Since 1910, more than 26,500,000 acres of lands have been excluded from the forests.

These lands were more useful for farming or grazing than for forestry.

Practically all lands within the National Forests have now been examined and classified.

At intervals Congress has combined several areas of forest lands into single tracts.

Government lands outside the National Forests have also been traded for state or private lands within their boundaries.
Thus the forests have been lined-up in more compact bodies.
Careful surveys are made before such trades are closed to make sure that the land given to Uncle Sam is valuable for timber production and the protection of stream flow, and that the Government receives full value for the land that is exchanged.
The National Forests contain nearly five hundred billion board feet of merchantable timber.