Ownership of Ohio's forests
Most of Ohio's forest land is owned by private landowners. Approximately 7.2 million acres, or 93 percent of these forests, are privately owned either by forest industry or nonindustrial private landowners. The remaining 513,000 acres, or 7 percent, are owned by federal, state, or local public agencies or concerns.
Within the private ownership category, 56 percent of the forest land is owned by individuals, 23 percent by farmers, 11 percent by corporations, and 3 percent by forest industry.
Though public forest land represents only a small percentage of the total ownership, the amount has increased 25 percent since 1979; more than 100,000 acres of public forest lands have been acquired by local, state, and federal agencies. Conversely, corporate ownership changed significantly during the same period, dropping from 716,000 acres to 176,000 acres, a 75 percent decrease. Finally, nonindustrial private forest ownerships increased sharply, in part due to the overall forest land increase. This category increased by more than 1 million acres, a 16 percent increase since 1979.
More than 329,000 private individuals own Ohio's non-public forest land. Greater than half of them own less than 10 acres. Yet this group controls just less than 10 percent of the forest land. More than a third of the landowners hold parcels between 10 and 50 acres, and collectively control one third of the forest acreage. Significantly, only 38,000 landowners control more than 50 percent (4 million acres) of Ohio's forests. The overall average size of ownership is 21.9 acres.
Ownership of Ohio's forests
| Forest Landowners: Numbers and Acres by Size-class Categories, 1991 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Acres Owned | Number of Owners | Total Acres |
| 1-9 | 170,300 | 730,000 |
| 10-9 | 121,000 | 2,430,000 |
| 50-99 | 25,900 | 1,620,000 |
| 100-499 | 11,500 | 1,670,000 |
| 500-999 | 300 | 170,000 |
| 1,000+ | 200 | 570,000 |