In East Texas almost 92 percent of the timberland is privately owned. Family forest landowners are by far the largest group of private owners, accounting for about 53 percent of all timberland.
In the past two decades most timberland held by corporations that own wood processing facilities has been sold to corporations that do not own wood processing facilities, such as Timberland Investment Management Organizations and Real Estate Investment Trusts. These corporations own about 24 percent of timberland in East Texas.
Other private ownership classes (i.e., nonindustrial corporate excluding TIMOs and REITs, unincorporated, Native American and nongovernmental organizations) account for about 15 percent of all timberland. Slightly more than 8 percent of timberland is publicly owned.