highly dependent on 

the end use of those products. For example, carbon in lumber used in new single 

family home construction has a longer duration of use than carbon in lumber 

used for shipping containers, which is released into the atmosphere more quickly 

through combustion and decay. From 1950 through 2006, annual primary product 

output was distributed to specific end uses according to annual wood product 

consumption estimates in McKeever (2009).

Estimates for 1950 were used for 1906 through 1949 and estimates for 2006 

were used for 2007 through 2009. We acknowledge that this is not ideal, but no 

other data are available for these periods. For each end use and vintage year, the 

amount of carbon remaining in use at each inventory year is calculated based on 

the product half-life and the number of years that have passed between the year 

of harvest and the inventory year. The half-life value expresses the decay rate at 

which carbon in the products in use category passes into the discarded category. 

The carbon remaining in HWP in a given inventory year is calculated for each 

vintage year end use based on a standard decay formula:

Nt

 = N0 exp(-t ln(2)/t1/2)

where

Nt = the amount of carbon remaining in use in inventory year t;

N0 = the amount of carbon in the end use category in the vintage year of harvest;

t = the number of years since harvest;

t1/2 = the half-life of carbon in that end use, and

exp = notation for the exponential function.

In our calculations, the starting amount (N0, at t = 0) is adjusted downward by 

8 percent to reflect a loss when placed in use, which is assumed to enter the 

discarded carbon category. This loss in use accounts for waste when primary 

products (e.g. softwood lumber) are put into specific end uses (e.g. new single 

family residential housing). Fuelwood products are assumed to have full emissions with energy capture in the year they were produced.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 11

For carbon of a particular vintage in a given inventory year, the balance of carbon in HWP that is not in use and not emitted with energy capture is assumed to 

be in the discarded products category (fig. 3). Carbon in the discarded products 

category is partitioned into five disposition categories: burned, recovered, composted, landfills, and dumps. The proportion of discarded products that ends up 

in each of these five categories is different for paper and solid wood products, 

and has changed over time. For example, prior to 1970 wood and paper waste 

was generally discarded to dumps, where it was subject to higher rates of decay 

than in modern landfills. Since then, the proportion of discarded wood going to 

dumps has dropped to below 2 percent, while the proportion going to landfills 

has risen to 67 percent, with the remainder going to the other disposition categories. Similarly, composting and recovery (i.e. recycling and reuse) have become 

a more prominent part of waste management systems. In 2004, approximately 

50 percent of paper waste was recovered, compared to 17 percent in 1960. The 

disposition of carbon in paper and solid wood products to these categories is 

based on percentages in Skog (2008).

Carbon from burned and composted discarded products is assumed to be emitted 

without energy capture. Carbon in the recovered category reenters the products in 

use category. Carbon in products discarded to landfills and dumps are subject to 

decay determined by their respective half-lives. The half-life value for discarded 

products in dumps and landfills expresses the decay rate at which carbon in these 

categories is emitted to the atmosphere. However, only a fraction of discarded 

products in landfills is considered to be subject to decay. Seventy-seven percent 

of solid wood carbon and 44 percent of paper carbon in landfills is identified 

as fixed carbon, not subject to decay (Skog 2008). For a given vintage year, the 

carbon remaining in SWDS in a given inventory year from that vintage year is 

the sum of fixed carbon and the carbon remaining after decay. We do not account 

for the difference between methane and carbon dioxide emissions from landfills 

in terms of CO2 equivalents, nor do we account for methane remediation that 

includes combustion and subsequent emissions with energy capture. All landfill 

and dump emissions are considered emissions without energy capture.

These methods were used to calculate annual gross stocks and gross emissions 

for all inventory years 1906 through 2009. Results for each inventory year were 

used to calculate net change in stocks of carbon in the two Northern Region 

HWP pools, products in use and SWDS, as well as net change in emissions from 

SWDS and fuelwood.

In addition, we present the 100-year average carbon storage for products in use, 

products in SWDS, and all HWP using the CFPP. In this approach, the amount 

of carbon delivered from a harvest to mills is determined by applying conversion factors by wood type. However, not all of the carbon that is delivered to 

the mill ends up in HWP. The amount of delivered carbon that ends up in HWP 

is determined by mill efficiency factors of 67.5 percent for softwood and 56.8 

percent for hardwoods, with the balance of carbon assumed to be immediately 
12 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

emitted to the atmosphere. These mill efficiency factors determine the total carbon transferred into HWP in the year of manufacture. For each harvest year (i.e. 

vintage), the average carbon stored over 100 years in wood products harvested 

in that year is calculated based on 100-year average storage factors applied to 

the HWP carbon in seven wood product classes, with different factors applied 

for the in-use and in-landfills HWP carbon categories (Climate Action Reserve 

2009). The total average carbon stored in HWP over 100 years for each harvest 

year is calculated as the sum of the in-use and landfill averages, and only includes 

HWP carbon harvested in that harvest year.

In our calculations, we departed slightly from the CFPP protocol. Averages for 

each harvest year are determined based on storage factors for primary wood 

product classes as described previously. However, the carbon in HWP to which 

these factors are applied is based on conversion, residue production, and product 

recovery factors incorporated in the IPCC/EPA production accounting approach, 

not on the conversion factors and generalized mill efficiency factors included in 

the CFPP. In other words, the results presented here apply the CFPP protocol to 

the same HWP carbon pool used in the production accounting approach. Using 

the same pool removes variability that would be attributable to applying different 

conversion factors and allows a more clear comparison of the two accounting 

systems.

Uncertainty

Interpretation of the results should be made in light of some constraints. Though 

we attempted to normalize annual harvests to the modern boundary of the Northern Region using forest-specific harvest data, in actuality the annual harvest is 

from a land base that is somewhat variable over time. The U.S. Forest Service 

has commonly engaged in land exchanges, divestments, and acquisitions in the 

Northern Region since 1906, which means that the system boundary for this 

analysis is not consistent. In addition, conversion factors, the distribution of 

timber products to primary products, and the distribution of primary products to 

end uses have changed over time. Though we have used annual data whenever 

possible, there is some uncertainty associated with applying averages to annual 

harvests in the early years of this harvest series.

Uncertainty is quantified using the methods described in Skog (2008). We identified the most critical sources of uncertainty in our analysis (table 4), developed 

probability distributions for each, and carried out Monte Carlo simulations to 

determine the effect of uncertainty in these variables on estimates of HWP stocks 

and 100-year average. The 18 random variable distributions in table 4 represent 

four major sources of uncertainty: conversion factors, reported harvest, product 

distribution variables, and product decay parameters.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 13

Because we apply different distributions to different time periods for some variables, the 18 distributions cover 12 different variables. Multiple time-delineated 

distributions are used for timber products conversion factors, reported harvest, 

proportion of roundwood going to softwood sawtimber, and proportion of softwood sawtimber going to lumber manufacturing, with time periods separated at 

benchmark years related to data quality. Analysis for the IPCC/EPA approach 

uses all 18 distributions, but analysis for the CFPP approach uses 15 because 

only one of the product decay variables (product half-life/storage factor) is used 

in CFPP calculations.

The probability distributions of these random variables were developed based on 

estimates in Skog (2008) and on professional judgment, and are assumed to be 

triangular and symmetric. The distributions are also assumed to be independent 

of one another. However, in the simulation, a correlation coefficient of 0.5 was 

applied to reported harvest for the three time periods to quantify the assumption that if the harvest was systematically overestimated or underestimated in 

one period, it was likely in error in the same direction in the other two periods 

(table 4). A similar approach was used for product half-lives in the product decay category to quantify the assumption that if half-lives for one category were 

underestimated or overestimated, the other categories were likely in error in the 

same direction. In general, uncertainty was assumed to be greater farther back 

in time. For example, reported harvest is divided into three time periods based 

Table 4—Sources of uncertainty and associated data.

Source of

uncertainty Specific factor Years Relevant products 90% CI

Conversion mbf:ccf 1906-1979 Timber products ±30%

factors mbf:ccf 1980-2009 Timber products ±15%

ccf:MgC 1906-2009 Primary products ±5%

 

Reported Harvest in mbf 1906-1945 Timber products ±30%

harvest Harvest in mbf 1946-1979 Timber products ±20%

Harvest in mbf or ccf 1980-2009 Timber products ±15%

 

Product Roundwood to softwood sawtimber 1906-1979 Timber products ±30%

distribution Roundwood to softwood sawtimber 1980-2009 Timber products ±15%

 

Softwood sawtimber to lumber 1906-1949 Timber products ±30%

Softwood sawtimber to lumber 1950-1979 Timber products ±20%

Softwood sawtimber to lumber 1980-2009 Timber products ±15%

 

Lumber going to new housing 1906-2009 Primary products ±15%

Panels going to new housing 1906-2009 Primary products ±15%

Residues going to pulp 1906-2009 Primary products ±15%

 

Product Product half-life or storage factor 1906-2009 All end-use ±15%

decay Fraction of discards to landfills 1906-2009 Discarded ±15%

Landfill decay limits 1906-2009 Landfilled ±15%

Landfill half life 1906-2009 Landfilled ±15%
14 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

on data quality, with uncertainty in the reported harvest increasing from ±15 

percent for the period from 1980 to 2009, to ±20 percent for the period from 

1946 to 1979, to ±30 percent for the period from 1906 to 1945.

The effect of uncertainty on the HWP stocks and 100-year average was evaluated for the Northern Region using Monte Carlo simulation in @Risk software 

version 5.7 (Palisade Corporation 2010). Simulation means and 90 percent 

confidence intervals are the results of 2,200 iterations with Latin hypercube 

sampling, which was determined to be the average number of draws needed to 

reach a stable standard deviation for the estimate of HWP stocks. Confidence 

intervals for the individual national forests are based on the proportional intervals of the mean value determined by the Northern Region simulation, not on 

independent simulations.

A Note about Life Cycle Assessment

At this point it may be apparent that these approaches do not account for all 

emissions associated with HWP. For example, carbon emissions from fossil 

fuels used in transportation and manufacture of HWP are not deducted from the 

HWP pool. Similarly, though HWP emissions with energy capture are quantified 

in the IPCC/EPA approach, they are not assumed to substitute for an equivalent 

amount of fossil fuel carbon, potentially reducing fossil fuel emissions in some 

scenarios (Jones and others 2010). Furthermore, these approaches do not incorporate carbon fluxes associated with product substitution, such as the substitution 

of HWP for metal or concrete (or vice versa) in building applications, and the 

associated land-use changes that may ensue.

Though these types of emissions and tradeoffs are outside the scope and purpose 

of both approaches, there are well-developed methods of life cycle assessment 

(LCA) that account for all carbon emissions associated with manufactured 

products and that facilitate the comparison of different levels of consumption 

and substitution of wood products for alternative products (Rebitzer and others 

2004). The IPCC/EPA and CFPP approaches provide information that can be 

used in an LCA, but in general an LCA is used to address different questions.

If management decisions require information about harvesting, transportation 

and processing emissions, as well as product substitutions and other trade components not included in the two approaches used here, a consequential LCA is 

required. However, for sub-national carbon accounting, IPCC/EPA and CFPP 

approaches have several benefits over LCA. They are relatively easy to apply 

and congruent with U.S. national carbon accounting standards, which is particularly important in developing tools that can be used by USFS managers to meet 

carbon monitoring goals.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 15

Results for the Northern Region ____________________

Between 1906 and 1943, the annual timber harvest in the Northern Region remained below 400,000 MgC yr-1 (328.5 million cubic feet yr-1) and decreased 

during the Great Depression in the 1930s (fig. 4). After World War II, annual 

harvest levels increased steadily, with some volatility, to maximum harvest levels 

in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Growth in the annual harvest was particularly 

rapid between 1950 and 1956, when the annual harvest tripled from half a million MgC yr-1 to 1.5 million MgC yr-1 by 1956. At its peak in 1969, the annual 

timber harvest in the Region exceeded 2.4 million MgC yr-1.

Beginning in the mid-1970s, the annual harvest decreased steadily, with a brief 

increase in harvesting in the late 1970s followed by a particularly steep decrease 

during the economic recession of 1981-1982. Between 1982 and 1987 the harvest 

level rose sharply, but then fell nearly every year from 1988 to 2002. Harvest levels since 2000 have been relatively stable between 200,000 MgC yr-1 to 400,000 

MgC yr-1, which is similar to the harvest levels of the early twentieth century.

All else being equal, higher harvest levels result in more carbon removed from 

the ecosystem pool and added to the HWP pool (fig. 2). Figure 5 shows the 

cumulative carbon in both the products in use and SWDS constituents of the 

HWP pool for the Northern Region using the production accounting approach. 

Using a format that matches the reporting for selected inventory years found in 

the most recent EPA report (USEPA 2010), Table 5 shows how the disposition of 

HWP carbon is broken into the four IPCC/EPA categories: emitted with energy 

capture, emitted without energy capture, products in use, and products in SWDS. 

For each inventory year shown in the first column, the second column shows 

aggregate carbon emitted with energy capture (i.e. fuelwood), the third column 

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output

(million MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 4—Annual timber product output in the Northern 

Region, 1906 to 2010. Harvest estimates are based on 

data collected from USDA Forest Service Archives and 

Cut/Sold reports.
16 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks

(million MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 5—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from Northern Region timber using the IPCC/EPA 

approach. Carbon in HWP includes both products that are still 

in use and carbon stored at solid waste disposal sites (SWDS), 

including landfills and dumps.

Table 5—Northern Region cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years using the IPCC/EPA production accounting 

approach. This table shows the fate of all carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total in HWP

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS Poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 154,281 12,332 235,801 23,865 259,666

1920 957,662 196,962 1,271,481 219,922 1,491,403

1930 1,689,268 601,197 1,954,753 422,240 2,376,993

1940 2,125,441 1,118,607 2,116,591 511,967 2,628,558

1950 3,597,873 1,833,130 3,755,737 754,204 4,509,941

1960 7,561,338 3,672,609 7,394,180 1,894,409 9,288,589

1970 15,294,381 8,049,313 14,002,272 3,822,113 17,824,385

1980 22,072,575 13,859,456 17,464,432 5,855,782 23,320,214

1990 27,098,481 19,166,028 19,466,986 7,584,521 27,051,507

1995 29,034,443 21,725,124 19,855,947 8,396,262 28,252,209

2000 29,951,361 23,991,595 18,692,672 8,844,219 27,536,891

2005 30,634,194 25,950,852 17,589,954 9,084,182 26,674,136

2006 30,773,608 26,313,165 17,416,848 9,121,609 26,538,457

2007 30,884,369 26,664,054 17,186,329 9,151,940 26,338,269

2008 30,989,500 27,004,208 16,960,188 9,179,261 26,139,449

2009 31,112,619 27,333,955 16,743,418 9,204,640 25,948,058

2010 31,258,742 27,653,986 16,545,328 9,229,516 25,774,844

a Sum of products in use and SWDS.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 17

shows aggregate carbon emitted through decay or combustion from SWDS, and 

the fourth and fifth columns show carbon stored in products in use and products 

in SWDS, respectively. The final column, the “Total in HWP pool,” is the sum 

of products in use (column 4) and carbon in SWDS (column 5). It is important 

to understand that the estimate for each inventory year includes the portion of 

HWP carbon still in use and in SWDS for all previous harvest years back to 

1906, in addition to carbon harvested in the inventory year.

Some of the cumulative emissions from the burned and decayed HWP (table 5, 

second and third columns) are theoretically taken out of the atmosphere by 

regrowth on harvested sites, but this effect is accounted for in the ecosystem 

carbon component of the IPCC/EPA approach (NEE), not in the HWP component (H and ΔCR1).

The cumulative carbon stored in the Northern Region HWP peaked in 1995 at 

just over 28 million MgC. For reference, this is equivalent to 103 million MgCO2, 

the CO2 equivalent annual emissions from 20 million passenger vehicles. Since 

1995, carbon stocks in the HWP pool for the Northern Region have been in decline (fig. 5). The 2010 HWP pool is estimated to have been about 25.8 million 

MgC (table 5).

Figure 6 and table 6 present the trend in terms of net annual change in HWP 

carbon stocks. Negative net annual change in HWP carbon stocks means the total 

carbon stored in the HWP pool in the inventory year is lower than in the previous 

year. A decline in the HWP pool results in a transition from a positive net annual 

change in carbon stocks to a negative net annual change in carbon stocks. In 

the mid-1960s, carbon stocks in HWP were growing by nearly one million 

MgC yr-1, with peak stock growth occurring during 1967 with the addition of 

1,042,158 MgC yr-1. In the mid-1990s, the net change moves from positive to 

negative, and the HWP pool becomes a net source of atmospheric carbon. The 

year in the dataset with the largest emissions from Northern Region HWP carbon 

was 2002, when 228,241 MgC yr-1 were emitted. These estimates relate only to 

HWP and do not quantify carbon fluxes in the ecosystem pool.

The 100-year average calculated using the CFPP for the Northern Region, which 

is a projected average carbon stock over 100 years for harvest in a particular year, 

peaked in 1969 at 937,900 MgC (fig. 7). A declining trend in carbon storage in 

HWP since 1970 is also reflected by the 100-year averages (fig. 7, table 7). In 

recent years, the 100-year average for the Northern Region has been between 

84,000 and 150,000 MgC. Though the two estimation methods differ in approach 

and calculations, they both show a clear and expected connection between timber 

harvest trends and carbon stored in the HWP pool.
18 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Table 6—Northern Region annual net 

change in HWP carbon stocks 

for selected years for harvests 

beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 104,116

1920 97,021

1930 75,712

1940 16,051

1950 298,029

1960 591,785

1970 966,125

1980 437,628

1990 481,517

1995 59,764

2000 -184,812

2005 -151,437

2006 -135,679

2007 -200,187

2008 -198,821

2009 -191,391

2010 -173,214

a

Net annual change in C in products in use 

and SWDS.

‐400,000

‐200,000

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC yr‐1)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990 to 2010

Figure 6—The net change in carbon stocks in HWP from the previous year using the IPCC/

EPA production accounting approach. The net stock change is the sum of net change for SWDS 

(black bar) and products in use (gray bar). The total net change trend line from 1990 to 2010 

shows a transition from net additions to carbon stocks in HWP to a period of net loss in carbon 

stocks in HWP.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 19

Table 7—The Northern Region 100-year average carbon stored in 

products in use, SWDS, and total for selected years using 

CFPP.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in use dumps Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

1910 41,496 32,052 73,547

1920 52,862 40,832 93,694

1930 42,777 33,042 75,819

1940 57,768 44,621 102,389

1950 94,131 86,792 180,923

1960 326,709 301,238 627,947

1970 465,096 432,400 897,496

1980 264,336 238,992 503,328

1990 329,250 284,424 613,675

1995 105,200 102,218 207,418

2000 74,469 68,948 143,417

2005 73,794 66,384 140,177

2006 47,100 44,673 91,774

2007 42,728 45,027 87,755

2008 39,187 45,567 84,754

2009 43,541 48,377 91,917

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

100 Year Average Carbon Storage (MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 7—Northern Region harvest 100-year average carbon HWP storage using the California 

Forest Project Protocol. The 100-year average is calculated independently for each harvest year 

and considers only carbon harvested in that year.
20 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

To quantify uncertainty, confidence intervals were estimated for both the IPCC/

EPA HWP stock estimates and the CFPP 100-year average estimates using Monte 

Carlo simulation, representing 18 and 15 random variable distributions, respectively, with distributions determined from publications and expert opinion. Table 8 

shows the resulting confidence intervals for the IPCC/EPA estimates for selected 

years. For 1995, the year of peak carbon stocks for the Northern Region, the 90 

percent confidence interval ranges from 20,723,740 MgC to 37,108,160 MgC, 

with a mean value of 28,272,940 MgC. This is equivalent to a -26.7 percent to 

+31.2 percent difference from the mean. Table 9 shows the resulting confidence 

intervals for the 100-year average for selected years. For 1970, the year with 

the highest 100-year average shown, the 90 percent confidence interval ranges 

from 563,303 to 1,336,731 MgC, with a mean value of 898,820 MgC. This is 

equivalent to a -37.3 percent to a +48.7 percent difference from the mean.

Table 8—Confidence intervals for Northern Region cumulative carbon in 

HWP for selected years for harvests beginning in 1906. Means and 

confidence intervals were calculated using Monte Carlo simulation.

90% Confidence interval

(% difference from estimate)

Inventory year Simulation mean 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 258,847 151,997 383,534

1920 1,490,397 859,969 2,254,610

1930 2,380,130 1,348,945 3,726,131

1940 2,623,487 1,559,630 4,011,111

1950 4,508,105 2,756,788 6,754,915

1960 9,289,140 5,897,037 13,271,680

1970 17,825,210 11,508,690 25,465,070

1980 23,305,620 14,966,770 33,457,600

1990 27,036,780 19,354,590 35,924,610

1995 28,272,940 20,723,740 37,108,160

2000 27,510,220 20,779,040 35,696,240

2005 26,645,420 19,809,180 34,370,610

2006 26,538,740 19,630,590 34,125,580

2007 26,341,320 19,707,340 33,850,080

2008 26,128,290 19,561,330 33,672,940

2009 25,924,090 19,690,110 33,639,540

2010 25,753,020 19,546,530 33,052,480
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 21

Regional-Level Estimates __________________________

National Context

Although these results rely on numerous calculations, the time series of annual 

harvest volume (fig. 4) is at the root of the trends in carbon stocks and flux 

for the Northern Region HWP pool. Several recent publications help put these 

HWP carbon estimates in the context of the total forest carbon, including both 

ecosystem carbon and HWP carbon. By dividing the 2010 stock estimate of 

25.8 teragrams of carbon (TgC) in HWP by the sum of this HWP estimate and 

Heath and others’s (2011) estimated 2010 Northern Region ecosystem carbon 

stock (1,530 TgC total in ecosystem plus 25.8TgC in HWP), we estimate that 

the Northern Region HWP carbon stocks represent roughly 1.7 percent of total 

forest carbon storage associated with national forests in the Northern Region. At 

the national level, based on the EPA’s total U.S. HWP stock estimate of 2,436 

TgC (USEPA 2010), the Northern Region HWP carbon stocks represented 1.1 

percent of total U.S. HWP carbon stocks.

Table 9—Confidence intervals for the Northern Region 100-year average 

carbon stored in HWP for selected years using the California Forest 

Project Protocol. Means and confidence intervals were calculated 

using Monte Carlo simulation.

90% Confidence interval

(% difference from estimate)

Inventory year Simulation mean 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 73,654 41,230 117,343

1920 93,830 52,524 149,486

1930 75,929 42,504 120,967

1940 102,538 57,399 163,360

1950 181,181 113,537 270,498

1960 628,840 394,062 938,842

1970 898,820 563,303 1,336,731

1980 503,370 382,408 653,254

1990 613,729 463,510 803,920

1995 207,441 159,195 268,110

2000 143,439 108,755 186,617

2005 140,321 107,692 179,018

2006 91,865 70,445 116,970

2007 87,791 67,609 112,596

2008 84,825 66,493 106,480

2009 91,998 71,596 115,991
22 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Research efforts are under way to provide additional estimates of forest ecosystem flux in the western United States (Healey and others 2009; Heath and others 

2011; Van Deusen and Heath 2007). However, long-term data collection requirements will delay reporting until the National Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) 

program completes its second cycle of plot measurements. Although the third 

cycle has begun in some southern U.S. states, it will be 2020 at the earliest in the 

Northern Region before second measurement data are available. Our calculations 

of HWP carbon flux will allow the Northern Region to reasonably account for 

carbon that was harvested over the study period. Ideally, when changes in forest 

ecosystem carbon are quantified in subsequent research they can be linked with 

the HWP estimates described here.

Applications of These Approaches

These methods for estimating this important carbon pool will allow resource 

managers and the public to develop a more complete understanding of the dynamics of HWP as a component of the forest carbon pool, and may allow the 

evaluation of the effect of alternative harvesting intensities on carbon stocks and 

fluxes. Furthermore, comparison of the two approaches is useful in evaluating the 

feasibility, utility, uncertainty, and limitations of alternative metrics and estimation methods that could be used to meet carbon monitoring objectives. Because 

the CFPP 100-year average is calculated for a discrete harvest year, data for 

previous harvest years are not needed to make current or future year estimates. 

This contrasts with the IPCC/EPA approach, which requires harvest information 

for many prior years to make an estimate of net change to the carbon stocks in 

the inventory year. The CFPP emphasis on harvest year calculations rather than 

annual changes in total carbon stocks makes the CFPP approach easier to apply 

when information on historical harvest and product disposition is lacking.

Similar to what we expect for other USFS regions of the country, we had access 

to detailed recent information about wood harvest in agency “cut and sold” reports. We were also fortunate to have archived historic harvest volume records. 

Although we made assumptions about the initiation of several primary product 

classes based on historical information, and we assumed consistent primary product distributions from the inception of processing capacity through the inventory 

year, in general we had a strong set of historical data to use in our calculations. 

As expected, records of the partitioning of the harvest to timber and primary 

product classes improved markedly as our records approached the present.

We recommend that all applications of the IPCC/EPA approach consider the 

quality of the data and adjust their uncertainty analysis accordingly, particularly 

with regards to the distributions of random variables (e.g., table 4). However, 

though carbon of older vintages may be associated with higher uncertainty, it 

is also likely to have a smaller impact on current stocks and fluxes than more 

recent harvests. For example, we estimated the importance of the early harvests 

by quantifying the portion of the current HWP pool that is attributable to carbon 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 23

harvested prior to 1950. In 1950 the HWP carbon pool was 4.5 million MgC. 

By inventory year 2010, only 1.7 million MgC of the carbon harvested before 

1950 remained in products in use and SWDS, which accounted for 6.6 percent 

of the total stocks of 25.8 million MgC in 2010. This small contribution to current stocks is a result of two factors. There was greater harvesting activity for 

the period after than before 1950. Also, following the passage of the Resource 

Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) and after a short lag, a much 

larger portion of discarded HWP goes into modern landfills where it is subject to 

lower rates of decay than in aerobic dumps or disposal by open burning, which 

were the dominant disposal methods prior to RCRA.

Obtaining historical information may present a challenge for some regions and 

national forests. It may be particularly difficult to reconstruct harvest data prior 

to the mid-1940s, though regression of trends after the period might be appropriate for extrapolation to earlier periods. Alternatively, regions could base their 

carbon accounting on national level parameters, making the assumption that 

national-level numbers are adequate for regional and sub-regional analysis. If 

national level values represent the best available data, the IPCC/EPA method 

requires only harvest volume information from the user. Many regional and forest type-specific default dynamics and decay functions are supplied by national 

level work (Skog 2008; Smith and others 2006). The simplicity associated with 

using national data in calculations may make the system functional and effective 

in meeting monitoring needs for forest managers both within and outside the 

USFS, regardless of data quality.

If time series data are not available or are very costly to procure, focusing on annual data may be more productive. The CFPP 100-year average is an example of 

an approach that does not require reconstructing the historical harvest. In general, 

the CFPP has ease of use superior to the IPCC/EPA production approach but does 

not provide the same detailed information about the HWP carbon pool. The CFPP 

approach does not estimate temporal trends in this pool, whereas the IPCC/EPA 

approach can show both total stock and annual stock change. In addition, our 

results show that the effects of uncertainty appear to be higher for the 100-year 

average than for the IPCC/EPA estimates, as measured as a percentage difference 

from the expected value, for this case study. As with the IPCC/EPA calculations, 

appropriate regional and forest type-specific variables may be found in published 

sources (Climate Action Reserve, 2009; Skog 2008; Smith and others 2006).

The choice about which protocol should be applied could focus on the tradeoff 

between the simplicity of data collection and ease of calculations compared to a 

need to address both total stocks and flux. Also, managers may need to be consistent in all using one protocol or another in order to make results comparable 

across regions and easily aggregated in analysis done at larger scales. The more 

resource intensive methods of the IPCC/ EPA estimates are worthwhile only if 

the additional detail is useful or if this reporting format is mandated.
24 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

We successfully applied the methods described by Skog (Skog 2008) to estimate the uncertainty associated with our HWP carbon stock estimates (table 8). 

However, it is unclear how the magnitude of this uncertainty would change, if 

at all, if the analysis were done on smaller management units (e.g. the individual 

national forest level). The change in uncertainty would, in large part, depend 

on assumptions made about the distributions of random variables used in the 

analysis. In some cases, a regional analysis may be sufficient to inform forestlevel land management planning, forest management practices, and planning of 

long-term (programmatic) timber harvest levels and associated effects on carbon 

flux. A detailed sub-regional analysis may be needed where there are significant 

within-region differences in ecosystems and disturbance processes and harvest 

levels (e.g., western Washington compared to eastern Washington). In our case, 

Regional HWP carbon stocks can be meaningfully partitioned among the national 

forests in the Region based on harvest records.

Harvested Wood Products Carbon by National Forest

Eleven different national forests are included in the Northern Region of the USFS. 

Figure 8 shows the locations of these forests, with the greatest area of Northern 

Region land located in western Montana and northern Idaho. Among these forests, 

the Nez Perce-Clearwater, the Kootenai, the Idaho Panhandle, the Flathead, and 

the Lolo National Forests are the five highest HWP producing forests (fig. 9).

Figure 8—Map showing the locations of the eleven national forests that are administered in the Northern 

Region.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 25

As we have pointed out, regional level accounting by itself may be adequate for 

forest level decision making. However, the USFS climate change scorecard (USFS 

2011) does require individual national forests to develop a baseline assessment 

of carbon stocks, as well as an assessment of the influence of disturbance and 

management activities on these stocks. These assessments are meant to guide 

adaptation actions and continued monitoring, and managers are explicitly expected to begin integrating carbon stewardship with management for traditional 

multiple uses and other ecosystem services.

In the next section, we provide HWP carbon accounting for each national forest in the Northern Region using the IPCC/EPA and CFPP approaches. These 

estimates are intended to establish a baseline for HWP carbon accounting that 

meets climate change scorecard requirements, as well as serve as a foundation 

for future monitoring and assessment. For each national forest, estimates are 

provided in the context of geography (i.e. the system boundary), administrative 

history, ecology, and disturbance patterns, including harvesting activity.

Conclusions

HWP is an important carbon pool that should be considered in decision making 

associated with carbon monitoring and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Together with accounting and modeling methods that quantify ecosystem 

forest carbon, the approaches used in this study provide a powerful tool to monitor carbon stocks, stock change, and 100-year averages, as well as the ability 

to assess the possible outcomes of management actions intended to reduce the 

vulnerability of forest resources to climate change.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

198019851990199520002005

Proportion of Region 1 Harvest (%)

Harvest Year

Nez Perce ‐Clearwater

Lolo

Lewis and Clark

Kootenai

Idaho Pandandle

Helena

Gallatin

Flathead

Custer

Bitterroot

Beaverhead‐Deerlodge

Figure 9—The proportion of the total Northern Region harvest attributable to each national forest in the Region, 1980 

to 2009.
26 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

The Northern Region HWP pool is now in a period of negative net annual stock 

change because the decay of products harvested between 1906 and 2010 exceeds 

additions of carbon to the HWP pool through harvest. However, total forest carbon 

is a function of both HWP and ecosystem carbon, which may have increased 

over the study period. Analysis for individual forests shows that harvest trends 

for these forests are often similar to regional-level trends, but vary significantly 

from forest to forest.

Though our emphasis is on the Northern Region, we provide a framework by 

which the IPCC/EPA and CFPP methods can be applied broadly at sub-national 

scales to other regions and forests. However, there are clear tradeoffs between 

alternative approaches to estimating HWP carbon stocks. The CFPP 100-year 

average uses harvest year data and is easier to apply, but it does not provide 

information about total carbon stocks or annual stock change. In comparison, 

the IPCC/EPA production accounting approach is more data intensive because 

it includes past harvest and product disposition data for each inventory year, but 

it provides estimates of total stocks and stock change making it congruent with 

national accounting and reporting protocols.

The IPCC/EPA approach could be used to predict changes to the HWP component of the forest carbon pool resulting from planned or potential change in the 

amount of wood harvested. Quantifying uncertainty is an important component 

regardless of the approach used because it quantifies the confidence we have in 

estimates of carbon stocks or 100-year averages. We believe further research is 

necessary to help policy makers and managers better understand the implications 

of alternative forest management strategies on forest carbon stocks and stock 

change. An integrated approach might include consequential LCA that evaluates 

changes in harvest activity on carbon emissions including all sources of emissions and product substitutions.

National Forest Reports ___________________________

Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest

Description

The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest is located in southwestern Montana 

(fig. 10). The forest is approximately 120 miles from east to west, and 160 miles 

from north to south with non-Federal holdings throughout the area. The forest 

is bordered by the Lolo and Helena National Forests, as well as private lands to 

the north, the Gallatin National Forest and private lands to the east, Idaho to the 

south, and the Bitterroot, Lolo, and Salmon-Challis National Forests to the west, 

with significant state and private holdings bordering much of the forest’s interior.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 27

Figure 10—Location map of Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.

The Beaverhead and Deerlodge National Forests were both established on 

July 1, 1908, from parts of the Big Hole, Bitter Root, and Hell Gate National 

Forests. On December 16, 1931, additional lands were added to both the 

Beaverhead and Deerlodge National Forests from the Madison National Forest 

(Davis 1983). On February 2, 1996, the two forests were merged into one administrative unit forming the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest (USDA 2012a).
28 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest is the largest forest in the Northern 

Region covering 3,352,288 acres and containing over 70 unique forest habitat 

types (DeBlander 2001a). The most common habitat classification is cool and 

dry, covering 21 percent of the forest, followed by the classification of cold, 

which covers 14 percent of the forest. Lodgepole pine and Douglas-fir are the 

more dominant forest types in lower elevations, while lodgepole pine, subalpine 

fir, whitebark pine, Engelmann spruce, and Douglas-fir are present at higher 

elevations (DeBlander 2001a).

Land within the national forest boundary is 80 percent forested, with the remaining 20 percent either non-forested or water. Seven percent of the forested lands 

are protected under reserves in the Anaconda-Pintler and Lee Metcalf Wilderness areas, while 33 percent of non-reserved lands are considered suitable for 

timber production. The net annual growth of all forested lands is estimated to be 

over 97 million cubic feet. Forest cover is 47 percent lodgepole pine, 22 percent 

Douglas-fir, 12 percent spruce-fir, 11 percent whitebark pine, 5 percent Engelmann spruce, 2 percent limber pine, as well as trace amounts of aspen, juniper, 

and mountain brush woodland types (DeBlander 2001a). Stands of old growth 

forest are present on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, estimated to 

cover 22.9 percent of forested lands (USDA 2007). Old growth sage brush is 

also present on the forest and is maintained in a mosaic burn pattern to ensure 

habitat preservation for old growth dependent species (USDA 1998).

Natural disturbances within the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest are 

insect infestation, including significant impacts from mountain pine and bark 

beetle activity, and white pine blister (USDA 2012b; USDA 2009b). In 1996, 50 

percent of tree mortality was caused by disease, 20 percent by insects, and 16 

percent was due to the weather. Fifty percent of the mortality in 1996 occurred 

in lodgepole pine and subalpine fir (DeBlander 2001a). In 2009, it was reported 

that the mountain pine beetle was on the decline in lower elevations due to the 

depletion of host trees, but had spread to higher elevations and moved into the 

western portion of the forest (USDA 2009b, p 77). A partial aerial survey of the 

forest showed that 943,877 acres were infected with mountain pine beetle in 2009, 

which went down to 531,728 acres in 2010, and 210,620 acres in 2011, mostly 

occurring in lodgepole and five needle pine for all 3 years (USDA 2012b, p 45). 

Other bark beetle infestations were reported to be within endemic levels for most 

of the forest (USDA 2009b, p 77). White pine blister has also been observed on 

the forest infecting whitebark and lodgepole pine (USDA 2009b, p 74).

The forest was historically free of large fire disturbance for 125 years, leading 

to the decline of aspen stands, which depend on fire disturbances to open up 

space for new sprouts (USDA 1998). An example of this decline can be seen in 

the southern Gravelly Range where aspen declined 45 percent between 1947 and 

1992. In an effort to respond to this decline as well as other aspen declines forestwide, the forest burned 49,000 acres from 1989 to 1994 to restore Douglas-fir 

and aspen stands as well as shrub lands (USDA 1998). Other fire disturbances 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 29

that continue to shape the forest are the recent fires in 2000 and 2007, which have 

allowed for aspen sprouts to take hold in the burnt area (USDA 2009b, p 45). 

Within the forest, 27 percent of plots show no visible signs of disturbances, 26 

percent show signs of disease, 15 percent show evidence of cutting, 9 percent 

show evidence of fire, 6 percent show evidence of wind damage, 6 percent show 

signs of weather damage, 4 percent show signs of insect damage, 4 percent show 

signs of animal damage, and the remaining 3 percent show evidence of road 

building, land clearing, mining, or some other disturbance (DeBlander 2001a).

Harvest Trends

From 1906 to 1929, timber production averaged about 7,500 MgC per year 

before beginning a downward trend (fig. 11). Starting at the global minimum 

of 2,134 MgC in 1932, annual timber production began to grow exponentially, 

with some inter-annual variability until 1968 when timber production hit the 

global maximum at 120,597 MgC. Following 1968, timber production began to 

rapidly decline with some inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum 

of 42,873 MgC in 1977. Following 1977, production began to quickly increase 

with high inter-annual variability until hitting a local maximum of 96,216 MgC 

in 1986. During the time period from 1977 to 1986, the lowest production was 

25,969 MgC in 1982. After 1986, production rapidly declined until 1993 with 

24,520 MgC in production that year. From 1993 to 2009, production continued to 

fall with a moderate amount of inter-annual varibuility, hitting a local maximum 

of 33,809 MgC in 1994, a local minimum of 11,167 MgC in 2007, and ending 

in 2009 with 23,530 MgC in production.

 

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 11—Annual timber product output for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, 1906 to 2010.
30 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907, total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out 

in 1931 with 75,319 MgC in use and 16,571 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

91,890 MgC (fig. 12). After 1940, carbon storage began to grow exponentially 

until 1969 with 517,760 MgC in use and 137,593 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

655,353 MgC. Following 1969, carbon storage continued to grow at a rapid rate 

until slowing in 1975 with 632,616 MgC in use and 192,147 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 824,763 MgC. From 1975 to 1982, carbon storage grew slowly at 

an increasing rate until a net loss was experienced in 1983 of –3,146 MgC with 

676,924 MgC in use and 242,078 MgC in the SWDS for a total 919,002 MgC. 

After the net loss in 1983, carbon storage rapidly increased hitting the global 

maximum in 1992 with 825,220 MgC in use and 332,730 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 1,157,950 MgC. Following 1992, carbon storage began to decline 

at a slow, steady rate, with the exception of 1995 and 2003, ending in 2010 with 

696,215 MgC in use and 396,251 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 1,092,466 MgC 

remaining in total carbon storage (table 10).

 

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 12—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from BeaverheadDeerlodge National Forest timber.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 31

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged about 3,500 MgC ranging from 

a low point in 1907 of 18 MgC in use and 2 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 20 

MgC, to the high point in 1915 of 5,874 MgC in use and 868 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 6,742 MgC (fig. 13). After 1929, net stock change began to decline 

until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –835 MgC in use and 325 MgC in the 

SWDS for a net negative change in carbon stocks (emissions) of –510 MgC. Following 1933, net stock change experienced positive growth at an exponential rate 

with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability, hitting the global maximum 

in 1969 with 43,697 MgC in use and 10,133 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

53,830 MgC. After 1969, net additions rapidly declined with a moderate amount 

of inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum in 1978 with –134 MgC 

in use and 5,176 MgC in the SWDS for a total net stock change of 5,042 MgC. 

After 1978, net stock change quickly increased with high inter-annual variability 

until hitting a local maximum in 1987 with 29,157 MgC in use and 11,421 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 40,578 MgC. During the time period from 1978 to 

1987, the lowest net addition was recorded in 1983 with –8,412 MgC in use 

and 5,265 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –3,147 MgC. After 1987, net stock 

change began to rapidly decline, first showing signs of net negative growth in 

1993, and hitting a local minimum in 1994 with –9,698 MgC in use and 5,667 

MgC in the SWDS for a total net stock change of –4,031 MgC. From 1995 to 

2010, net stock change experienced moderate inter-annual variability, averaging 

about –4,000 MgC per year and hitting a local maximum in 1995 with –3,108 

MgC in use and 5,696 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 2,588 MgC, the global 

minimum in 2005 with –10,185 MgC in use and 2,236 MgC in the SWDS for 

a total of –7,949 MgC, and ending in 2010 with –4,054 MgC in use and 2,159 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of –1,895 MgC (table 11).

Table 10—Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table 

shows the fate of all carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting. 

Emitted with Emitted without Total in HWP

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS Poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 5,835 466 8,918 903 9,820

1920 36,218 7,449 48,087 8,317 56,404

1930 63,887 22,737 73,928 15,969 89,897

1940 80,383 42,305 80,048 19,362 99,411

1950 136,070 69,328 142,040 28,524 170,564

1960 285,966 138,896 279,644 71,645 351,289

1970 583,428 305,489 535,572 145,823 681,395

1980 829,647 527,229 649,210 221,135 870,344

1990 1,095,140 737,134 819,530 314,777 1,134,307

1995 1,159,127 840,501 804,130 350,757 1,154,887

2000 1,202,408 931,215 765,564 371,765 1,137,328

2005 1,239,503 1,012,360 729,694 386,096 1,115,790

2006 1,245,969 1,027,491 722,821 388,348 1,111,169

2007 1,250,995 1,042,124 713,141 390,235 1,103,375

2008 1,255,759 1,056,292 703,657 391,955 1,095,612

2009 1,267,090 1,070,276 700,269 394,092 1,094,362

2010 1,278,828 1,083,964 696,215 396,251 1,092,467

a

 Sum of products in use and SWDS.
32 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

 

‐20,000

‐10,000

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990

to 2010

Figure 13—Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest net change in carbon stocks 

in HWP from the previous year.

Table 11—Beaverhead-Deerlodge National 

Forest annual net change in 

HWP carbon stocks for selected 

years for harvests beginning in 

1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 3,938

1920 3,669

1930 2,863

1940 607

1950 11,271

1960 22,381

1970 26,042

1980 7,169

1990 23,485

1995 2,589

2000 -1,735

2005 -7,949

2006 -4,621

2007 -7,794

2008 -7,764

2009 -1,250

2010 -1,895

a

Net annual change in carbon in products in 

use and SWDS.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 33

From 1906 to 1929, the 100-year average carbon storage was about 3,600 MgC, 

ranging from a low point in 1906 of 9 MgC in use and 6 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 15 MgC, to the high point in 1914 of 3,101 MgC in use and 2,395 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 5,496 MgC (fig. 14). Following 1929, average 

carbon storage experienced a short downward trend, hitting the global minimum 

in 1932 with 569 MgC in use and 439 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 1,008 

MgC. After 1932, average carbon storage experienced positive growth at an 

exponential rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until reaching the global maximum in 1968 with 23,937 MgC in use and 22,071 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 46,008 MgC. Following 1968, average carbon storage 

in the HWP began to rapidly decline with a moderate amount of inter-annual 

variability, hitting a local minimum in 1977 with 8,461 MgC in use and 7,866 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 16,327 MgC. Following 1977, average carbon 

storage quickly increased with high inter-annual variability until hitting a local 

maximum in 1986 with 20,409 MgC in use and 18,113 MgC in the SWDS for 

a total of 38,522 MgC. During the time period from 1977 to 1986, the lowest 

average carbon storage was recorded in 1982 with 5,428 MgC in use and 5,072 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 10,500 MgC. After 1986, carbon storage rapidly 

declined until 1993 with 5,098 MgC in use and 4,710 MgC in the SWDS for 

a total of 9,808 MgC. Following 1993, carbon storage continued to decline at 

a slow pace with moderate inter-annual variability, hitting a local minimum in 

2007 with 1,936 MgC in use and 2,040 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 3,976 

MgC, and ending in 2009 with 3,497 MgC in use and 3,886 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 7,383 MgC (tables 12, 13).

 

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

50,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage

(MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 14—Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest harvest 100-year average 

carbon HWP storage using the California Forest Project Protocol.
34 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Table 12—Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest 100-year average 

carbon stored in HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 1,569 1,212 2,782

1920 1,999 1,544 3,543

1930 1,618 1,250 2,867

1940 2,185 1,688 3,872

1950 3,560 3,282 6,842

1960 12,356 11,393 23,749

1970 16,554 15,390 31,944

1980 14,593 13,194 27,787

1990 14,325 12,375 26,699

1995 4,985 4,844 9,829

2000 4,016 3,718 7,734

2005 3,422 3,079 6,501

2006 2,138 2,027 4,165

2007 1,936 2,040 3,976

2008 3,607 4,194 7,801

2009 3,497 3,886 7,383

a The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest year.

b The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.

Table 13—Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest confidence intervals for 

cumulative carbon in HWP for selected years for harvests beginning 

in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 9,820 5,766 14,550

1920 56,404 32,545 85,326

1930 89,897 50,949 140,735

1940 99,411 59,099 151,992

1950 170,564 104,303 255,572

1960 351,289 223,009 501,897

1970 681,395 439,937 973,440

1980 870,344 558,931 1,249,468

1990 1,134,307 812,007 1,507,189

1995 1,154,887 846,519 1,515,786

2000 1,137,328 859,047 1,475,755

2005 1,115,790 829,519 1,439,286

2006 1,111,169 821,927 1,428,828

2007 1,103,375 825,493 1,417,899

2008 1,095,612 820,246 1,411,974

2009 1,094,362 831,200 1,420,063

2010 1,092,467 829,182 1,402,117
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 35

Bitterroot National Forest

Description

The Bitterroot National Forest is located in western Montana and eastern Idaho 

(fig. 15). The forest is approximately 65 miles from east to west, and 85 miles 

from north to south with the Bitterroot River Valley running from north to south 

within the northern portion of the forest. The forest is bordered by the Lolo National Forest to the north, the Lolo and Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forests 

to the east, the Salmon-Challis National Forest to the south, the Payette National 

Forest to the southwest, and the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest to the west.

Figure 15—Location map of Bitterroot National Forest.
36 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

The Bitterroot National Forest was established as the Bitter Root National Forest on February 22, 1897. On July 1, 1908, the forest name was changed to the 

Bitterroot National Forest with the addition of some lands from the Big Hole and 

Hell Gate National Forests, as well as the transfer of some lands to the Beaverhead, the Nez Perce-Clearwater, and the Salmon National Forests. On October 

29, 1943, a final addition to the Bitterroot National Forest was made as lands 

from the Selway National Forest were added (Davis 1983).

The Bitterroot National Forest is 1,580,550 acres and contains over 60 unique 

forest habitat types (Frescino 2000). The most common habitat type is classified as moderately warm and dry, covering over 460,000 acres with cover type 

consisting of mostly Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine. The next most common 

habitat type is cool and moderately dry followed by cool and moist. Due to higher 

elevations being associated with increased precipitation and lower temperatures, 

ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, and lodgepole pine are the more successful forest 

types in lower elevations, while lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, 

and whitebark pine are more successful at higher elevations. The forest is 92 

percent forested, leaving the remaining 8 percent either non-forested or water 

(Frescino 2000). Forty-seven percent of the forested lands are protected under 

reserves, while 60 percent of non-reserved lands are considered suitable for timber 

production. The net annual growth of all forested lands is estimated to be over 42 

million cubic feet. Forest cover is 43 percent Douglas-fir, 22 percent spruce-fir, 

18 percent lodgepole pine, 9 percent ponderosa pine, 3 percent whitebark pine, 

2 percent larch, 2 percent Engelmann spruce, and 1 percent grand fir (Frescino 

2000). Stands of old growth forests are also present on the Bitterroot National 

Forest, estimated to cover 12.8 percent of the forested area with habitat levels 

increasing 2 percent between 2004 and 2006, and currently exceeding the 144,000 

acres desired (USDA 2007, 2008a, p 22).

Natural disturbances within the Bitterroot National Forest are insect infestation, 

including significant impacts from Douglas-fir bark beetle and mountain pine 

beetle activity, and recent forest fires (USDA 2008a; USDA 2012b). Bark beetle 

infestations were near or over epidemic levels for 13 years prior to 2008, but have 

since declined with only 14,332 infected acres being detected in 2008, versus 

114,400 acres in 2005. This decline may be the result of increased precipitation 

during 2005 and 2006 or more likely a lack of healthy host trees to infect (USDA 

2008a, p 18). The mountain pine beetle is also present on the forest, causing 

concern associated with the infection and mortality of whitebark pine. A partial 

aerial survey of the forest showed that 16,367 acres were infected with mountain 

pine beetle in 2009, which went up to 73,642 acres in 2010 and 99,006 acres in 

2011, mostly occurring in lodgepole and 5-needle pine in 2009 and 2010, and in 

lodgepole and ponderosa pine in 2011 (USDA 2012b, p 45). Other disturbances 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 37

that continue to shape the forest include recent fire activity in 1996, 2000, 2003, 

2005, 2006, and 2007 (USDA 2008a, p 15). Within the forest, 37 percent of plots 

show no visible signs of disturbances, 26 percent show signs of disease, 13 percent 

show evidence of fire, 11 percent show evidence of tree cutting, 5 percent show 

signs of weather damage, and the remaining 8 percent show evidence of insect 

damage, wind damage, or some other disturbance (Frescino 2000).

Harvest Trends

From 1906 to 1929, timber production averaged about 7,000 MgC per year 

before beginning a downward trend (fig. 16). Starting at the global minimum 

of 1,960 MgC in 1932, annual timber production began to grow exponentially 

with some inter-annual variability until 1969 when timber production hit the 

global maximum at 117,914 MgC. Following 1969, timber production began to 

rapidly decline until hitting a local minimum in 1974 of 37,617 MgC. After 1974, 

production averaged about 39,000 MgC per year until 1978 when production 

began to increase with some inter-annual variability, hitting a local maximum 

in 1981 of 75,447 MgC. In1982, production sharply decreased for one year to 

20,413 MgC, followed by a sharp increase until hitting a local maximum of 

76,660 MgC in 1985. After 1985, production rapidly fell, hitting a local minimum 

of 6,931 MgC in 1994. From 1995 to 2009, production experienced some interannual variability with an average of 11,000 MgC per year, a local minimum of 

5,671 MgC in 2001, a local maximum of 23,804 MgC in 2002, and ending in 

2009 with 12,223 MgC in production.

 

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 16—Annual timber product output for Bitterroot National Forest, 1906 

to 2010.
38 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907 total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out 

in 1931with 69,174 MgC in use and 15,219 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

84,393 MgC (fig. 17). After 1940, carbon storage began to grow exponentially 

until 1970 with 522,812 MgC in use and 137,841 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of 660,653 MgC. Following 1970, carbon storage continued to grow at a rapid 

rate until slowing in 1974 with 586,553 MgC in use and 174,050 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 760,603 MgC. After 1979, carbon storage began to grow at 

an increased rate with the exception of 1983, until hitting the global maximum 

in 1991 with 689,244 MgC in use and 277,554 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of 966,798 MgC. After 1991, carbon storage began to decline at a slow, steady 

rate with the exception of 2003, ending in 2010 with 550,705 MgC in use and 

303,653 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 854,358 MgC remaining in total carbon 

storage (table 14).

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged about 3,300 MgC ranging from 

a low point in 1907 of 16 MgC in use and 1 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

17 MgC, to the high point in 1915 of 5,395 MgC in use and 797 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 6,192 MgC (fig. 18). After 1929, net stock change began 

to decline until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –767 MgC in use and 

299 MgC in the SWDS for a net negative change in carbon stocks (emissions) 

of –468 MgC. Following 1933, net stock change experienced positive growth 

at an exponential rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until 

hitting the global maximum in 1970 with 41,512 MgC in use and 10,415 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 51,927 MgC. After 1970, net additions rapidly declined 

 

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 17—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from Bitterroot 

National Forest timber.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 39

until hitting a local minimum in 1975 with –3,495 MgC in use and 6,003 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total net stock change of 2,508 MgC. Following 1975, net 

stock change averaged a total of 4,500 MgC until 1979 when net stock change 

rapidly increased with a moderate amount if inter-annual variability until hitting 

another local maximum in 1982 with 22,862 MgC in use and 8,306 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 31,168 MgC. Net additions sharply decreased in 1983, hitting a local minimum with –10,079 MgC in use and 4,632 MgC in the SWDS for 

Table 14—Bitterroot National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table shows the fate of 

all carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total remaining

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS in HWP poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 5,359 428 8,190 829 9,019

1920 33,264 6,841 44,164 7,639 51,803

1930 58,675 20,882 67,897 14,666 82,563

1940 73,826 38,854 73,518 17,783 91,301

1950 124,969 63,672 130,453 26,197 156,649

1960 262,637 127,565 256,831 65,801 322,632

1970 558,372 283,358 522,812 137,841 660,653

1980 773,187 492,085 605,262 204,972 810,234

1990 963,943 681,219 692,894 272,475 965,369

1995 995,305 765,933 651,846 289,497 941,343

2000 1,019,378 838,617 612,254 296,995 909,249

2005 1,043,112 902,426 583,099 301,039 884,139

2006 1,046,577 914,407 576,150 301,641 877,791

2007 1,050,325 926,064 569,082 302,152 871,234

2008 1,054,662 937,428 563,011 302,689 865,700

2009 1,058,480 948,435 555,876 303,108 858,983

2010 1,064,577 959,186 550,705 303,653 854,358

a

 Sum of products in use and SWDS.

 

‐20,000

‐10,000

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990 to

2010

Figure 18—Bitterroot National Forest net change in carbon stocks in HWP from 

the previous year.
40 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

a total net stock change of –5,447 MgC. Net stock change experienced a period 

of rapid growth after 1983, hitting a local maximum in 1986 with 21,646 MgC 

in use and 8,012 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 29,658 MgC. Following 1986, 

net stock change experienced a rapid decline, first showing signs of sustained 

net negative growth in 1992 and hitting the global minimum in 1995 with 

–13,089 MgC in use and 1,842 MgC in the SWDS for a total net negative stock 

change of –11,247 MgC. After 1995, net additions averaged about –6,000 MgC 

per year while experiencing some inter-annual variability. In the period from 1995 

to 2010, net additions hit a local maximum in 2003 with 745 MgC in use and 

1,207 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 1,952 MgC, ending in 2010 with –5,170 

MgC in use and 545 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –4,625 MgC (table 15).

From 1906 to 1929, the 100-year carbon storage averaged about 3,200 MgC 

ranging from a low point in 1906 of 7 MgC in use and 6 MgC in the SWDS for 

a total of 13 MgC, to the high point in 1914 of 2,848 MgC in use and 2,200 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 5,048 MgC (fig. 19). Following 1929, average carbon 

storage experienced a short downward trend, hitting the global minimum in 1932 

with 522 MgC in use and 404 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 926 MgC. After 

1932, average carbon storage experienced positive growth at an exponential 

rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until reaching the global 

Table 15—Bitterroot National Forest 

annual net change in HWP 

carbon stocks for selected years 

for harvests beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 3,616

1920 3,370

1930 2,630

1940 558

1950 10,352

1960 20,555

1970 51,927

1980 13,532

1990 8,913

1995 -11,247

2000 -9,619

2005 -6,397

2006 -6,347

2007 -6,557

2008 -5,534

2009 -6,716

2010 -4,625

a Net annual change in carbon in products in 

use and SWDS.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 41

maximum in 1969 with 23,405 MgC in use and 21,580 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of 44,985 MgC. Average carbon storage in HWP began to rapidly decline 

following 1969 until hitting a local minimum in 1974, with 7,423 MgC in use 

and 6,902 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 14,325 MgC. Average carbon storage 

hovered about 15,000 MgC until 1978, when carbon stores rapidly increased 

until hitting a local maximum in 1981with 16,069 MgC in use and 14,485 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 30,554 MgC. Carbon storage dropped drastically in 

1982, hitting a local minimum with 4,266 MgC in use and 3,987 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 8,253 MgC. After 1982, carbon storage rapidly increased 

until hitting a local maximum in 1985 with 15,786 MgC in use and 14,412 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 30,197 MgC. Carbon storage quickly declined after 

1985 with some isolated inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum in 

2001 with 958 MgC in use and 945 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 1,904 MgC. 

In 2002, carbon storage hit a local maximum with 4,650 MgC in use and 4,406 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 9,056 MgC. However, carbon storage declined 

after 2002, averaging about 3,500 MgC from 2004 to 2009 and ending in 2009 

with 1,817 MgC in use and 2,019 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 3,836 MgC 

(tables 16, 17).

 

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

50,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage (MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 19—Bitterroot National Forest 100-year average carbon HWP storage 

using the California Forest Project Protocol.
42 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Table 16—Bitterroot National Forest 100-year average carbon stored 

in HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 1,441 1,113 2,555

1920 1,836 1,418 3,254

1930 1,486 1,148 2,634

1940 2,007 1,550 3,556

1950 3,270 3,015 6,284

1960 11,348 10,463 21,811

1970 16,263 15,120 31,382

1980 11,290 10,208 21,498

1990 6,388 5,519 11,907

1995 2,237 2,173 4,410

2000 1,104 1,022 2,126

2005 1,834 1,650 3,484

2006 1,594 1,512 3,106

2007 1,763 1,857 3,620

2008 1,215 1,413 2,628

2009 1,817 2,019 3,835

a The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest year.

b The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.

Table 17—Bitterroot National Forest confidence intervals for cumulative 

carbon in HWP for selected years for harvests beginning in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 9,019 5,296 13,363

1920 51,803 29,891 78,365

1930 82,563 46,793 129,254

1940 91,301 54,277 139,592

1950 156,649 95,794 234,722

1960 322,632 204,817 460,954

1970 660,653 426,545 943,808

1980 810,234 520,329 1,163,174

1990 965,369 691,071 1,282,716

1995 941,343 689,994 1,235,510

2000 909,249 686,775 1,179,808

2005 884,139 657,301 1,140,474

2006 877,791 649,298 1,128,732

2007 871,234 651,816 1,119,585

2008 865,700 648,119 1,115,674

2009 858,983 652,423 1,114,631

2010 854,358 648,457 1,096,518
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 43

Custer National Forest

Description

The Custer National Forest is spread across southern Montana, and north-western 

South Dakota (fig. 20). The forest spans an area approximately 330 miles from 

east to west, and 45 miles from north to south with the Crow and Northern 

Cheyenne Reservations as well as non-Federal holdings throughout the area. The 

forest is bordered by the Gallatin National Forest and Crow Reservation as well 

as privately held lands to the north, privately held lands to the east, the Gallatin 

National Forest and the state of Wyoming as well as privately held lands to the 

south, Yellowstone National Park to the southwest, and the Gallatin National 

Forest to the west.

The Otter National Forest was established on March 2, 1907, before having its 

name changed to the Custer National Forest on July 1, 1908. On January 13, 

1920, the entire Sioux National Forest was added to the forest, followed by a 

final addition on February 17, 1932, of part of the Beartooth National Forest 

(Davis 1983).

Figure 20—Location map of Custer National Forest.
44 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

The Custer National Forest is 1,187,143 acres and contains over 35 unique forest habitat types that have been categorized into eastside habitat type groups 

(DeBlander 2001b). The most common habitat classification is warm and very 

dry covering 39 percent of the forest, followed by the classification of cold 

covering 15 percent. Due to higher elevations being associated with increased 

precipitation and lower temperatures, forest cover type varies across the forest. 

Within the eastern portion of the forest (Ashland and Sioux Ranger Districts), 

which is below 5,000 feet in elevation, ponderosa pine and Rocky Mountain juniper are successful forest types. In the western portion of the forest (Beartooth 

Ranger District), which is primarily above 5,000 feet in elevation, lodgepole 

pine, Douglas-fir, aspen, and Rocky Mountain juniper are successful forest types 

in lower elevations, while in higher elevations lodgepole pine, whitebark pine, 

Engelmann spruce, and subalpine fir are successful forest types (DeBlander 

2001b). The forest is 56 percent forested, leaving the remaining 44 percent either 

non-forested or water. Twenty eight percent of the forested lands are protected 

under reserves in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness areas, while 59 percent of 

non-reserved lands are considered suitable for timber production. The net annual 

growth of all forested lands is estimated to be 7.1 million cubic feet. Forest cover 

is 51 percent ponderosa pine, 12 percent lodgepole pine, 11 percent Douglasfir, 9 percent whitebark pine, 8 percent spruce-fir, 6 percent Engelmann spruce, 

2 percent limber pine, and 1 percent aspen (DeBlander 2001b). Stands of old 

growth forest are also present on the Custer National Forest, estimated to cover 

10.1 percent of forested lands (USDA 2007).

Natural disturbances within the Custer National Forest are fire, weather damage, and signs of sudden aspen decline (SAD) (DeBlander 2001b; Hamilton and 

others 2009). It was estimated that 9.2 million cubic feet of growing stock died 

in 1996, with 68 percent of tree mortality being the result of fire, and 11 percent 

resulting from weather damage (DeBlander 2001b). It was also estimated that 

73 percent of tree mortality occurred in whitebark pine and Engelmann spruce, 

of which all the whitebark pine mortality and half of Engelmann spruce took 

place on a single burn in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (DeBlander 2001b). 

Other recent fire disturbances that continue to shape the forest include the fires 

in 2000, which are currently being studied to determine fire activity influence 

following insect infestations on ponderosa pine (USDA 2003, p 457). SAD has 

also been detected in the forest on southern aspects and lower elevations, in part 

due to acute drought conditions and hotter than normal temperatures (Hamilton 

and others 2009). Within the forest, 27 percent of plots show no visible signs 

of disturbances, 30 percent show evidence of fire, 11 percent show evidence 

of weather damage, 10 percent show signs of disease, 7 percent show signs of 

animal damage, 6 percent show evidence of cutting, 2 percent show evidence of 

wind or road building damage, 1 percent show signs of insect damage, and the 

remaining 4 percent show evidence of other disturbances (DeBlander 2001b).
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 45

Harvest Trends

From 1906 to 1929, timber production averaged about 350 MgC per year 

before beginning a downward trend (fig. 21). Starting at the global minimum 

of 99 MgC in 1932, annual timber production began to grow exponentially, 

with some inter-annual variability until hitting a local maximum of 6,622 MgC 

in 1967. After 1967, timber production experienced high inter-annual variability, hitting another local maximum of 7,802 MgC in 1972 before sharply 

declining the following year to a local minimum of 564 MgC in 1973. In 1974, 

production sharply rose to a local maximum of 5,701 MgC, before sharply 

declining to 1,180 MgC the following year. After 1975, production slowly 

increased with some inter-annual variability until 1983, when production 

began to rapidly increase with high inter-annual variability until reaching 

the global maximum of 21,513 MgC in 1989. Production sharply declined 

after 1989 until reaching 3,061 MgC in 1991. From 1991 to 2009, production 

slowly increased with high inter-annual variability, hitting a local minimum 

of 1,073 MgC in 1998, a local maximum of 13,669 MgC in 2003, and ending 

with 6,451 MgC in 2009.

 

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 21—Annual timber product output for Custer National Forest, 1906 to 2010.
46 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907 total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out in 

1931 with 3,483 MgC in use and 766 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 4,249 MgC 

(fig. 22). Total carbon storage began to grow exponentially after 1940 with some 

isolated inter-annual variability occurring between 1967 and 1973, resulting in 

30,810 MgC in use and 8,611 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 39,421 MgC in 

storage in 1973. From 1973 to 1983, carbon storage continued to grow at a slow 

pace with the exceptions of 1974, 1976, 1977, and 1979, resulting in 31,085 MgC 

in use and 11,256 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 42,341 MgC in storage in 

1983. After 1983, carbon storage rapidly increased until 1991 with 61,209 MgC 

in use and 20,713 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 81,922 MgC. From 1991 to 

2010, carbon storage continued to quickly increase with high inter-annual variability showing a net loss in 1998, 1999, 2002, and 2009, ending at the global 

maximum in 2010 with 70,727 MgC in use and 38,346 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of 109,073 MgC remaining in total carbon storage (table 18).

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged about 150 MgC ranging from 

a low point in 1907 of 1 MgC in use and 0 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

1 MgC, to the high point in 1915 of 272 MgC in use and 40 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 312 MgC (fig. 23). After 1929, net stock change began to decline until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –39 MgC in use and 15 MgC 

in the SWDS for a net negative change in carbon stocks (emissions) of –24 MgC. 

 

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 22—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from Custer National Forest timber.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 47

 

‐4,000

‐2,000

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990 to 2010

Table 18—Custer National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table shows the fate of all 

carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total remaining

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS in HWP poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 270 22 412 42 454

1920 1,675 344 2,223 385 2,608

1930 2,954 1,051 3,418 738 4,157

1940 3,717 1,956 3,701 895 4,597

1950 6,292 3,206 6,568 1,319 7,886

1960 13,222 6,422 12,930 3,313 16,243

1970 28,517 14,356 26,809 7,038 33,848

1980 39,473 25,228 30,656 10,594 41,250

1990 66,598 36,259 58,906 19,115 78,021

1995 74,980 44,117 61,338 25,129 86,467

2000 84,024 51,807 64,189 29,890 94,079

2005 93,540 59,424 68,159 34,013 102,172

2006 97,099 61,183 71,119 35,080 106,199

2007 98,689 62,881 70,744 35,921 106,665

2008 100,643 64,569 70,838 36,766 107,604

2009 101,954 66,184 69,958 37,504 107,462

2010 105,171 67,805 70,727 38,346 109,073

a

 Sum of products in use and SWDS.

Figure 23—Custer National Forest net change in carbon stocks in HWP from the 

previous year.
48 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Following 1933, net stock change experienced positive growth with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until hitting a local maximum in 1973 

with 3,000 MgC in use and 692 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 3,692 MgC. 

Net stock change hit a local minimum in 1974 with –1,019 MgC in use and 

293 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –726 MgC, before slowly increasing with 

some inter-annual variability until 1983 with –10 MgC in use and 212 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total net stock change of 202 MgC. Following 1983, net stock 

change rapidly increased with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until 

hitting the global maximum in 1990 with 10,026 MgC in use and 2,331 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 12,357 MgC. Net stock change sharply decreased 

after 1990, hitting a local minimum in 1992 with –729 MgC in use and 1,197 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 468 MgC. From 1992 to 2010, net stock change 

slowly increased with high inter-annual variability, hitting the global minimum 

in 1999 with –1,412 MgC in use and 672 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –740 

MgC, a local maximum in 2004 with 5,737 MgC in use and 1,165 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 6,902 MgC, and ending in 2010 with 769 MgC in use and 

843 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 1,612 MgC (table 19).

Table 19—Custer National Forest annual 

net change in HWP carbon 

stocks for selected years for 

harvests beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 182

1920 170

1930 132

1940 28

1950 521

1960 1,035

1970 2,796

1980 515

1990 12,357

1995 1,254

2000 4,085

2005 1,389

2006 4,026

2007 466

2008 939

2009 -142

2010 1,611

a Net annual change in carbon in products 

in use and SWDS.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 49

From 1906 to 1929, the 100-year average carbon storage was about 160 MgC 

ranging from a low point in 1906 of 1 MgC in use and 0 MgC in the SWDS for 

a total of 1 MgC, to the high point in 1914 of 143 MgC in use and 111 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 254 MgC (fig. 24). Following 1929, average carbon 

storage experienced a short downward trend, hitting the global minimum in 1932 

with 27 MgC in use and 20 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 47 MgC. After 1932, 

average carbon storage experienced positive growth with a moderate amount of 

inter-annual variability until reaching a local maximum in 1972 with 1,540 MgC 

in use and 1,431 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 2,971 MgC. The following 

year in 1973, total average carbon storage in HWP hit a local minimum with 

111 MgC in use and 103 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 214 MgC, before slowly 

increasing with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until 1982 with 

357 MgC in use and 334 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 691 MgC. After 1982, 

average carbon storage rapidly increased, hitting the global maximum in 1989 

with 4,592 MgC in use and 3,920 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 8,512 MgC. 

average carbon storage sharply decreased after 1989, hitting a local minimum in 

1991 with 660 MgC in use and 582 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 1,242 MgC. 

From 1991 to 2009, carbon stores slowly increased with high inter-annual variability hitting a local minimum in 1998 with 204 MgC in use and 202 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 406 MgC, a local maximum in 2003 with 2,760 MgC in 

use and 2,527 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 5,287 MgC, and ending in 2009 

with 959 MgC in use and 1,065 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 2,024 MgC 

(tables 20, 21).

 

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage (MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 24—Custer National Forest harvest 100-year average carbon HWP storage 

using the California Forest Project Protocol.
50 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Table 20—Custer National Forest 100-year average carbon stored in 

HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 73 56 129

1920 92 71 164

1930 75 58 133

1940 101 78 179

1950 165 152 316

1960 571 527 1,098

1970 872 810 1,682

1980 401 363 763

1990 1,809 1,563 3,372

1995 1,655 1,608 3,264

2000 476 441 918

2005 1,884 1,695 3,578

2006 676 641 1,318

2007 794 837 1,631

2008 417 485 902

2009 959 1,065 2,024

a The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest 

year.

b The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.

Table 21—Custer National Forest confidence intervals for cumulative carbon 

in HWP for selected years for harvests beginning in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 454 267 673

1920 2,608 1,505 3,945

1930 4,157 2,356 6,508

1940 4,597 2,733 7,028

1950 7,886 4,822 11,816

1960 16,243 10,312 23,207

1970 33,848 21,854 48,355

1980 41,250 26,491 59,219

1990 78,021 55,852 103,669

1995 86,467 63,379 113,488

2000 94,079 71,060 122,073

2005 102,172 75,958 131,794

2006 106,199 78,555 136,559

2007 106,665 79,802 137,071

2008 107,604 80,559 138,675

2009 107,462 81,621 139,445

2010 109,073 82,786 139,989
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 51

Flathead National Forest

Description

The Flathead National Forest is located in northwestern Montana and stretches 

nearly 100 miles from the Canadian border to its southern boundary with Lolo 

National Forest near St. Ignatius, Montana (fig. 25). The forest is bordered by 

Glacier National Park to the northeast, Lewis and Clark National Forest to the 

east, Lolo National Forest to the south, and Kootenai National Forest to the 

northwest. The southwest is bordered by the Flathead Reservation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, as well as private land and other non-Federal 

holdings around Flathead Lake and north throughout the Flathead River Valley.

Figure 25—Location map of Flathead National Forest.
52 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

The Flathead National Forest was established on February 22, 1897, effective 

March 1, 1898. On June 9, 1903, the Flathead National Forest was discontinued 

and consolidated with the Lewis and Clarke National Forest until July 1, 1908, 

when the Flathead National Forest was reestablished from part of the Lewis and 

Clark National Forest. On June 22, 1935, part of the Blackfoot National Forest 

was added to the Flathead when the Blackfoot was discontinued (Davis 1983).

The Flathead National Forest is 2,351,950 acres and contains many diverse ecosystems common in western Montana due to a wide variation in local climates 

caused by large elevation changes (O’Brien 1999; USDA 1985, p VI-18). The most 

prevalent habitat type is classified as cool and moist, occurring on 48 percent of 

the forest (O’Brien 1999). The forest is 89 percent forested, leaving the remaining 

11 percent either non-forested or water. Forty-six percent of the forested lands 

are protected under reserves, including wilderness designation, and 51 percent 

of non-reserved lands are considered suitable for timber production, with net 

annual growth of all forested lands estimated to be over 72 million cubic feet 

(O’Brien 1999). Forest ecosystems range from warm, dry ponderosa pine forests 

to cool, moist whitebark pine forests (USDA 1985, p VI-18). Forest cover is 47 

percent spruce-fir, 19 percent Douglas-fir, 17 percent lodgepole pine, 6 percent 

Engelmann spruce, 5 percent larch, 3 percent whitebark pine, as well as traces 

of grand fir, ponderosa pine, and aspen (O’Brien 1999). Old growth forests are 

also present, estimated to cover 11.0 percent of the forested area (USDA 2007).

Natural disturbances within the Flathead National Forest are insect infestation 

including significant impacts from the mountain pine beetle, and forest fires 

(USDA 1985, 2012b). Infected timber from the mountain pine beetle jumped 

260 percent to 315,000 acres in just one year from 1979 to1980. In 1985, 54mmbf 

of lodgepole pine were considered to be at high risk of infection within 10 years 

(USDA 1985, p VI-25). A partial aerial survey of the forest showed that 32,076 

acres were infected with mountain pine beetle in 2009, 77,697 acres in 2010, and 

7,840 acres in 2011, mostly occurring in lodgepole pine for all 3 years (USDA 

2012b, p 45). Large fire disturbances also occurred on the forest in 1910, 1926, 

and 1929 resulting in 75- to 95-year old lodgepole pine stands (USDA 1985, 

p VI-25). Within the forest, 24 percent of plots show no visible signs of disturbances, 22 percent show signs of disease, 14 percent have evidence of fire, 14 

percent show evidence of cutting, 11 percent have signs of weather damage, and 

15 percent have undergone road building, land clearing, or other disturbances 

(O’Brien 1999).

Harvest Trends

Flathead National Forest is among the top five timber producing National Forests 

in the Northern Region (fig. 9). From 1906 to 1929, timber production averaged 

about 22,000 MgC per year before beginning a downward trend (fig. 26). Starting 

at the global minimum of 6,223 MgC in 1932, annual timber production began 

to grow exponentially with some inter-annual variability until 1969, when timber 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 53

production hit its global maximum at 276,375 MgC. After 1969 timber production began to fall with some inter-annual variability, hitting a local minimum of 

89,617 MgC in 1982. The years following 1982, production sharply increased 

hitting a local maximum of 200,751 MgC in 1988. From 1988 production began 

to fall again until hitting a local minimum of 10,249 MgC in 2002. In 2003, 

production rose back up to 43,539 MgC and was at 65,197 MgC in 2009.

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907 total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out 

in 1931with 219,623 MgC in use and 48,318 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

267,941 MgC (fig. 27). After 1940 carbon storage began to grow exponentially 

until 1973 with 1,724,923 MgC in use and 499,772 in the SWDS for a total of 

2,224,695 MgC. Carbon storage continued to grow after 1973 at a steady rate 

until hitting a 4-year plateau starting in 1990 with 2,180,697 MgC in use and 

849,897 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 3,030,594 MgC. The plateau ended in 

1994 at the global maximum with 2,137,185 MgC in use and 908,423 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 3,045,609 MgC. Carbon storage fell after 1990 at a steady 

rate until slowing in 2005 with 1,824,997 MgC in use and 953,420 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 2,778,417 MgC. After 2005 carbon storage still fell but at 

very slow decline ending in 2010 with 1,789,615 MgC in use and 970,886 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 2,760,501 MgC remaining in total carbon storage 

(table 22).

 

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 26—Annual timber product output for Flathead National Forest, 1906 to 2010.
54 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

 

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 27—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from Flathead 

National Forest timber.

Table 22—Flathead National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table shows the fate of 

all carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total remaining

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS in HWP poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 17,014 1,360 26,004 2,632 28,635

1920 105,609 21,721 140,216 24,253 164,469

1930 186,289 66,299 215,566 46,564 262,130

1940 234,389 123,358 233,413 56,459 289,872

1950 396,766 202,154 414,175 83,172 497,347

1960 833,849 405,008 815,415 208,912 1,024,327

1970 1,675,610 885,546 1,530,368 418,978 1,949,345

1980 2,430,781 1,528,080 1,918,450 647,981 2,566,432

1990 3,013,675 2,116,990 2,180,697 849,897 3,030,594

1995 3,146,344 2,388,696 2,099,221 917,028 3,016,249

2000 3,213,258 2,621,611 1,952,610 944,667 2,897,277

2005 3,261,391 2,819,207 1,824,997 953,420 2,778,417

2006 3,288,513 2,857,137 1,827,587 956,989 2,784,576

2007 3,313,718 2,894,652 1,820,953 960,402 2,781,355

2008 3,329,763 2,931,281 1,803,159 963,138 2,766,297

2009 3,359,717 2,967,628 1,796,744 966,867 2,763,610

2010 3,392,238 3,003,413 1,789,615 970,886 2,760,502

a

 Sum of products in use and SWDS.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 55

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged about 13,000 MgC ranging from 

a low point in 1907 of 51 MgC in use and 4 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

55 MgC, to the high point in 1915 of 17,129 MgC in use and 2,531 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 19,660 MgC (fig. 28). After 1929, net stock change began 

to decline until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –2,433 MgC in use and 

949 MgC in the SWDS for a net negative change in carbon stocks (emissions) 

of –1,486 MgC. Following 1933, net stock change experienced positive growth 

at an exponential rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until 

hitting the global maximum in 1967 with 90,762 MgC in use and 24,165 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 114,927 MgC. After 1967, net additions rapidly declined with high inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum in 1983 

with –15,038 MgC in use and 15,229 MgC in the SWDS for a total net stock 

change of 191 MgC. This was followed by a period of rapid growth until hitting 

a local maximum in 1989 with 48,227 MgC in use and 25,289 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 73,516 MgC in net stock change. Net stock change experienced a 

steep decline after 1989 first showing signs of net negative growth in 1992 with 

–17,828 MgC in use and 14,585 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –3,243 MgC. 

This downward trend hit the global minimum in 2002 with –35,618 MgC in 

use and 1,411 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –34,207 MgC. Following 2002, 

yearly net stock change increased showing a positive net stock change in 2006 

with 2,590 MgC in use and 3,569 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 6,159 MgC, 

followed by 4 years of net negative growth, ending in 2010 with –7,128 MgC in 

use and 4,020 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –3,108 MgC (table 23).

 

‐60,000

‐40,000

‐20,000

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 28—Flathead National Forest net change in carbon stocks in HWP from 

the previous year.
56 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

From 1906 to 1929, the 100-year average carbon storage hovered about 

10,300 MgC with approximately 5,800 MgC in use and 4,500 MgC in the SWDS 

before beginning a short downward trend and hitting the global minimum in 1932 

with 1,659 MgC in use and 1,281 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 2,940 MgC 

(fig.29). After 1932 average carbon storage grew exponentially reaching the global 

maximum in 1969 with 54,857 MgC in use and 50,580 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of 105,437 MgC. Following 1969, average carbon storage in HWP began 

to fall with high inter-annual variability hitting a local minimum in 1982, with 

18,731 MgC in use and 17,503 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 36,234 MgC. 

Carbon stores grew rapidly after 1982, hitting a local maximum in 1988 with 

44,214 MgC in use and 37,373 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 81,587 MgC. 

This was followed by a steady decline in carbon storage, hitting the most recent 

and lowest local minimum in 2001 with 1,804 MgC in use and 1,779 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 3,583 MgC. The average storage increased to about 

20,000 MgC from 2003 to 2009, ending in 2009 with 9,690 MgC in use and 

10,767 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 20,457 MgC (tables 24, 25).

Table 23—Flathead National Forest annual 

net change in HWP carbon 

stocks for selected years for 

harvests beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 11,482

1920 10,699

1930 8,349

1940 1,770

1950 32,866

1960 65,261

1970 110,365

1980 34,497

1990 40,477

1995 -29,359

2000 -29,397

2005 -8,093

2006 6,159

2007 -3,221

2008 -15,058

2009 -2,687

2010 -3,109

a Net annual change in carbon in products in 

use and SWDS.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 57

 

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage

(MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 29—Flathead National Forest harvest 100-year average carbon HWP storage using the California Forest Project Protocol.

Table 24—Flathead National Forest 100-year average carbon stored 

in HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 4,576 3,535 8,111

1920 5,830 4,503 10,332

1930 4,717 3,644 8,361

1940 6,371 4,921 11,291

1950 10,381 9,571 19,952

1960 36,029 33,220 69,249

1970 47,382 44,051 91,433

1980 32,495 29,379 61,874

1990 21,753 18,792 40,545

1995 7,167 6,963 14,130

2000 2,799 2,591 5,390

2005 14,356 12,914 27,270

2006 10,718 10,166 20,884

2007 6,521 6,872 13,394

2008 9,534 11,086 20,620

2009 9,690 10,767 20,457

a The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest year.

b The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.
58 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Gallatin National Forest

Description

The Gallatin National Forest is located in southern Montana and is approximately 

95 miles from east to west, and 115 miles from north to south with the Yellowstone River Valley running from northeast to southwest within the northern 

portion of the forest (fig. 30). The forest is bordered by the Lewis and Clark 

National Forest as well as privately held lands to the north, the Custer National 

Forest and privately held lands to the east, the Shoshone National Forest and 

Yellowstone National Park to the south, the Caribou-Targhee National Forest to 

the southwest, and privately held lands to the west.

The Gallatin National Forest was established on February 10, 1899. On July 1, 

1908, additional lands were added from the Big Belt National Forest, followed 

by the addition of a portion of the Madison National Forest on December 16, 

1931. On December 16, 1945, a final addition to the Gallatin National Forest 

was made as lands from the Absaroka National Forest were added (Davis 1983).

The Gallatin National Forest is 1,800,626 acres and contains over 60 unique 

forest habitat types that have been classified into eastside habitat type groups 

(DeBlander 2001c). The most common habitat type is classified as cool and dry 

and covers over 28 percent of the forest. The next most common habitat type 

is classified as cold, covering 20 percent of the forest. Due to higher elevations 

being associated with increased precipitation and lower temperatures, Douglasfir and lodgepole pine are the more successful forest types in lower elevations 

Table 25—Flathead National Forest confidence intervals for cumulative carbon 

in HWP for selected years for harvests beginning in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 28,635 16,815 42,429

1920 164,469 94,900 248,802

1930 262,130 148,563 410,369

1940 289,872 172,325 443,192

1950 497,347 304,137 745,221

1960 1,024,327 650,275 1,463,487

1970 1,949,345 1,258,577 2,784,832

1980 2,566,432 1,648,152 3,684,375

1990 3,030,594 2,169,486 4,026,844

1995 3,016,249 2,210,876 3,958,819

2000 2,897,277 2,188,373 3,759,399

2005 2,778,417 2,065,577 3,583,951

2006 2,784,576 2,059,739 3,580,625

2007 2,781,355 2,080,879 3,574,198

2008 2,766,297 2,071,029 3,565,077

2009 2,763,610 2,099,043 3,586,107

2010 2,760,502 2,095,220 3,542,941
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 59

Figure 30—Location map of Gallatin National Forest.

(less than 7,000 feet), while lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, 

whitebark pine, and Douglas-fir are more successful at higher elevations (greater 

than 7,000 feet) (DeBlander 2001c).The forest is 81 percent forested, leaving the 

remaining 19 percent either non-forested or water. Forty percent of the forested 

lands are protected under reserves in the Absaroka Beartooth and Lee Metcalf 

Wilderness areas, while 41 percent of non-reserved lands are considered suitable 

for timber production. The net annual growth of all forested lands is estimated to 

be over 39.1 million cubic feet. Forest cover is 27 percent Douglas-fir, 25 percent 

lodgepole pine, 25 percent spruce-fir, 13 percent whitebark pine, 8 percent Engelmann spruce, 1 percent limber pine, and 1 percent ponderosa pine (DeBlander 

2001c). Stands of old growth forest are also present on the Gallatin National 

Forest, estimated to cover 25.5 percent of the forested area (USDA 2007).
60 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Natural disturbances within the Gallatin National Forest are insect infestation 

including significant impacts from the mountain pine beetle activity, and recent 

forest fires (DeBlander 2001c; USDA 2012b, 1994). In 1997, it was estimated 

that mortality levels within the forest accounted for 22.2 million cubic feet of 

growing stock, with 72 percent of the mortality occurring in lodgepole pine 

and subalpine fir. Twenty-seven percent of the mortality was believed to be 

caused by disease, 26 percent by fire disturbances, and 15 percent by insect infestations (DeBlander 2001c). A partial aerial survey of the forest showed that 

375,921 acres were infected with mountain pine beetle in 2009, which went down 

to 135,523 acres in 2010 and 45,882 acres in 2011, mostly occurring in lodgepole 

and 5-needle pine for all 3 years (USDA 2012b, p 45). Other disturbances that 

continue to shape the forest include the Hell-Roaring and Storm Creek fires of 

the greater 1988 Yellowstone fires (USDA 1994). Within the forest 29 percent 

of plots show no visible signs of disturbances, 26 percent show signs of disease, 

14 percent show evidence of fire, 10 percent show signs of weather damage, 

9 percent show evidence of tree cutting, 4 percent show signs of wind damage, 

4 percent show signs of animal damage, and the remaining 4 percent show evidence of insect damage, road building, land clearing, or some other disturbance 

(DeBlander 2001c).

Harvest Trends

From 1906 to 1929, timber production averaged about 3,500 MgC per year before 

beginning a downward trend (fig. 31). Starting at the global minimum of 1,001 

MgC in 1932, annual timber production began to grow exponentially, with some 

inter-annual variability until 1968 when timber production hit the global maximum 

at 89,317 MgC. Following 1968, timber production began to rapidly decline 

 

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

100,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 31—Annual timber product output for Gallatin National Forest, 1906 to 

2010.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 61

with some inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum in 1976 of 

8,233 MgC. Production quickly increased after 1976, hitting a local maximum 

2 years later in 1978 of 27,768 MgC. Following 1978, production quickly decreased, hitting a local minimum in 1981 of 14,329 MgC, followed by a sharp 

increase hitting a local maximum of 73,743 MgC in 1983. Production rapidly 

decreased after 1983 at a declining rate with some inter-annual variability until 

hitting a local minimum of 4,409 MgC in 1998. From 1999 to 2009, production 

experienced some inter-annual variability with an average about 7,000 MgC per 

year, a local maximum of 9,090 MgC in 1999, a local minimum of 5,005 MgC 

in 2003, and ending in 2009 with 8,638 MgC in production.

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907, total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out 

in 1931 with 35,323 MgC in use and 7,771 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

43,094 MgC (fig. 32). After 1940, carbon storage began to grow exponentially 

until 1969 with 272,274 MgC in use and 68,217 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of 340,491 MgC. Carbon storage continued to grow at a rapid rate after 1969 

until slowing in 1974 with 318,079 MgC in use and 95,047 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 413,126 MgC. From 1974 to 1983, carbon storage experienced 

some inter-annual variability, with negative growth present in 1977, 1978, and 

1982, ending in 1983 with 314,434 MgC in use and 114,270 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 428,704 MgC. Following 1983, carbon storage began to quickly 

grow at a declining rate, hitting a local maximum in 1992 with 406,827 MgC in 

use and 162,686 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 569,513 MgC. Carbon storage 

declined 1,992 MgC in 1993 before hitting the global maximum in 1995 with 

398,888 MgC in use and 172,174 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 571,062 MgC. 

After 1995, carbon storage began to decline at a slow, steady rate, ending in 

2010 with 330,385 MgC in use and 190,455 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

520,840 MgC remaining in total carbon storage (table 26).

 

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 32—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from 

Gallatin National Forest timber.
62 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged about 1,700 MgC ranging from 

a low point in 1907 of 8 MgC in use and 1 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 9 

MgC, to the high point in 1915 of 2,755 MgC in use and 407 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 3,162 MgC (fig. 33). Net stock change began to decline after 1929 

until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –392 MgC in use and 153 MgC in 

the SWDS for a net negative change in carbon stocks (emissions) of –239 MgC. 

Following 1933, net stock change experienced positive growth at an exponential 

rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until hitting the global 

maximum in 1969 with 37,021 MgC in use and 7,052 MgC in the SWDS for 

a total of 44,073 MgC. After 1969, net additions rapidly declined with some 

inter-annual variability, hitting a local minimum in 1977 with –7,341 MgC in 

use and 1,673 MgC in the SWDS for a total net stock change of –5,668 MgC. 

Net stock change experienced moderate inter-annual variability after 1977 averaging about a total of 2,600 MgC until 1984 when net stock change sharply 

increased, hitting a local maximum with 28,119 MgC in use and 5,849 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 33,968 MgC. From 1984 to 1999, net additions rapidly 

decreased at a declining rate while experiencing moderate inter-annual variability. Sustained net negative growth began in 1996, followed by the global 

minimum in1999 with –7,204 MgC in use and 1,504 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total net stock change of –5,700 MgC. After 1999, net additions continued to 

experience some inter-annual variability, averaging a total of –3,200 MgC per 

year, and ending in 2010 with –2,790 MgC in use and 740 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of –2,050 MgC (table 27).

Table 26—Gallatin National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table shows the fate of 

all carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total remaining

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS in HWP poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 2,736 219 4,182 423 4,606

1920 16,986 3,493 22,552 3,901 26,452

1930 29,962 10,663 34,671 7,489 42,160

1940 37,698 19,840 37,541 9,081 46,622

1950 63,814 32,513 66,614 13,377 79,991

1960 134,112 65,139 131,147 33,600 164,748

1970 301,066 147,538 287,234 73,892 361,126

1980 405,709 261,091 313,471 108,646 422,117

1990 541,966 362,897 401,704 153,750 555,453

1995 576,447 414,024 398,888 172,174 571,062

2000 592,499 458,443 371,661 181,695 553,355

2005 604,885 496,688 347,977 186,861 534,838

2006 606,967 503,697 343,630 187,582 531,212

2007 610,221 510,564 340,431 188,342 528,773

2008 612,568 517,226 336,266 189,001 525,267

2009 616,257 523,749 333,174 189,715 522,889

2010 620,566 530,127 330,384 190,455 520,840

a

 Sum of products in use and SWDS.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 63

 

‐10,000

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990 to 2010

Table 27—Gallatin National Forest annual 

net change in HWP carbon 

stocks for selected years for 

harvests beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 1,847

1920 1,721

1930 1,343

1940 285

1950 5,286

1960 10,496

1970 20,636

1980 5,544

1990 10,575

1995 2,177

2000 -2,678

2005 -3,977

2006 -3,625

2007 -2,439

2008 -3,507

2009 -2,377

2010 -2,050

a Net annual change in carbon in products in 

use and SWDS.

Figure 33—Gallatin National Forest net change in carbon stocks in HWP from the 

previous year.
64 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

From 1906 to 1929, the 100-year average carbon storage was about 1,700 MgC 

ranging from a low point in 1906 of 4 MgC in use and 3 MgC in the SWDS for 

a total of 7 MgC, to the high point in 1914 of 1,454 MgC in use and 1,124 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 2,578 MgC (fig. 34). Average carbon storage experienced a short downward trend after 1929, hitting the global minimum in 1932 

with 267 MgC in use and 206 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 473 MgC. After 

1932, average carbon storage experienced positive growth at an exponential 

rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until reaching the global 

maximum in 1968 with 17,729 MgC in use and 16,346 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 34,075 MgC. Average carbon storage in HWP began to rapidly 

decline after 1968 with moderate inter-annual variability until hitting a local 

minimum in 1976, with 1,625 MgC in use and 1,510 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of 3,135 MgC. After 1976, average carbon storage experienced moderate 

inter-annual variability, averaging about a total of 8,400 MgC until 1983 when 

net stock change sharply increased, hitting a local maximum with 14,478 MgC 

in use and 12,765 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 27,243 MgC. Carbon stores 

rapidly decreased after 1983 at a declining rate while experiencing moderate 

inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum in 1998 with 839 MgC in 

use and 832 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 1,671 MgC. After 1998, carbon 

storage continued to experience some inter-annual variability, averaging about 

a total of 2,500 MgC per year, and ending in 2009 with 1,284 MgC in use and 

1,426 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 2,710 MgC (tables 28, 29).

 

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage (MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 34—Gallatin National Forest harvest 100-year average carbon HWP storage using the California Forest Project Protocol.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 65

Table 28—Gallatin National Forest 100-year average carbon stored 

in HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 736 568 1,304

1920 938 724 1,662

1930 759 586 1,345

1940 1,025 791 1,816

1950 1,670 1,539 3,209

1960 5,795 5,343 11,138

1970 11,927 11,089 23,016

1980 3,786 3,423 7,209

1990 6,254 5,402 11,656

1995 1,524 1,481 3,005

2000 1,305 1,209 2,514

2005 1,102 991 2,093

2006 1,384 1,313 2,697

2007 954 1,005 1,959

2008 1,174 1,365 2,539

2009 1,284 1,426 2,710

a The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest 

year.

b The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.

Table 29—Gallatin National Forest confidence intervals for cumulative carbon 

in HWP for selected years for harvests beginning in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 4,606 2,705 6,825

1920 26,452 15,263 40,015

1930 42,160 23,894 66,002

1940 46,622 27,716 71,281

1950 79,991 48,916 119,858

1960 164,748 104,587 235,381

1970 361,126 233,158 515,904

1980 422,117 271,082 605,992

1990 555,453 397,627 738,048

1995 571,062 418,582 749,517

2000 553,355 417,961 718,013

2005 534,838 397,618 689,901

2006 531,212 392,935 683,074

2007 528,773 395,603 679,503

2008 525,267 393,249 676,940

2009 522,889 397,150 678,510

2010 520,840 395,317 668,467
66 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Helena National Forest

Description

The Helena National Forest is located in west-central Montana, approximately 

80 miles east of the Idaho-Montana border, and 130 miles south of the Canadian 

border (fig. 35). The forest is approximately 80 miles from east to west, and 60 

miles from north to south with non-Federal holdings throughout the area. The 

forest is bordered by the Lolo and Lewis and Clark National Forests as well as 

privately held lands to the north, privately held lands to the east, the Gallatin 

National Forest to the southeast, the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest as 

well as privately held lands to the south, privately held lands to the west, and 

the Lolo National Forest to the northwest. The Helena National Forest was established on April 12, 1906. On July 1, 1908, additional lands were added to the 

forest from the Big Belt National Forest as well as the entire Elkhorn National 

Forest (Davis 1983).

Figure 35—Location map of Helena National Forest.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 67

The Helena National Forest is 975,402 acres and contains over 33 unique forest habitat types that have been categorized into 13 northern region biophysical 

habitat type groups (Wilson 2001). The most common habitat classification is 

cool and dry and covers 18 percent of the forest, followed by the classification 

of warm and very dry covering 16 percent, and cool and moderately dry covering 12 percent. Lodgepole pine and Douglas-fir are successful forest types at 

all elevations, but due to higher elevations being associated with increased precipitation and lower temperatures, ponderosa pine forest types are successful in 

lower elevations, while whitebark pine is successful at higher elevations (Wilson 

2001). The forest is 93 percent forested, leaving the remaining 7 percent either 

non-forested or water. Eleven percent of the forested lands are protected under 

reserves in the Scapegoat and Gates of the Mountains Wilderness areas, while 

31 percent of non-reserved lands are considered suitable for timber production. 

The net annual growth of all forested lands is estimated to be 20.2 million cubic 

feet (Wilson 2001). Forest cover is 41 percent Douglas-fir, 39 percent lodgepole 

pine, 9 percent spruce-fir, 5 percent whitebark pine, 5 percent ponderosa pine, and 

1 percent Engelmann spruce (Wilson 2001). Stands of old growth forest are also 

present, estimated to cover 12.2 percent of the forested area (USDA 2011a, p 75).

Natural disturbances within the Helena National Forest are tree disease, weather 

damage, insect infestation including significant impacts from Douglas-fir and 

mountain pine beetle activity, and fire (Rothermel 1993; USDA 2008b; Wilson 

2001). Between 1996 and 1997, it was estimated that 51 percent of tree mortality 

in the forest was the result of disease, 17 percent was due to weather damage, and 

11 percent was contributed to insect damage, resulting in net negative growth 

for Engelmann spruce with 68 percent of tree mortality due to disease (Wilson 

2001). Large fires within the Big Belt Mountains in 2000 led to an increase in 

Douglas-fir bark beetle activity in the area that has since declined, but is still 

observable in tree populations with budworm. Endemic levels of budworm can 

be seen across much of the forest, with concentrations in the Big Belt Mountains 

as well as Flesher Pass. Budworm levels become epidemic in 20-year cycles 

and are best regulated with late spring and early fall frosts (USDA 2008b). The 

mountain pine beetle is also active on the forest with infected acreage increasing 

from 14,000 acres in 2004 to an estimated 380,000 acres in 2008, with infected 

timber being detected in higher elevations and latitudes (USDA 2008b). A partial 

aerial survey of the forest showed that 575,960 acres were infected with mountain pine beetle in 2009, but decreased to 370,701 acres in 2010 and 193,767 

acres in 2011, mostly occurring in lodgepole and ponderosa pine for all 3 years 

(USDA 2012b, p 45).
68 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Fire disturbances that continue to shape the forest are the recent fires in 2000 as 

well as the historic fires of 1949, which included the Mann Gulch Fire where 13 

firefighters lost their lives (Rothermel 1993; USDA 2008b). Within the forest, 

28 percent of plots show no visible signs of disturbances, 28 percent show signs 

of disease, 19 percent show evidence of fire, 10 percent show evidence of cutting, 7 percent show evidence of wind or weather damage, 3 percent show signs 

of insect damage, and 5 percent show signs of animal damage (Wilson 2001).

Harvest Trends

From 1906 to 1929, timber production averaged 2,300 MgC per year before 

beginning a downward trend (fig. 36). Starting at the global minimum of 683 

MgC in 1932, annual timber production began to grow exponentially with some 

inter-annual variability until hitting a local maximum of 45,105 MgC in 1968. 

Timber production was at 43,024 MgC in 1969 before rapidly declining until 

hitting a local minimum of 2,608 MgC in 1972. Following 1972, production 

sharply increased for 2 years, hitting a local maximum in 1974 of 42,510 MgC, 

before sharply decreasing in 1975 and hitting a local minimum of 5,700 MgC in 

1978. From 1979 to 1984, production began to increase with some inter-annual 

variability until sharply rising to the global maximum in 1985 of 83,070 MgC. 

Production rapidly declined after 1985 with high inter-annual variability until 

hitting a local minimum of 2,454 MgC in 2000. After 2000, production averaged 8,500 MgC per year, hitting a local maximum of 13,784 MgC in 2003, and 

ending in 2009 with 8,809 MgC in production.

 

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 36—Annual timber product output for Helena National Forest, 1906 to 2010.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 69

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907, total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out 

in 1931 with 24,114 MgC in use and 5,305 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

29,419 MgC (fig. 37). After 1940, carbon storage began to grow exponentially 

until 1970 with 188,794 MgC in use and 49,033 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of 237,827 MgC. Following 1970, carbon storage continued to grow at a slower 

pace until hitting a local maximum in 1972 with 198,371 MgC in use and 55,579 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 253,950 MgC, followed by a local minimum 

in 1973 with 191,307 MgC in use and 57,145 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

248,452 MgC. Carbon storage grew at a decreasing rate from 1974 to 1977 before beginning to decline in 1978, hitting a local minimum in 1980 with 209,319 

MgC in use and 73,452 MgC in the SWDS for a total 282,771 MgC. After 1980, 

carbon storage began to slowly increase with some inter-annual variability until 

1986 when carbon storage sharply increased, hitting a local maximum in 1993 

with 334,238 MgC in use and 132,059 MgC in the SWDS for a total 466,297 

MgC. Carbon storage averaged 464,000 MgC after 1993 until hitting the global 

maximum in 1999 with 320,245 MgC in use and 151,146 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 471,391 MgC. Following 1992, carbon storage began to decline at 

a variable rate with the exception of carbon storage gains from 2004 to 2005, 

ending in 2010 with 286,522 MgC in use and 170,745 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of 457,267 MgC remaining in total carbon storage (table 30).

 

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

450,000

500,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 37—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from Helena 

National Forest timber.
70 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged 1,000 MgC ranging from a low 

point in 1907 of 6 MgC in use and 0 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 6 MgC, to 

the high point in 1915 of 1,881 MgC in use and 278 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of 2,159 MgC (fig. 38). After 1929, net stock change began to decline until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –267 MgC in use and 104 MgC in the SWDS 

for a net negative change in carbon stocks (emissions) of –163 MgC. Following 

1933, net stock change experienced positive growth at an exponential rate with 

Table 30—Helena National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table shows the fate of 

all carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total remaining

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS in HWP poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 1,868 149 2,855 289 3,144

1920 11,595 2,385 15,395 2,663 18,058

1930 20,454 7,279 23,668 5,112 28,781

1940 25,735 13,544 25,628 6,199 31,827

1950 43,563 22,196 45,475 9,132 54,607

1960 91,553 44,468 89,529 22,938 112,467

1970 199,600 99,523 188,794 49,033 237,827

1980 271,831 175,059 209,319 73,452 282,772

1990 394,527 247,425 313,965 116,082 430,046

1995 434,350 289,636 326,088 139,144 465,232

2000 459,161 327,187 316,129 153,759 469,888

2005 476,872 360,370 301,655 163,385 465,040

2006 479,163 366,616 297,576 164,943 462,519

2007 482,482 372,727 294,468 166,455 460,923

2008 485,927 378,686 291,675 167,919 459,595

2009 490,137 384,502 289,154 169,356 458,510

2010 494,531 390,160 286,522 170,745 457,267

a

 Sum of products in use and SWDS.

 

‐10,000

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990 to 2010

Figure 38. Helena National Forest net change in carbon stocks in HWP from 

the previous year.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 71

a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until hitting a local maximum in 

1969 with 17,101 MgC in use and 3,776 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 20,877 

MgC. In 1970 net additions totaled 19,000 MgC before rapidly declining, hitting the global minimum in 1973 with –7,064 MgC in use and 1,565 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total net stock change of –5,499 MgC. The following year in 

1974, net stock change sharply increased, hitting a local maximum in 1975 with 

14,321 MgC in use and 4,132 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 18,453 MgC. Net 

stock change sharply decreased in 1976 until hitting a local minimum in 1979 

with –4,684 MgC in use and 1,050 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –3,634 MgC. 

From 1980 to 1985, net stock change increased with a moderate amount of interannual variability, hitting a local maximum in 1983 before sharply increasing in 

1986, hitting the global maximum with 38,180 MgC in use and 7,092 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total net stock change of 45,272 MgC. Net stock change rapidly 

declined after 1986 with high inter-annual variability, first showing signs of net 

negative growth in 1994 with –6,566 MgC in use and 3,546 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of –3,020. After 1994 net stock change averaged about –2,500 MgC 

per year, hitting a local maximum in 1999 with 2,987 MgC in use and 3,295 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 6,282 MgC, a local minimum in 2001 with 

–7,301 MgC in use and 1,971 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –5,330 MgC, 

and ending in 2010 with –2,632 MgC in use and 1,388 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of –1,244 MgC (table 31).

Table 31—Helena National Forest annual 

net change in HWP carbon stocks 

for selected years for harvests 

beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 1,261

1920 1,175

1930 917

1940 194

1950 3,609

1960 7,165

1970 19,000

1980 -2,141

1990 10,651

1995 1,955

2000 -1,503

2005 1,545

2006 -2,521

2007 -1,596

2008 -1,328

2009 -1,084

2010 -1,244

a Net annual change in carbon in products in 

use and SWDS.
72 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

The 100-year average carbon storage was about 1,100 MgC from 1906 to 1929 

ranging from a low point in 1906 of 3 MgC in use and 2 MgC in the SWDS for 

a total of 5 MgC, to the high point in 1914 of 993 MgC in use and 767 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 1,760 MgC (fig. 39). Following 1929, average carbon 

storage experienced a short downward trend, hitting the global minimum in 1932 

with 182 MgC in use and 141 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 323 MgC. After 

1932, average carbon storage experienced positive growth at an exponential 

rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until reaching a local 

maximum in 1968 with 8,953 MgC in use and 8,255 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of 17,208 MgC. Total average carbon storage in HWP was 16,414 MgC in 

1969 before rapidly declining, hitting a local minimum in 1972 with 515 MgC in 

use and 479 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 994 MgC. Average carbon storage 

sharply increased in 1973, hitting a local maximum in 1974 with 8,389 MgC 

in use and 7,799 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 16,188 MgC. In 1975, average carbon storage sharply decreased, hitting a local minimum in 1978 with 

1,125 MgC in use and 1,046 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 2,171 MgC. From 

1979 to 1984, carbon storage increased experiencing a moderate amount of interannual variability with a local maximum in 1982, before sharply increasing and 

hitting the global maximum in 1985 with 17,105 MgC in use and 15,617 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 32,722 MgC. Following 1985, carbon storage rapidly 

declined with high inter-annual variability until 1993 with 1,652 MgC in use and 

1,526 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 3,178 MgC. After 1993 carbon storage 

averaged about 3,500 MgC, hitting a local maximum in 1998 with 4,067 MgC in 

use and 4,032 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 8,099 MgC, a local minimum in 

2000 with 469 MgC in use and 434 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 903 MgC, 

and ending in 2009 with 1,309 MgC in use and 1,455 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of 2,764 MgC (tables 32, 33).

 

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage

(MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 39—Helena National Forest harvest 100-year average carbon HWP 

storage using the California Forest Project Protocol.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 73

Table 32—Helena National Forest 100-year average carbon stored in 

HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 502 388 891

1920 640 494 1,134

1930 518 400 918

1940 699 540 1,240

1950 1,140 1,051 2,191

1960 3,956 3,647 7,603

1970 5,202 4,836 10,038

1980 3,104 2,807 5,911

1990 9,587 8,281 17,868

1995 2,578 2,505 5,083

2000 469 434 903

2005 1,213 1,091 2,304

2006 1,411 1,338 2,750

2007 1,400 1,475 2,875

2008 1,340 1,558 2,898

2009 1,309 1,455 2,764

a The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest 

year. b The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.

Table 33—Helena National Forest confidence intervals for cumulative carbon 

in HWP for selected years for harvests beginning in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 3,144 1,846 4,658

1920 18,058 10,420 27,317

1930 28,781 16,312 45,057

1940 31,827 18,921 48,661

1950 54,607 33,393 81,823

1960 112,467 71,398 160,685

1970 237,827 153,551 339,759

1980 282,772 181,595 405,948

1990 430,046 307,853 571,415

1995 465,232 341,010 610,616

2000 469,888 354,916 609,709

2005 465,040 345,728 599,867

2006 462,519 342,123 594,743

2007 460,923 344,841 592,312

2008 459,595 344,083 592,305

2009 458,510 348,252 594,970

2010 457,267 347,065 586,875
74 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Idaho Panhandle National Forest

Description

The Idaho Panhandle National Forest is located in northwestern Montana, northern Idaho, and northeastern Washington (fig. 40). The forest is approximately 

80 miles from east to west and 150 miles from north to south, with non-Federal 

holdings throughout the area including the Kootenai and Coeur d’Alene Reservations. The forest is bordered by Canada to the north, the Kootenai and Lolo 

National Forests to the east, the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest as well 

as privately held lands to the south, and the Colville National Forest as well as 

some privately held lands to the west.

Figure 40—Location map of Idaho Panhandle National Forest.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 75

The Kanisku National Forest was established from part of the Priest River National 

Forest on July 1, 1908. On September 30, 1933, additional lands were added 

from the Pend Oreille National Forest, followed by the addition of a portion of 

the Cabinet National Forest on July 1, 1954. On July 1, 1973, the forest was 

administratively combined with the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe National Forests 

and has since been known as the Idaho Panhandle National Forest (Davis 1983).

The Idaho Panhandle National Forest is 2,500,700 acres with 2,351,100 acres in 

Idaho, 118,400 acres in Washington, and 31,200 acres in Montana. The forest is 

one of the most diverse and productive forests in Region 1 due to the combination 

of climate and volcanic ash-capped soils (USDA 2011b, p 6). The most common 

habitat type occurs between 1,500 feet and 5,500 feet, covering approximately 

58 percent of the forested area (USDA 1987, p A-3). It contains shade tolerant 

and moisture dependent forest types like western hemlock and western redcedar, as well as other forest types like grand fir, subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, 

western whitepine, lodgepole pine and Douglas fir (USDA 1987, p A-3). The 

second most common habitat group occurs between 1,800 feet and 6,000 feet, 

covering an estimated 21 percent of the forest under a broad range of habitat 

types (USDA 1987, p A-6). Douglas fir and ponderosa pine inhabit areas with 

warmer weather, while spruce and lodgepole pine inhabit areas that are colder. 

Western larch and lodgepole pine can also be found in this habitat group in areas 

that have experienced fire activity (USDA 1987, p A-6). The third most common 

habitat group covers 14 percent of the forest and is known as the subalpine zone, 

containing ponderosa pine and Engelmann spruce (USDA 1987, p A-8). The forest 

contains 2,470,395 acres of forested land and 8,082 acres of land that are either 

non-forested or water (USDA 1987, p A-1). Within the forested area 9,900 acres 

are protected under reserves in the Salmo-Priest Wilderness, while 1,584,163 

acres of non-reserved lands are considered suitable for timber production (USDA 

2011b, p 42; USDA 1987, p A-1). The net annual growth of all forested lands is 

estimated to be over 129 million cubic feet (USDA 1987, p A-11). Stands of old 

growth forest are also present on the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, estimated 

to cover 11.8 percent of forested lands (USDA 2009c, p 3).

Natural disturbances within the Idaho Panhandle National Forest are insect 

infestation including significant impacts from mountain pine beetle activity, as 

well as disease and historic forest fires (Harkins and others 1999; USDA 2009c). 

An aerial survey conducted in 2009 detected approximately 190,000 acres of 

timber infested with mountain pine beetle, mostly occurring in lodgepole pine 

(USDA 2009c, p 17). In that same year 403,000 acres of timber were detected 

with western spruce budworm, leaving infested trees susceptible to mortality 

through other diseases or infestations (USDA 2009c, p 17). Other diseases present are root disease found in the northern portion of the forest and affecting two 

million acres, as well as white pine blister rust that can be found throughout the 

forest, resulting in the mortality of 21,500 acres of timber that were detected by 

aerial survey in 2009 (USDA 2009c, p 17). Other disturbances that continue to 

shape the forest include the historic fires of 1910, 1931, and 1967, the first of 

which devastated three million acres (Harkins and others 1999).
76 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Harvest Trends

Idaho Panhandle National Forest is among the top five timber producing 

national forests in the Northern Region (fig. 9). From 1906 to 1929, timber 

production averaged about 55,000 MgC per year before beginning a downward 

trend (fig. 41). Starting at the global minimum of 15,199 MgC in 1932, annual 

timber production began to grow exponentially, with some inter-annual variability 

until 1968 when timber production hit the global maximum at 819,846 MgC. 

Following 1968, timber production began to rapidly decline until 1971 when 

production leveled off for 3 years averaging 574,675 MgC per year from 1971 

to 1973. Production sharply declined after 1973 hitting a local minimum in 

1974 of 268,499 MgC. From 1975 to 1992, production averaged 397,422 MgC 

per year with a local maximum of 472,057 MgC in 1977, a local minimum of 

238,715 MgC in 1982, and ending with 386,907 MgC in production in 1992. 

From 1992 to 2003, production began to rapidly decrease at a declining rate with 

some isolated inter-annual variability present from 1997 to 2002, ending in 2003 

with 79,491 MgC in production. Production continued to slowly decline after 

2003, ending in 2009 with 29,870 MgC in production.

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907 total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out 

in 1931with 536,420 MgC in use and 118,015 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

654,435 MgC (fig. 42). After 1940, carbon storage began to grow exponentially 

until 1969 with 3,682,070 MgC in use and 980,051 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of 4,662,121 MgC. Following 1969, carbon storage continued to grow 

at a rapid rate until 1974 with 4,472,275 MgC in use and 1,323,435 MgC in the 

 

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 41—Annual timber product output for Idaho Panhandle National Forest, 

1906 to 2010.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 77

 

0

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

7,000,000

8,000,000

9,000,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 42—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from Idaho 

Panhandle National Forest timber.

SWDS for a total of 5,795,710 MgC. After a small gain of 8,931 MgC in 1975, 

carbon storage continued to quickly increase until hitting the global maximum in 

1994 with 5,478,732 MgC in use and 2,259,034 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

7,737,766 MgC. Carbon storage began to decline in 1994 at a slow, steady rate 

ending in 2010 with 4,408,154 MgC in use and 2,501,519 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 6,909,673 MgC remaining in total carbon storage (table 34).

Table 34—Idaho Panhandle National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table shows the 

fate of all carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total remaining

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS in HWP poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 41,556 3,322 63,513 6,428 69,941

1920 257,946 53,052 342,473 59,236 401,709

1930 455,004 161,932 526,512 113,730 640,242

1940 572,487 301,297 570,103 137,898 708,001

1950 969,086 493,753 1,011,607 203,145 1,214,752

1960 2,036,645 989,216 1,991,621 510,258 2,501,879

1970 4,228,865 2,183,121 3,918,444 1,050,064 4,968,507

1980 5,982,914 3,779,315 4,710,477 1,587,575 6,298,052

1990 7,364,974 5,219,682 5,288,082 2,060,105 7,348,187

1995 7,922,727 5,923,498 5,433,577 2,295,122 7,728,699

2000 8,156,892 6,540,288 5,094,803 2,414,647 7,509,451

2005 8,321,016 7,072,294 4,762,356 2,477,910 7,240,265

2006 8,342,347 7,168,479 4,693,697 2,485,059 7,178,756

2007 8,358,904 7,261,121 4,618,228 2,490,414 7,108,642

2008 8,377,179 7,350,599 4,548,679 2,495,054 7,043,733

2009 8,395,328 7,436,896 4,479,059 2,498,771 6,977,831

2010 8,410,227 7,520,024 4,408,154 2,501,519 6,909,673

a

 Sum of products in use and SWDS.
78 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged about 26,000 MgC ranging from 

a low point in 1907 of 124 MgC in use and 11 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of 135 MgC, to the high point in 1915 of 41,837 MgC in use and 6,183 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 48,020 MgC (fig. 43). After 1929, net stock change 

began to decline until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –5,948 MgC in 

use and 2,318 MgC in the SWDS for a net negative change in carbon stocks 

(emissions) of –3,630 MgC. Following 1933, net stock change experienced 

positive growth at an exponential rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual 

variability until hitting the global maximum in 1969 with 289,184 MgC in use 

and 70,494 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 359,678 MgC. After 1969, net additions rapidly declined until 1972 when net additions leveled off for 3 years, 

averaging 196,520 MgC per year from 1972 to 1974. After 1974, net additions 

sharply decreased, hitting a local minimum in 1975 with –36,585 MgC in use 

and 45,516 MgC in the SWDS for a total net stock change of 8,931 MgC. From 

1976 to 1993, total net stock change averaged 107,113 MgC per year, with a local minimum in 1983 with –24,071 MgC in use and 37,349 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 13,278 MgC, a local maximum in 1991 with 105,094 MgC in use 

and 55,050 MgC in the SWDS for a total net stock change of 160,144 MgC, and 

ending in 1993 with 63,451 MgC in use and 51,649 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of 115,100 MgC. In 1994, net stock change sharply decreased with –35,781 MgC 

in use and 40,873 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 5,091, followed by the first 

signs of sustained net negative growth in 1995 with –45,155 MgC in use and 

36,089 MgC in the SWDS for a total net negative growth of –9,067 MgC. From 

1996 to 2010, net additions continued to decline with some isolated inter-annual 

variability between 1998 and 2003, a local maximum in 2001 with –41,260 MgC 

 

‐150,000

‐100,000

‐50,000

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990 to 2010

Figure 43—Idaho Panhandle National Forest net change in carbon stocks in HWP 

from the previous year.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 79

in use and 18,899 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –22,361 MgC, the global 

minimum in 2007 with –75,468 MgC in use and 5,354 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of –70,114 MgC, and ending in 2010 with –70,906 MgC in use and 2,748 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of –68,158 MgC (table 35).

From 1906 to 1929, the 100-year average carbon storage averaged about 

26,000 MgC ranging from a low point in 1906 of 59 MgC in use and 45 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 104 MgC, to the high point in 1914 of 22,085 MgC in 

use and 17,059 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 39,144 MgC (fig. 44). Average 

carbon storage experienced a short downward trend following 1929, hitting the 

global minimum in 1932 with 4,051 MgC in use and 3,129 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 7,180 MgC. After 1932, average carbon storage experienced positive growth at an exponential rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until reaching the global maximum in 1968 with 162,730 MgC in use 

and 150,043 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 312,773 MgC. Following 1968, 

average carbon storage in HWP began to rapidly decline until 1971 when total 

average storage leveled off for 3 years, averaging 218,846 MgC per year from 

1971 to 1973. Average carbon storage sharply declined after 1973 hitting a local minimum in 1974 with 52,987 MgC in use and 49,262 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 102,249 MgC. From 1975 to 1992, total carbon storage averaged 

156,392 MgC per year, with a local minimum in 1982 with 49,894 MgC in use 

and 46,623 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 96,517 MgC, a local maximum 

in 1990 with 99,821 MgC in use and 86,230 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

Table 35—Idaho Panhandle National 

Forest annual net change in HWP 

carbon stocks for selected years 

for harvests beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 28,044

1920 26,133

1930 20,393

1940 4,323

1950 80,274

1960 159,397

1970 306,386

1980 104,234

1990 140,678

1995 -9,067

2000 -39,509

2005 -62,151

2006 -61,509

2007 -70,114

2008 -64,909

2009 -65,902

2010 -68,158

a Net annual change in carbon in products in 

use and SWDS.
80 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

186,051 MgC, and ending in 1992 with 83,853 MgC in use and 75,398 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 159,251 MgC. From 1992 to 2003, carbon storage 

began to rapidly decrease at a declining rate with some isolated inter-annual 

variability present from 1997 to 2002, ending in 2003 with 16,051 MgC in use 

and 14,693 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 30,744 MgC. After 2003, carbon 

storage continued to decline at a slow rate, ending in 2009 with 4,440 MgC in 

use and 4,932 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 9,372 MgC (tables 36, 37).

 

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage

(MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 44—Idaho Panhandle National Forest harvest 100-year average carbon 

HWP storage using the California Forest Project Protocol.

Table 36—Idaho Panhandle National Forest 100-year average carbon 

stored in HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 11,177 8,633 19,810

1920 14,238 10,998 25,236

1930 11,522 8,900 20,422

1940 15,560 12,019 27,578

1950 25,354 23,377 48,732

1960 87,999 81,138 169,137

1970 125,400 116,584 241,984

1980 82,747 74,814 157,561

1990 99,821 86,231 186,051

1995 28,309 27,507 55,816

2000 28,156 26,068 54,224

2005 11,291 10,157 21,448

2006 7,041 6,678 13,719

2007 7,428 7,827 15,255

2008 5,776 6,717 12,493

2009 4,440 4,933 9,372

a The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest year.

b The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 81

Table 37—Idaho Panhandle National Forest confidence intervals for cumulative 

carbon in HWP for selected years for harvests beginning in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 69,941 41,070 103,632

1920 401,709 231,789 607,689

1930 640,242 362,859 1,002,309

1940 708,001 420,898 1,082,479

1950 1,214,752 742,843 1,820,176

1960 2,501,879 1,588,271 3,574,511

1970 4,968,507 3,207,873 7,098,002

1980 6,298,052 4,044,582 9,041,497

1990 7,348,187 5,260,284 9,763,764

1995 7,728,699 5,665,048 10,143,897

2000 7,509,451 5,672,044 9,743,985

2005 7,240,265 5,382,678 9,339,403

2006 7,178,756 5,310,094 9,231,004

2007 7,108,642 5,318,352 9,135,005

2008 7,043,733 5,273,395 9,077,640

2009 6,977,831 5,299,868 9,054,552

2010 6,909,673 5,244,439 8,868,157

Kootenai National Forest

Description

The Kootenai National Forest is located in the northwestern corner of Montana 

with its western border entering into the Idaho Panhandle in northeastern Idaho 

(fig. 45). The forest is approximately 65 miles from east to west and 100 miles 

from north to south, with non-Federal holdings throughout the area. The forest 

is bordered by Canada to the north, the Flathead National Forest as well as some 

private lands to the east, the Lolo National Forest to the south, and the Idaho 

Panhandle National Forest as well as some private lands to the west.

The Kootenai National Forest was established on August 13, 1906. On June 22, 

1935, part of the Blackfeet National Forest was added, followed later by a final 

addition of part of the Cabinet National Forest on July 1, 1954 (Davis 1983).

The Kootenai National Forest is 2,246,495 acres with approximately 1,870,000 

acres below 5,500 feet in elevation (USDA 2011c, p 4; Wilson and Miles 2000). 

The forest contains over 41 unique forest habitat types that have been categorized into 12 northern region biophysical habitat type groups, the most common 

of which is classified as moderately cool and moist and covers 26 percent of 

the forest. This habitat type is followed closely by moderately warm and dry 

covering 25 percent of the forest, and cool and moist covering 20 percent of the 

forest (Wilson and Miles 2000). Due to higher elevations being associated with 

increased precipitation and lower temperatures, Douglas-fir is the more successful forest type in lower elevations, while subalpine fir is more successful at 

higher elevations (Wilson and Miles 2000). The forest is 96 percent forested, 
82 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

leaving the remaining 4 percent either non-forested or water. Four percent of 

the forested lands are protected under reserves, all within the Cabinet Mountain 

Wilderness, and 60 percent of non-reserved lands are considered suitable for 

timber production. The net annual growth of all forested lands is estimated to be 

over 42.1 million cubic feet (Wilson and Miles 2000). Forest cover is 35 percent 

Douglas-fir, 17 percent lodgepole pine, 17 percent spruce-fir, 11 percent larch, 

5 percent Engelmann spruce, 4 percent grand fir, as well as traces of western 

redceder, mountain hemlock, western hemlock, ponderosa pine, whitebark pine, 

and western whitepine (Wilson and Miles 2000). Stands of old growth forest are 

also present and estimated to cover 9 percent of the forest with good distribution 

across elevations (USDA 2011c, p 4).

Natural disturbances within the Kootenai National Forest are insect infestation 

including significant impacts from the mountain pine beetle, root disease, and 

forest fires (USDA 2012b, 2011d; Wilson and Miles 2000). From 1983 to 1996, 

62 percent of tree mortality was due to infected timber from the mountain pine 

beetle, while disease and fires both accounted for 14 percent of the mortality 

(Wilson and Miles 2000). In total, 67 percent of tree mortality from 1983 to 

1996 was experienced in lodgepole pine, with annual mortality exceeding annual 

growth (Wilson and Miles 2000). A partial aerial survey of the forest showed 

that mountain pine beetle infestations are declining with 46,181 acres infected in 

2009, 12,097 acres in 2010, 16,217 acres in 2011, mostly occurring in lodgepole 

pine for all 3 years (USDA 2012b, p 45).

Figure 45—Location map of Kootenai National Forest.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 83

Other disturbances include root diseases (like armillaric and phellinus) and large 

fires. Root diseases are active pathogens on the forest, but have begun to kill fewer 

trees as the forest composition becomes less susceptible to infections (USDA 

2011d, p 14). Large fires occurred in the 1880s, 1910, 1919,1920, 1931, 1958, 

1973, 1991, 1994, and 2000 resulting in a vegetative composition that is widely 

diverse (USDA 2011d, p 75, 78, 81, 94). Within the forest, 29 percent of plots 

show no visible signs of disturbances, 33 percent show evidence of cutting, 10 

percent show evidence of fire, 9 percent show signs of disease, 8 percent show 

signs of insect damage, and 11 percent show signs of other types of disturbances, 

such as animal damage (Wilson and Miles 2000).

Harvest Trends

Kootenai National Forest is among the top five timber producing National Forests 

in the Northern Region (fig. 9). From 1906 to 1929, timber production averaged 

about 33,000 MgC per year before beginning a downward trend (fig. 46). Starting 

at the global minimum of 9,348 MgC in 1932, annual timber production began 

to grow exponentially, with some inter-annual variability until 1966 when timber 

production hit a local maximum at 405,792 MgC. After 1966, timber production 

began to fall with some inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum 

of 234,179 MgC in 1975. Production increased after 1975 hitting a local maximum 2 years later in 1977 with 388,152 MgC. Timber production rapidly fell 

after 1977 until hitting a local minimum of 216,360 MgC in 1982. After 1982, 

production quickly rose until hitting the global maximum of 408,752 MgC in 

1987. Production remained high in 1988 before beginning a rapid decline until 

1995 with 115,690 MgC in production. Following 1995, production continued 

to quickly decline with some inter-annual variability until ending at a local 

minimum of 38,871 MgC in 2009.

 

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

450,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year Figure 46—Annual timber product output for Kootenai National Forest, 1906 to 2010.
84 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907, total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out 

in 1931with 329,911 MgC in use and 72,582 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

402,493 MgC (fig. 47). After 1940, carbon storage began to grow exponentially 

until 1967 with 1,969,066 MgC in use and 523,208 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of 2,492,274 MgC. Following 1967, carbon storage continued to grow at a rapid 

rate until hitting the global maximum in 1995 with 3,792,307 MgC in use and 

1,588,009 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 5,380,316 MgC. After 1995, carbon 

storage began to decline at a slow, steady rate—with the exceptions of 1997 and 

1999—until 2001 when its rate of decline slightly quickened with the exception 

of 2003, ending in 2010 with 3,208,520 MgC in use and 1,878,443 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 5,086,963 MgC remaining in total carbon storage (table 38).

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged about 15,000 MgC ranging from 

a low point in 1907 of 77 MgC in use and 7 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

84 MgC, to the high point in 1915 of 25,730 MgC in use and 3,803 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 29,533 MgC (fig. 48). After 1929, net stock change began 

to decline until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –3,658 MgC in use and 

1,426 MgC in the SWDS for a net negative change in carbon stocks (emissions) 

of –2,232 MgC. Following 1933, net stock change experienced positive growth 

at an exponential rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until 

hitting a local maximum in 1967 with 136,340 MgC in use and 36,300 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 172,640 MgC. Net additions rapidly declined after 

1967 until hitting a local minimum in 1976 with 26,049 MgC in use and 28,415 

MgC in the SWDS for a total net stock change of 54,464 MgC. In 1978, net 

additions sharply increased for one year, hitting another local maximum with 

111,340 MgC in use and 35,822 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 147,162 MgC. 

Net additions began to quickly decline following 1978, hitting a local minimum 

in 1983 with 21,231 MgC in use and 32,423 MgC in the SWDS for a total net 

stock change of 53,654 MgC. After 1983, net stock change experienced a period 

 

 

0

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 47—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from Kootenai 

National Forest timber.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 85

 

‐100,000

‐50,000

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990 to 2010

Figure 48. Kootenai National Forest net change in carbon stocks in HWP from the previous year.

of rapid growth, hitting the global maximum in 1989 with 119,679 MgC in use 

and 54,109 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 173,788 MgC. Following 1989, net 

stock change experienced a rapid decline, first showing signs of net negative 

growth in 1996 with –48,550 MgC in use and 30,575 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total net negative growth of –17,975 MgC. Net additions were positive in 1997 

with –18,691 MgC in use and 30,781 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 12,090 

MgC, before beginning to slowly decline with a moderate amount of inter-annual 

variability ending in 2010 at the global minimum with –50,610 MgC in use and 

8,548 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –42,062 MgC (table 39).

Table 38—Kootenai National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table shows the fate of 

all carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total remaining

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS in HWP poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 25,558 2,043 39,062 3,953 43,015

1920 158,643 32,628 210,629 36,432 247,061

1930 279,838 99,592 323,818 69,947 393,764

1940 352,093 185,305 350,627 84,811 435,438

1950 596,011 303,670 622,162 124,939 747,101

1960 1,252,585 608,392 1,224,894 313,821 1,538,715

1970 2,466,085 1,324,197 2,228,532 620,660 2,849,192

1980 3,618,542 2,254,335 2,888,664 952,679 3,841,342

1990 4,754,722 3,174,743 3,600,914 1,366,493 4,967,406

1995 5,217,221 3,659,634 3,792,307 1,588,009 5,380,317

2000 5,471,396 4,100,191 3,636,923 1,730,666 5,367,589

2005 5,658,757 4,490,990 3,452,573 1,824,319 5,276,892

2006 5,686,645 4,562,687 3,412,391 1,838,140 5,250,530

2007 5,707,619 4,631,682 3,360,220 1,849,852 5,210,073

2008 5,725,770 4,698,094 3,307,794 1,860,268 5,168,062

2009 5,748,009 4,762,123 3,259,130 1,869,895 5,129,025

2010 5,767,399 4,823,666 3,208,520 1,878,443 5,086,963

a

 Sum of Products in use and SWDS.
86 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

From 1906 to 1929, the 100-year average carbon storage averaged about 

15,000 MgC, ranging from a low point in 1906 of 36 MgC in use and 28 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 64 MgC, to the high point in1914 of 13,583 MgC in 

use and 10,492 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 24,075 MgC (fig. 49). Average 

carbon storage experienced a short downward trend following 1929, hitting the 

global minimum in 1932 with 2,491 MgC in use and 1,924 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 4,415 MgC. After 1932, average carbon storage experienced positive growth at an exponential rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until reaching a local maximum in 1966 with 80,545 MgC in use and 

74,266 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 154,811 MgC. Average carbon storage 

in HWP began to decline after 1966 with some isolated inter-annual variability 

until hitting a local minimum in 1975, with 46,215 MgC in use and 42,965 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 89,180 MgC. Average carbon storage sharply increased 

in 1977 for one year, hitting another local maximum with 76,600 MgC in use 

and 71,215 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 147,815 MgC. However, following 

the 1977 increase, carbon storage quickly declined until hitting a local minimum 

in 1982 with 45,221 MgC in use and 42,257 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

87,478 MgC. Carbon storage again quickly increased after 1982 to the global 

maximum in 1988 with 89,953 MgC in use and 76,036 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of 165,989MgC. After1988, carbon storage rapidly declined until 1995 with 

22,904 MgC in use and 22,255 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 45,158 MgC. 

From 1995 to 2009, carbon storage continued to steadily decline with a moderate 

amount of inter-annual variability ending in 2009 with 5,777 MgC in use and 

6,419 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 12,197 MgC (tables 40, 41).

Table 39—Kootenai National Forest annual 

net change in HWP carbon 

stocks for selected years for 

harvests beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 17,248

1920 16,072

1930 12,542

1940 2,659

1950 49,370

1960 98,033

1970 107,199

1980 93,591

1990 144,898

1995 25,148

2000 -12,299

2005 -33,467

2006 -26,362

2007 -40,457

2008 -42,011

2009 -39,037

2010 -42,062

a Net annual change in carbon in products in 

use and SWDS.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 87

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

160,000

180,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage

(MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 49—Kootenai National Forest harvest 100-year average carbon HWP storage using the California Forest Project Protocol.

Table 40—Kootenai National Forest 100-year average carbon stored in 

HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 6,874 5,310 12,184

1920 8,757 6,764 15,521

1930 7,086 5,474 12,560

1940 9,570 7,392 16,961

1950 15,593 14,378 29,971

1960 54,121 49,902 104,023

1970 70,115 65,186 135,301

1980 54,562 49,331 103,893

1990 75,647 65,348 140,995

1995 22,904 22,255 45,158

2000 23,496 21,754 45,251

2005 14,761 13,279 28,041

2006 8,919 8,460 17,379

2007 7,377 7,774 15,151

2008 7,078 8,231 15,309

2009 5,777 6,419 12,197

a The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest year.

b The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.
88 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Lewis and Clark National Forest

Description

The Lewis and Clark National Forest is located in central Montana, with the Rocky 

Mountain district 60 miles to the northwest (fig. 50). The forest is approximately 

200 miles from east to west and 150 miles from north to south, with non-Federal 

holdings throughout the area. The forest is bordered by the Blackfeet Reservation as well as privately held lands to the north, privately held lands to the east, 

the Helena and Gallatin National Forests as well as privately held lands to the 

south, the Flathead and Lolo National Forests to the west, and Glacier National 

Park to the northwest.

The Lewis and Clarke National Forest was established February 22, 1897, effective March 1, 1898. On June 9, 1903, additional lands were added to the forest 

from the Flathead National Forest. The spelling of the forest’s name was changed 

March 2, 1907, to Lewis and Clark, as additional lands not previously controlled 

within the National Forest System were added. This was followed by the addition of the entire Jefferson National Forest on April 8, 1932. On July 1, 1908, 

the Flathead National Forest was reestablished and lands previously given to the 

Lewis and Clarke were retracted, followed by a final addition to the Lewis and 

Clark on July 1, 1945, when part of the Absaroka National Forest was added 

(Davis 1983).

Table 41—Kootenai National Forest confidence intervals for cumulative carbon 

in HWP for selected years for harvests beginning in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 43,015 25,259 63,735

1920 247,061 142,556 373,744

1930 393,764 223,167 616,444

1940 435,438 258,862 665,751

1950 747,101 456,866 1,119,451

1960 1,538,715 976,824 2,198,409

1970 2,849,192 1,839,556 4,070,352

1980 3,841,342 2,466,893 5,514,639

1990 4,967,406 3,555,975 6,600,347

1995 5,380,317 3,943,711 7,061,652

2000 5,367,589 4,054,251 6,964,784

2005 5,276,892 3,923,035 6,806,798

2006 5,250,530 3,883,794 6,751,541

2007 5,210,073 3,897,932 6,695,237

2008 5,168,062 3,869,146 6,660,361

2009 5,129,025 3,895,646 6,655,510

2010 5,086,963 3,861,003 6,528,817
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 89

Figure 50—Location map of Lewis and Clark National Forest.

The Lewis and Clark National Forest is 1,862,291 acres and contains over 70 

unique forest habitat types that have been categorized into eastside habitat type 

groups (DeBlander 2002). The most common habitat classification is warm and 

very dry covering 19 percent of the forest, followed by the classification cool 

and moist covering 18 percent. Due to higher elevations being associated with 

increased precipitation and lower temperatures, Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine, 

Engelmann spruce, and ponderosa pine are successful forest types in lower 

elevations, while Douglas-fir, Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, and whitebark 

pine are successful at higher elevations (DeBlander 2002). The forest is 89 

percent forested, leaving the remaining 11 percent either non-forested or water. 

Twenty-one percent of the forested lands are protected under reserves in the 

Bob Marshall and Scapegoat Wilderness areas, while 33 percent of non-reserved 

lands are considered suitable for timber production. The net annual growth of 

all forested lands is estimated to be 50.6 million cubic feet. Forest cover is 29 

percent Douglas-fir, 28 percent lodgepole pine, 18 percent spruce-fir, 8 percent 

Engelmann spruce, 7 percent limber pine, 7 percent whitebark pine, 3 percent 

ponderosa pine, as well as traces of aspen and cottonwood (DeBlander 2002). 

Stands of old growth forest are also present, covering an estimated 13.3 percent 

of the forest (USDA 2007).
90 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Natural disturbances within the Lewis and Clark National Forest are insect infestation including significant impacts from mountain pine beetle activity, as well as 

wind and fire (DeBlander 2002; USDA 2012c,d). It was estimated that in 1995, 

8.9 million cubic feet of growing stock died, with 46 percent of tree mortality 

being the result of disease, 21 percent resulting from insect damage, and 9 percent 

from fire related causes. It was also estimated that 69 percent of tree mortality 

occurred in lodgepole pine and Engelmann spruce (DeBlander 2002). Mountain 

pine beetle activity within the forest has reached epidemic levels, resulting in 

high levels of tree mortality and hazardous conditions. Due to these hazardous 

conditions, the forest has decided to remove infected trees within the Little Belt 

Mountains in 220 sites, including recreational and non-recreational locations, 

as well as along 575 miles of road (USDA 2012c). A partial aerial survey of the 

forest showed that 366,837 acres were infected with mountain pine beetle in 2009, 

which went down to 329,432 acres in 2010 and 130,859 acres in 2011, mostly 

occurring in lodgepole pine for all 3 years (USDA 2012b, p 45). Extreme, high 

wind events are also common on the forest including one event that occurred 

on January 25, 2012, with gusts exceeding 100 mph, bringing down numerous 

trees in the Little Belt Mountain Range (USDA 2012d). Fire disturbances that 

continue to shape the forest include the recent fires in 2003, 2006, and 2007 on 

the Rocky Mountain Ranger District, which led to the decision to reduce fuels 

within the eastern portion of the forest (USDA 2010b). Within the forest, 31 

percent of plots show no visible signs of disturbances, 22 percent show signs 

of disease, 22 percent show evidence of fire, 8 percent show evidence of wind 

damage, 5 percent show evidence of weather damage, 5 percent show evidence 

of cutting, 4 percent show evidence of other disturbances, and 3 percent show 

signs of insect or of animal damage (DeBlander 2002).

Harvest Trends

From 1906 to 1929, timber production averaged about 2,200 MgC per year 

before beginning a downward trend (fig. 51). Starting at the global minimum of 

614 MgC in 1932, annual timber production began to grow exponentially with 

some inter-annual variability until hitting a local maximum of 31,531 MgC 

in 1967. Timber production experienced a moderate amount of inter-annual 

variability after 1967, hitting another local maximum of 32,012 MgC in 1973, 

before sharply declining the following year to a local minimum of 11,007 MgC 

in 1974. Production rose to a local maximum in 1975 of 18,471 MgC, before 

quickly declining with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability, hitting a 

local minimum of 6,031 MgC in 1981. Production rapidly increased after 1981 

until hitting a local maximum of 32,022 MgC in 1984, followed by a period of 

high inter-annual variability, reaching the global maximum of 36,260 MgC in 

1992. After 1992, production began to quickly decline with high inter-annual 

variability until hitting a local minimum of 3,509 MgC in 2005. Production 

slowly increased, averaging about 5,000 MgC per year before ending at the local 

maximum of 7,941 MgC in 2009.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 91

 

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 51—Annual timber product output for Lewis and Clark National Forest, 

1906 to 2010.

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907 total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out 

in 1931 with 21,680 MgC in use and 4,770 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

26,450 MgC (fig. 52). After 1940, carbon storage began to grow exponentially 

until 1971 with 167,395 MgC in use and 45,735 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of 213,130 MgC. Carbon storage continued to grow after 1971 at a decreasing 

pace until reaching a period of decline, hitting a local minimum in 1982 with 

188,973 MgC in use and 67,827 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 256,800 MgC. 

Carbon storage rapidly increased after 1982 at a decreasing rate with some interannual variability until hitting a local maximum in 2002 with 271,865 MgC in 

 

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

450,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 52—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from Lewis 

and Clark National Forest timber.
92 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

use and 127,639 MgC in the SWDS for a total 399,504 MgC. Carbon storage 

decreased in 2003 with a total of 398,687 MgC, before hitting the global maximum in 2004 with 267,536 MgC in use and 132,046 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total 399,582 MgC. After 2004, carbon storage began to slowly decline ending 

in 2010 with 244,706 MgC in use and 140,454 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

385,160 MgC remaining in total carbon storage (table 42).

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged about 950 MgC, ranging from 

a low point in 1907 of 5 MgC in use and 0 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of 5 MgC, to the high point in 1915 of 1,691 MgC in use and 250 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 1,941 MgC (fig. 53). After 1929, net stock change began 

to decline until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –240 MgC in use and 

94 MgC in the SWDS for a net negative change in carbon stocks (emissions) 

of –146 MgC. Following 1933, net stock change experienced positive growth 

at an exponential rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until 

hitting a local maximum in 1968 with 11,131 MgC in use and 2,744 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 13,875 MgC. Net stock change quickly declined after 

1968 with high inter-annual variability, hitting a local minimum in 1982 with 

–2,812 MgC in use and 934 MgC in the SWDS for a total net stock change of 

–1,878 MgC. Following 1982, net stock change rapidly increased until hitting a 

local maximum in 1985 with 10,657 MgC in use and 2,881 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 13,538 MgC, followed by a period of high inter-annual variability, 

reaching the global maximum in 1993 with 13,248 MgC in use and 4,090 MgC 

Table 42—Lewis and Clark National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table shows the 

fate of all carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total remaining

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS in HWP poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 1,680 134 2,567 260 2,827

1920 10,425 2,144 13,842 2,394 16,236

1930 18,390 6,545 21,280 4,597 25,877

1940 23,138 12,177 23,042 5,573 28,615

1950 39,167 19,956 40,886 8,210 49,096

1960 82,315 39,981 80,495 20,623 101,118

1970 170,601 88,366 157,651 42,501 200,152

1980 244,091 154,321 191,326 65,451 256,777

1990 320,560 214,335 240,367 90,217 330,584

1995 358,797 247,394 265,536 106,780 372,316

2000 390,764 280,517 271,872 122,201 394,073

2005 412,970 312,105 263,681 133,860 397,541

2006 414,307 317,783 258,656 135,379 394,034

2007 416,123 323,224 254,305 136,760 391,065

2008 417,841 328,427 250,160 138,012 388,172

2009 420,409 333,436 246,831 139,218 386,049

2010 424,370 338,305 244,706 140,454 385,160

a

 Sum of products in use and SWDS.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 93

 

‐10,000

‐5,000

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990 to 2010

Figure 53—Lewis and Clark National Forest net change in carbon stocks in HWP 

from the previous year.

in the SWDS for a total of 17,338 MgC. After 1993, net stock change quickly 

decreased with high inter-annual variability, first showing signs of net negative growth in 2003 with a total of –817 MgC, and hitting the global minimum 

in 2006 with –5,025 MgC in use and 1,519 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

–3,506 MgC. Net stock change began to quickly increase after 2006, ending 

in 2010 with –2,125 MgC in use and 1,236 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

–889 MgC (table 43).

Table 43—Lewis and Clark National Forest 

annual net change in HWP 

carbon stocks for selected years 

for harvests beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 1,133

1920 1,056

1930 824

1940 175

1950 3,244

1960 6,442

1970 11,048

1980 2,180

1990 9,589

1995 10,504

2000 418

2005 -2,042

2006 -3,506

2007 -2,970

2008 -2,892

2009 -2,124

2010 -889

a Net annual change in carbon in products in 

use and SWDS.
94 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

From 1906 to 1929, the 100-year average carbon storage was about 1,000 MgC 

ranging from a low point in 1906 of 2 MgC in use and 2 MgC in the SWDS for 

a total of 4 MgC, to the high point in 1914 of 893 MgC in use and 689 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 1,582 MgC (fig. 54). Average carbon storage experienced a short downward trend after 1929, hitting the global minimum in 1932 

with 164 MgC in use and 126 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 290 MgC. After 

1932, average carbon storage experienced positive growth at an exponential rate 

with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability, reaching a local maximum 

in 1967 with 6,259 MgC in use and 5,771 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

12,030 MgC. However, total average carbon storage in HWP quickly declined 

after 1967 with high inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum in 1981 

with 1,284 MgC in use and 1,158 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 2,442 MgC. 

Following 1981, average carbon storage rapidly increased until hitting a local 

maximum in 1984 with 6,546 MgC in use and 5,652 MgC in the SWDS for a 

total of 12,198 MgC, followed by a period of high inter-annual variability, reaching the global maximum in 1992 with 7,859 MgC in use and 7,066 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 14,925 MgC. Carbon storage quickly decreased after 1992 

with high inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum in 2005 with 

707 MgC in use and 636 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 1,343 MgC. Carbon 

storage slowing increased from 2005 to 2008, averaging about 1,500 MgC per 

year, before ending in 2009 with 1,180 MgC in use and 1,311 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 2,491 MgC (tables 44, 45).

- 

 

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage (MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 54—Lewis and Clark National Forest harvest 100-year average carbon HWP 

storage using the California Forest Project Protocol.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 95

Table 44—Lewis and Clark National Forest 100-year average carbon 

stored in HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 452 349 801

1920 575 445 1,020

1930 466 360 825

1940 629 486 1,115

1950 1,025 945 1,970

1960 3,557 3,279 6,836

1970 6,170 5,737 11,907

1980 2,537 2,294 4,831

1990 3,757 3,246 7,003

1995 3,130 3,041 6,171

2000 3,011 2,788 5,798

2005 707 636 1,344

2006 772 733 1,505

2007 698 736 1,434

2008 817 950 1,768

2009 1,180 1,311 2,492

a

The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest year.

b

The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.

Table 45—Lewis and Clark National Forest confidence intervals for cumulative 

carbon in HWP for selected years for harvests beginning in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 2,827 1,660 4,189

1920 16,236 9,368 24,561

1930 25,877 14,666 40,511

1940 28,615 17,011 43,750

1950 49,096 30,023 73,565

1960 101,118 64,193 144,470

1970 200,152 129,226 285,937

1980 256,777 164,901 368,630

1990 330,584 236,652 439,257

1995 372,316 272,903 488,664

2000 394,073 297,652 511,334

2005 397,541 295,547 512,798

2006 394,034 291,465 506,680

2007 391,065 292,576 502,541

2008 388,172 290,611 500,258

2009 386,049 293,216 500,944

2010 385,160 292,336 494,330
96 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Lolo National Forest

Description

The Lolo National Forest is located in western Montana and stretches approximately 140 miles from east to west, and 100 miles from north to south with its 

northern border roughly 70 miles south of the Canada (fig. 55). The forest is 

bordered to the north by the Kootenai National Forest, the Flathead Reservation 

of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and the Flathead National Forest. 

The forest is bordered by the Lewis and Clark National Forest to the northeast, 

the Helena National Forest to the east, the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest to the southeast, the Bitterroot National Forest and Bitterroot Valley to the 

south, the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest to the southwest, and the Idaho 

Panhandle National Forest to the west.

The Lolo National Forest was established September 20, 1906. Part of the Missoula National Forest was added December 16, 1931, followed a few years later 

by the addition of part of the Selway National Forest October 29, 1934. A final 

addition to Lolo National Forest was made July 1, 1954, when part of the Cabinet 

National Forest was incorporated (Davis 1983).

Figure 55—Location map of Lolo National Forest.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 97

The Lolo National Forest is 2,079,327 acres and contains over 80 unique forest habitat types, the most common of which is classified as moderately warm 

and dry covering 34 percent of the forest (DeBlander 2000). Most of the saw 

timber is located on steep terrain, resulting in skyline yarding being a popular 

logging method within the forest (USDA 1986, p VI12). The forest is 95 percent 

forested, leaving the remaining 5 percent either non-forested or water. Eight 

percent of the forested lands are protected under reserves including wilderness 

designation, and 56 percent of non-reserved lands are considered suitable for 

timber production with a net annual growth of all forested lands estimated to 

be over 90 million cubic feet (DeBlander 2000). Forest ecosystems range from 

warm, dry pine-bunchgrass forests with yearly productivity of 20 cubic feet per 

acre, to warm, moist western hemlock forests with yearly productivity of 164 

cubic feet per acre. Forest cover is 41 percent Douglas-fir, 21 percent lodgepole 

pine, 18 percent spruce-fir, 6 percent larch, 4 percent ponderosa pine, 3 percent 

western redceder, 2 percent grand fir, 2 percent Engelmann spruce, and 2 percent 

whitebark pine, as well as traces of mountain hemlock and aspen (DeBlander 

2000). Old growth forests are also present, estimated to cover 9.6 percent of the 

forest (USDA 2007).

Natural disturbances within the Lolo National Forest are insect infestation including significant impacts from the mountain pine beetle, as well as root disease, 

and forest fires (USDA 1986). Infected timber from the mountain pine beetle 

has been observed forest-wide in both lodgepole and ponderosa pine with heavy 

concentrations on the Plains Ranger District and much of the Thompson River 

drainage. Infected timber on the Plains Ranger District jumped from 5,500 acres 

in 1979 to more than 16,000 in 1982 (USDA 1986, p VI-26). Forest-wide, the 

pine beetle killed on average 27 trees per acre in 1980 and up to 53 trees per 

acre in 1982, representing a 6:1 increase since 1979 (USDA 1986, p VI-26). A 

partial aerial survey of the forest showed that 306,201 acres were infected with 

mountain pine beetle in 2009, which went down to 57,673 acres in 2010, and 

slightly up in 2011 to 62,537 acres, mostly occurring in lodgepole and ponderosa 

pine for all 3 years (USDA 2012b, p 45).

Other disturbances on the forest include root diseases (primarily armillaric) and 

forest fires. Root disease is an active pathogen on much of the forest, infecting 

more than 20,000 acres of forested land in 1986 (USDA 1986, p VI-27). Fire 

activity is also common on the forest with an average of 180 fires per year between 1955 and 1974 (USDA 1986, p VI-25). Twenty percent of the forest is 

85 years to 115 years old, with stand replacing fires in the western half of the 

forest occurring in 1880 and 1910 (USDA 1986, p VI-13). Within the forest 25 

percent of plots show no visible signs of disturbances, 26 percent show signs of 

disease, 18 percent show evidence of cutting, 13 percent have evidence of fire, 

5 percent have signs of weather damage, 5 percent show signs of insect damage, and 8 percent have undergone wind damage, road building, land clearing, 

or other disturbances (DeBlander 2000).
98 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Harvest Trends

Lolo National Forest is among the top five timber producing National Forests 

in the Northern Region (fig. 9). From 1906 to 1929, timber production averaged 

about 20,000 MgC per year before beginning a downward trend (fig. 56). Starting 

at the global minimum of 5,925 MgC in 1932, annual timber production began 

to grow exponentially with some inter-annual variability until 1969, when timber 

production hit its global maximum at 280,613 MgC. Timber production began 

to fall after 1969 with some isolated inter-annual variability, hitting a local minimum of 66,182 MgC in 1982. Following 1982, production increased with high 

inter-annual variability until hitting a local maximum of 169,982 MgC in 1990. 

Production began to fall again after 1990 with moderate inter-annual variability 

until hitting the local minimum of 17,101 MgC in 2007. After 2007, production 

began to increase, ending with 38,752 MgC in production in 2009.

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907 total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out 

in 1931with 209,096 MgC in use and 46,002 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

255,098 MgC (fig. 57). After 1940, carbon storage began to grow exponentially 

until 1973 with 1,698,829 MgC in use and 488,720 in the SWDS for a total of 

2,187,549 MgC. Carbon storage continued to grow at a steady rate after 1973 

until slowing about 1978 with 1,840,924 MgC in use and 600,785 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 2,441,709 MgC. From 1978 to 1987, carbon storage 

continued to grow but at a slow rate with 1,833,244 MgC in use and 710,887 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 2,544,131 MgC in 1987. After 1987, carbon 

storage began to grow at an increased rate until hitting the global maximum in 

 

 

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 56—Annual timber product output for Lolo National Forest, 1906 to 2010.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 99

 

 

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 57—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from Lolo National 

Forest timber.

1995 with 1,966,652 MgC in use and 818,431 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

2,785,083 MgC. After 1995, carbon storage began to decline at a slow, steady 

rate ending in 2010 with 1,658,554 MgC in use and 895,375 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 2,553,929 MgC remaining in total carbon storage (table 46).

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged about 10,000 MgC ranging from 

a low point in 1907 of 49 MgC in use and 4 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

53 MgC, to the high point in 1915 of 16,308 MgC in use and 2,410 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 18,718 MgC (fig. 58). After 1929, net stock change began 

Table 46—Lolo National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table shows the fate of all 

carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total remaining

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS in HWP poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 16,198 1,295 24,757 2,506 27,263

1920 100,547 20,679 133,496 23,090 156,586

1930 177,360 63,121 205,234 44,332 249,566

1940 223,155 117,445 222,226 53,753 275,979

1950 377,749 192,465 394,324 79,186 473,510

1960 793,883 385,596 776,333 198,898 975,231

1970 1,618,872 847,199 1,487,298 403,883 1,891,181

1980 2,341,844 1,476,653 1,838,739 628,899 2,467,639

1990 2,736,156 2,015,001 1,893,645 750,650 2,644,295

1995 2,939,086 2,267,684 1,966,652 818,431 2,785,083

2000 3,040,927 2,496,168 1,867,094 860,254 2,727,349

2005 3,108,705 2,694,683 1,756,083 881,892 2,637,975

2006 3,126,662 2,731,567 1,744,597 885,686 2,630,282

2007 3,140,734 2,767,381 1,724,865 888,749 2,613,614

2008 3,148,028 2,801,867 1,698,010 890,924 2,588,934

2009 3,158,258 2,835,232 1,674,146 892,919 2,567,066

2010 3,177,588 2,867,791 1,658,554 895,375 2,553,929

a Sum of products in use and SWDS.
100 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

to decline until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –2,319 MgC in use and 

903 MgC in the SWDS for a net negative change in carbon stocks (emissions) 

of –1,416 MgC. Following 1933, net stock change experienced positive growth 

at an exponential rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until 

hitting the global maximum in 1970 with 89,084 MgC in use and 25,378 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 114,462 MgC. After 1970, net additions rapidly 

declined until hitting a local minimum in 1983 with –22,453 MgC in use and 

10,525 MgC in the SWDS for a total net stock change of –11,928 MgC. This 

was followed by a period of rapid growth with moderate inter-annual variability 

until hitting a local maximum in 1991 with 43,789 MgC in use and 16,286 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 60,075 MgC in net stock change. Net stock change 

experienced a rapid decline after 1991 with moderate inter-annual variability 

first showing signs of continued net negative growth in 1996 with –31,264 MgC 

in use and 8,782 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –22,482 MgC. After 1996, 

net stock change continued to experience high inter-annual variability, averaging about –16,000 MgC per year, ranging from the global minimum in 2002 of 

–30,227 MgC in use and 4,366 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –25,861 MgC, 

to a local maximum in 1998 of –9,506 MgC in use and 9,058 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of –458 MgC (table 47).

From 1906 to 1929, the 100-year average carbon storage was about 9,500 MgC 

ranging from a low point in 1906 of 23 MgC in use, and 18 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 41 MgC, to the high point in 1914 of 8,609 MgC in use and 

6,650 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 15,259 MgC, before beginning a short 

downward trend and hitting the global minimum in 1932 with 1,579 MgC in 

use and 1,220 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 2,799 MgC (fig. 59). After 1932, 

average carbon storage experienced positive growth at an exponential rate with a 

 

 

‐40,000

‐20,000

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990 to 2010

Figure 58—Lolo National Forest net change in carbon stocks in HWP from the 

previous year.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 101

Table 47—Lolo National Forest annual net 

change in HWP carbon stocks 

for selected years for harvests 

beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 10,931

1920 10,186

1930 7,949

1940 1,685

1950 31,291

1960 62,133

1970 114,462

1980 21,848

1990 47,759

1995 23,863

2000 -18,054

2005 -9,538

2006 -7,692

2007 -16,668

2008 -24,680

2009 -21,869

2010 -13,137

a

Net annual change in carbon in products in 

use and SWDS.

moderate amount of inter-annual variability until reaching the global maximum 

in 1969 with 55,699 MgC in use and 51,356 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

107,055 MgC. Following 1969, average carbon storage in HWP fell rapidly with 

some isolated inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum in 1982, with 

13,833 MgC in use and 12,926 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 26,759 MgC. 

 

 

0

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage (MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 59—Lolo National Forest harvest 100-year average carbon HWP storage using the 

California Forest Project Protocol.
102 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

After 1982, carbon storage experienced steady growth with high inter-annual 

variability, hitting a local maximum in 1990 with 36,825 MgC in use and 31,811 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 68,636 MgC. This was followed by a steady 

decline in carbon storage with moderate inter-annual variability until hitting the 

most recent local minimum in 2007 with 2,965 MgC in use and 3,124 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 6,089 MgC, and ending in 2009 with 5,760 MgC in use 

and 6,400 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 12,160 MgC (tables 48, 49).

Table 48—Lolo National Forest 100-year average carbon stored in 

HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 4,357 3,365 7,722

1920 5,550 4,287 9,837

1930 4,491 3,469 7,960

1940 6,065 4,685 10,750

1950 9,883 9,113 18,996

1960 34,302 31,628 65,930

1970 54,251 50,438 104,689

1980 24,487 22,139 46,626

1990 36,825 31,811 68,636

1995 7,842 7,620 15,462

2000 8,189 7,581 15,770

2005 9,505 8,551 18,055

2006 5,984 5,676 11,659

2007 2,965 3,124 6,089

2008 3,256 3,786 7,042

2009 5,760 6,400 12,159

a The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest year.

b The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.

Table 49—Lolo National Forest confidence intervals for cumulative carbon in 

HWP for selected years for harvests beginning in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 27,263 16,009 40,396

1920 156,586 90,351 236,877

1930 249,566 141,442 390,700

1940 275,979 164,066 421,951

1950 473,510 289,560 709,504

1960 975,231 619,107 1,393,343

1970 1,891,181 1,221,024 2,701,739

1980 2,467,639 1,584,707 3,542,548

1990 2,644,295 1,892,949 3,513,557

1995 2,785,083 2,041,434 3,655,414

2000 2,727,349 2,060,023 3,538,907

2005 2,637,975 1,961,167 3,402,792

2006 2,630,282 1,945,608 3,382,222

2007 2,613,614 1,955,383 3,358,641

2008 2,588,934 1,938,244 3,336,499

2009 2,567,066 1,949,762 3,331,068

2010 2,553,929 1,938,431 3,277,817
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 103

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest

Description

The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest is located in the southern portion of 

the Idaho Panhandle with the Nez Perce Reservation located to its east (fig. 60). 

The forest stretches approximately 100 miles from east to west and from north 

to south. The forest is bordered by the Idaho Panhandle National Forest to the 

north, the Lolo National Forest to the northeast, the Bitterroot National Forest 

to the east, the Payette National Forest to the south, and the Wallowa-Whitman 

National Forest as well as privately held lands to the west.

Figure 60—Location map of Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest.
104 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

The Nez Perce and Clearwater National Forests were both established July 1, 

1908, from parts of the Bitter Root and Weiser National Forests, and the Bitter 

Root and Coeur d’Alene National Forests, respectively. Part of the Selway National Forest was added October 29, 1934, to both the Nez Perce and Clearwater 

National Forests (Davis 1983). In December 2010, the Regional Forester decided 

to combine the Nez Perce and Clearwater National Forests into one administrative area, a goal that is still in transition (USDA 2012e, f).

The Nez Perce and Clearwater National Forests are 2,111,238 acres and 1,825,422 

acres respectively, where both have a high correlation between elevation and forest type. This correlation is due to high elevations (above 6,000 feet) receiving 

more precipitation and having a lower temperature than low elevations (below 

4,000 feet) (Disney 2010; Hughes 2011). Common forest types in the Nez Perce 

National Forest are subalpine fir and lodgepole pine at high elevations, grand 

fir at middle elevations (4,000-6,000 feet), and Douglas-fir across all elevations 

(Disney 2010). Common forest types within the Clearwater National Forest are 

whitebark pine and subalpine fir at high elevations, grand fir at both middle and 

low elevations, and Douglas-fir across all elevations (Hughes 2011). The Nez 

Perce National Forest is 94 percent forested, leaving the remaining 6 percent 

either non-forested or water, with 38 percent of the forested lands protected under 

reserves including wilderness designation (Disney 2010). The Clearwater National 

Forest is 95 percent forested, leaving the remaining 5 percent either non-forested 

or water, with 13 percent of the forested lands protected under reserves including 

wilderness designation (Hughes 2011). Net annual growth of all forested lands 

in the Nez Perce and Clearwater National Forests are estimated to be over 102 

million cubic feet and 116 million cubic feet, respectively (Disney 2010; Hughes 

2011). The Nez Perce National Forest cover type is 24 percent spruce-fir, 22 

percent grand fir, 22 percent Douglas-fir, 15 percent lodgepole pine, 9 percent 

ponderosa pine, 4 percent western redceder, 2 percent Engelmann spruce, and 

2 percent maple woodland (Disney 2010). Stands of old growth forest are also 

present on the Nez Perce National Forest, estimated to cover 14.4 percent of 

forested lands (USDA 2007). The Clearwater National Forest cover type is 26 

percent spruce-fir, 21 percent Douglas-fir, 19 percent grand fir, 13 percent lodgepole pine, 8 percent western redceder, 4 percent Engelmann spruce, 3 percent 

mountain hemlock, 3 percent maple woodland, 1 percent paper birch, 1 percent 

western larch, and 1 percent ponderosa pine, with traces of mountain hemlock 

and aspen also present (Hughes 2010). The Clearwater also contains some old 

growth forests, estimated to cover 9.4 percent of the forest (USDA 2009d, p 122).

Natural disturbances within the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest are insect 

infestation including significant impacts from mountain pine beetle, root disease, 

forest fires, and wind damage. Twenty-two percent of tree mortality on the Nez 

Perce National Forest in 2000 was caused by root disease, 20 percent by fire, 

and 12 percent by mountain pine beetle infestations. Twenty-six percent of tree 

mortality occurred in Douglas-fir, 23 percent in lodgepole pine, 22 percent in 

grand fir, 19 percent in subalpine fir, and 7 percent in ponderosa pine, while 
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 105

whitebark pine mortality was 63 percent of its gross annual growth (Disney 

2010). Forty-nine percent of tree mortality on the Clearwater National Forest 

in 1999 was caused by disease, 22 percent by weather damage, 20 percent by 

insects, 5 percent by unknown causes, and 3 percent by fire. Twenty percent of 

tree mortality occurred in subalpine fir, 18 percent in lodgepole pine, 15 percent 

in Douglas-fir, 15 percent in mountain hemlock, and 14 percent in grand fir 

(Hughes 2010). Infected timber from the mountain pine beetle epidemic rapidly 

increased due to drought conditions from 1998 to 2003, and can be observed 

forest-wide in lodgepole pine, Douglas-fir, and whitebark pine, as well as the 

acreage burned in the 1910 fires (USDA 2004, p 19; USDA 2009d, p 109). In 

2004, it was also concluded that subalpine fir forests were increasingly in threat 

of infection from balsam woolly adelgid and the western balsam bark beetle 

(USDA 2004, p 23; USDA 2009d, p 109).

Harvest Trends

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest is one of the top timber producing forests 

in the Northern Region (fig. 9). From 1906 to 1929, timber production averaged 

about 50,000 MgC per year before beginning a downward trend (fig. 61). Starting at the global minimum of 13,243 MgC in 1932, annual timber production 

began to grow exponentially with some inter-annual variability until 1966 when 

timber production hit its global maximum at 574,897 MgC. After 1969, timber 

production began to decline with high inter-annual variability until hitting a local 

minimum of 183,390 MgC in 1982. Production increased sharply after 1982 to 

331,659 MgC in 1983. Production experienced a moderate amount of inter-annual 

 

 

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

190019201940196019802000

Timber Product Output (MgC)

Harvest Year

Figure 61—Annual timber product output for Nez Perce-Clearwater National 

Forest, 1906 to 2010.
106 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

variability from 1983 to 1994 averaging about 330,000MgC per year, hitting a 

local maximum of 396,901 MgC in 1990. Following 1990, production began 

to steadily decline hitting a local minimum in 2000 with production at 41,818 

MgC. From 2000 to 2009 production averaged about 53,000 MgC per year with 

a local maximum in 2004 of 84,613 MgC, a local minimum in 2008 of 33,076 

MgC, and ending with 52,659 MgC in 2009.

Carbon in Harvested Wood Products

Starting in 1907, total carbon storage in HWP grew linearly until flattening out 

in 1931with 467,394 MgC in use and 102,829 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

570,223 MgC (fig. 62). After 1940, carbon storage began to grow exponentially 

until 1971 with 3,333,271 MgC in use and 936,131 in the SWDS for a total of 

4,269,402 MgC. Carbon storage continued to grow at a steady rate from 1971 

until 1982, hitting a local maximum with 4,239,030 MgC in use and 1,451,483 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 5,690,513 MgC. After experiencing a net loss 

in 1983 of 5,855 MgC, carbon storage began to rise again at a steady rate until 

hitting the global maximum in 1995 with 4,791,455 MgC in use and 2,001,527 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 6,792,982 MgC. Carbon storage began to decline 

after 1995 at a slow, steady rate, ending in 2010 with 3,846,378 MgC in use and 

2,191,266 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 6,037,644 MgC remaining in total 

carbon storage (table 50).

From 1907 to 1929, net stock change averaged about 23,000 MgC ranging from 

a low point in 1907 of 109 MgC in use and 9 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

118 MgC, to the high point in 1915 of 36,453 MgC in use and 5,387 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 41,840 MgC (fig. 63). After 1929, net stock change began 

to decline until hitting a local minimum in 1933 with –5,183 MgC in use and 

 

 

0

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

7,000,000

8,000,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Total HWP Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 62—Cumulative total carbon stored in HWP manufactured from Nez 

Perce-Clearwater National Forest timber.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 107

 

 

‐150,000

‐100,000

‐50,000

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Change in Carbon Stocks (MgC)

Inventory Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Net change, 1990 to 2010

Figure 63—Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest net change in carbon stocks in 

HWP from the previous year.

Table 50—Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest cumulative disposition of HWP carbon for selected years. This table shows 

the fate of all carbon removed from the ecosystem by harvesting.

Emitted with Emitted without Total remaining

Inventory year energy capture energy capture Products in use SWDS in HWP poola

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 36,208 2,894 55,340 5,601 60,941

1920 224,754 46,225 298,404 51,614 350,018

1930 396,455 141,095 458,761 99,096 557,857

1940 498,820 262,526 496,743 120,154 616,897

1950 844,385 430,218 881,435 177,004 1,058,439

1960 1,774,572 861,925 1,735,341 444,599 2,179,940

1970 3,500,196 1,876,121 3,167,429 879,733 4,047,162

1980 5,149,037 3,199,210 4,116,979 1,357,348 5,474,327

1990 6,317,812 4,455,095 4,544,654 1,784,320 6,328,974

1995 6,872,402 5,068,599 4,791,455 2,001,527 6,792,982

2000 7,062,222 5,615,689 4,448,592 2,119,785 6,568,378

2005 7,168,015 6,068,530 4,119,240 2,166,102 6,285,342

2006 7,193,910 6,151,362 4,071,504 2,173,101 6,244,605

2007 7,209,089 6,231,248 4,007,300 2,178,073 6,185,373

2008 7,234,413 6,309,070 3,958,190 2,183,405 6,141,595

2009 7,249,988 6,384,067 3,896,869 2,187,232 6,084,101

2010 7,276,255 6,456,914 3,846,378 2,191,266 6,037,645

a Sum of products in use and SWDS.
108 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

2,020 MgC in the SWDS for a net negative change in carbon stocks (emissions) 

of –3,163 MgC. Following 1933, net stock change experienced positive growth 

at an exponential rate with a moderate amount of inter-annual variability until 

hitting the global maximum in 1967 with 193,157 MgC in use and 51,427 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of 244,584 MgC. Net additions steadily declined after 

1967 with high inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum in 1983 

with –41,256 MgC in use and 35,401 MgC in the SWDS for a total net stock 

change of –5,855 MgC. This was followed by a period of rapid growth, hitting a local maximum in 1991 with 91,166 MgC in use and 46,662 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of 137,828 MgC in net stock change. After 1991, net stock 

change experienced a rapid decline, first showing signs of continued net negative growth in 1996 with –47,098 MgC in use and 32,513 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of –14,585 MgC. Net stock change continued to fall until hitting 

the global minimum in 2001 with –83,391 MgC in use and 12,288 MgC in the 

SWDS for a total of –71,103 MgC. After 2001, net stock change averaged about 

–52,000 MgC per year, ranging from the low point in 2002 with –75,524 MgC 

in use and 10,097 MgC in the SWDS for a total of –65,428 MgC, to the high 

point in 2005 with –40,581 MgC in use and 8,062 MgC in the SWDS for a total 

of –32,519 MgC, and ending in 2010 with –50,490 MgC in use and 4,034 MgC 

in the SWDS for a total of –46,456 MgC (table 51).

Table 51—Nez Perce-Clearwater National 

Forest annual net change in HWP 

carbon stocks for selected years 

for harvests beginning in 1906.

Stock changea

Inventory year (MgC yr-1)

1910 24,435

1920 22,770

1930 17,769

1940 3,767

1950 69,944

1960 138,886

1970 194,216

1980 156,366

1990 113,893

1995 76,325

2000 -69,345

2005 -32,519

2006 -40,736

2007 -59,233

2008 -43,778

2009 -57,494

2010 -46,456

a Net annual change in carbon in products in 

use and SWDS.
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 109

From 1906 to 1929, the 100-year average carbon storage was about 22,000 MgC 

ranging from a low point in 1906 of 51 MgC in use and 39 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 90 MgC, to the high point in 1914 of 19,243 MgC in use and 

14,864 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 34,107 MgC, before beginning a short 

downward trend and hitting the global minimum in 1932 with 3,530 MgC in 

use and 2,726 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 6,256 MgC (fig. 64). After 1932, 

average carbon storage experienced positive growth at an exponential rate with a 

moderate amount of inter-annual variability until reaching the global maximum 

in 1966 with 114,111 MgC in use and 105,214 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 

219,325 MgC. Following 1966, average carbon storage in HWP steadily declined 

with high inter-annual variability until hitting a local minimum in 1982, with 

38,330 MgC in use and 35,818 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 74,148 MgC. 

Carbon storage rapidly increased in 1983 and continued to grow steadily until 

hitting a local maximum in 1990 with 85,984 MgC in use and 74,278 MgC in 

the SWDS for a total of 160,262 MgC. This was followed by a rapid decline 

in carbon storage, hitting a local minimum in 2000 with 7,987 MgC in use and 

7,395 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 15,382 MgC. After 2000, carbon storage 

averaging around 17,000 MgC per year ranging from a local maximum in 2004 

with 17,063 MgC in use and 15,509 MgC in the SWDS for a total of 32,572 MgC, 

to a local minimum in 2008 with 4,957 MgC in use and 5,764 MgC in the SWDS 

for a total of 10,721 MgC, and ending in 2009 with 7,827 MgC in use and 8,696 

MgC in the SWDS for a total of 16,523 MgC (tables 52, 53).

 

 

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

1909 1919 1929 1939 1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2009

100 Year Average Carbon Storage (MgC)

Harvest Year

Products in SWDS

Products in use

Figure 64—Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest harvest 100-year average 

carbon HWP storage using the California Forest Project Protocol
110 USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013

Table 52—Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest 100-year average carbon 

stored in HWP for selected years.

Products Landfills and

Harvest year in usea dumpsb Total

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 9,739 7,522 17,261

1920 12,406 9,583 21,989

1930 10,039 7,755 17,794

1940 13,558 10,472 24,030

1950 22,092 20,369 42,461

1960 76,675 70,698 147,373

1970 110,960 103,159 214,119

1980 62,249 56,281 118,530

1990 85,984 74,278 160,262

1995 31,840 30,937 62,777

2000 7,987 7,395 15,382

2005 13,707 12,330 26,037

2006 6,455 6,122 12,577

2007 10,292 10,846 21,139

2008 4,957 5,764 10,721

2009 7,827 8,696 16,523

a The 100-year average carbon storage in products in use for the harvest year.

b The 100-year average carbon storage in SWDS for the harvest year.

Table 53—Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest confidence intervals for 

cumulative carbon in HWP for selected years for harvests beginning 

in 1906.

90% Confidence interval

Total remaining (% difference from estimate)

Inventory year in HWP pool 5% 95%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (MgC)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1910 60,941 35,785 90,296

1920 350,018 201,963 529,493

1930 557,857 316,167 873,334

1940 616,897 366,738 943,188

1950 1,058,439 647,255 1,585,958

1960 2,179,940 1,383,894 3,114,547

1970 4,047,162 2,613,015 5,781,770

1980 5,474,327 3,515,590 7,858,956

1990 6,328,974 4,530,669 8,409,504

1995 6,792,982 4,979,178 8,915,771

2000 6,568,378 4,961,232 8,522,883

2005 6,285,342 4,672,753 8,107,624

2006 6,244,605 4,619,107 8,029,800

2007 6,185,373 4,627,606 7,948,553

2008 6,141,595 4,597,996 7,915,006

2009 6,084,101 4,621,054 7,894,833

2010 6,037,645 4,582,570 7,748,961
USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-311. 2013 111

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Bozeman, Montana

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