The American lumber industry had its
beginning in Maine and with the country's western expansion it moved across
the continent. Water, oxen, horses, wagons, carts, railroads, and rubber
tired trucks all played progressional parts in the evolution of mechanized
logging in North America.
In less than 50 years, technology
changed the extraction and primary transportation of logs more than it had
been changed in the previous two centuries. Logging had been, in the
regions that received snow, a winter occupation where snow helped to ease
the friction between heavy logs and the soil.
One team of horses and one man could
ship up to 50 logs in one day. In Michigan, a record load of 20 logs
totaling 30,000 board feet was cut and loaded in 1893.
The New York forest today is 23%
greater than it was in 1953. That's an increase of over 3.5 million acres of
forest land.
Trees are our nation's only renewable
natural resource.
In addition to natural regeneration,
every year 6 trees are planted to replace each one harvested.
There are twice as many hardwoods today
as there were 45 years ago.
National Hardwood Assoc.
Total forest land - 18. 5
million acres
Noncommercial forest land –
3.2 million acres
Timberland – 15.4 million
acres.
New York forests grow three
times more wood each year than is
harvested. NYSDEC
To grow a pound of wood a
typical healthy tree uses nearly 1 ½ pounds of carbon dioxide and gives off
more than a pound of oxygen. This process reverses itself in an old forest
with more wood decaying than growing: for every pound of wood decaying, a
pound of oxygen is used and nearly 1 ½ pounds of carbon dioxide is released
into the air. The forest products industry ranks among the top ten
manufacturing employers in 46 states and employs some 1.6 million
people.
The American Forest & Paper Assoc., Winter 1996
The use of wood for fire is
one of the first and most significant contributions of this resource to the
development of society. In a cave near Beijing, China, coals and human
remains have been unearthed that are about 4,000 years old, indicating that
wood was used then for either heating or cooking, or both. With today's
technology, almost 100 percent of a tree can be used in the manufacturing
process for wood and paper products, including efficient burning of wood
residue for
fuel.
The American Forest & Paper Assoc
The North Central United
States consumes, on average, 73 cubic feet of wood including 740 pounds of
paper products per year, per person. And despite programs to recycle and
curb waste, overall U.S. consumption of wood is likely to grow. The USDA
Forest Service 2001 RPA Assessment of Forest and Range Lands estimates that
by 2050 U.S. wood consumption will rise by 40 percent due to increasing
population.
USFS North Central Research
Station News, Spring, 2002
One-third of U.S. land is
covered by forest (302 million hectares) making forestland the number one
type of land use in the United States. Alaska is the state with the most
forestland, ahead of California and Oregon. A majority of the states with
the most forestland are in the West, but all of the top ten states with the
highest percentage of timberland making up their land area are in the East.
One-fifth of U.S. land is timberland, which is land capable of producing
1.38 cubic meters per hectare of industrial wood
annually. USDA Foreign
Agricultural Service
In a
study in Wisconsin, it has been found that high carbon dioxide increased the
growth of young aspen and birch, while high ozone levels decrease their
growth, and cancel each other out when both are elevated. Our reliance on
fossil fuels has led to mounting increases in both gases.
Maple
sugar and maple syrup have been made from the sugar maple's sap for hundreds
of years. Early colonists learned the art of collecting and boiling sap
from Native Americans, who concentrated and processed the sap in troughs
made of elm bark or tree trunks. The tree is also used to manufacture
furniture, flooring, interior wood trim, lathe-turned items, sporting goods,
etc. Maple sugar contains bone-building phosphates that are used in
the treatment of children with
tuberculosis.
Forest Focus, Winter 2001
Clear cutting is just one of the many
management options to regenerate some forests. Since many types of trees
must have full sunlight to regenerate, clear cutting is often the only
option available to provide these conditions.
Each year, the forest industry and
others plant 1.5 billion seedlings in the US. That’s more than five new
trees for each American and nearly 2000 for every bear.
There are 737 million acres of
forestland in the U.S. (roughly 1/3 of the entire land mass of the
U.S.). From
“Amazing Forest Facts” by the American Forest & Paper Assoc.
The number of families and individuals
who own working forests in the U. S. is 9.9 million.
There is a total of 747 million acres
of forestland in the U. S.
Since 1930, 64.5 million acres of
forestland have been planted in the country.
There are 850 species of trees growing
in the U. S.
The average American uses enough
paper, lumber and other wood products each year to equal a tree 18 inches in
diameter and 100 feet
tall.
American Forest & Paper Assoc.
Building an average 2,000 square foot
home takes 32 cords of lumber (15,824 board feet) and 12 cords of panel
products (10,893) square feet). Thousands of products used by Americans
every day come from wood. Different products come from different kids of
trees, but generally, a cord of wood will yield: 7,500,00 toothpicks; 1,000
to 2,000 pounds of paper (depending on the grade); 943 one-pound books or
612,370 No. 10 business
envelopes.
“Bama Logger,” Alabama’s Loggers’ Assoc.
More than 5,000 different wood and
paper products are consumed by people around the world every day. Products
made from bark, for example, include cork, anticancer drugs, shoe polish,
cosmetics, poultry bedding, oil spill control agents and garden mulch.
“Lignosulfate products” include cleaning compounds, ceramics, treatments for
hypertension and Parkinson’s Disease, insecticides, hair spray, deodorants,
fungicides, grouting, laundry stain remover and artificial vanilla
flavoring.
Virginia Forest Products Assoc.
U.S. Solid wood exports were $6
billion in 1999, with 36 % shipping from the West Coast and 27 % departing
from other ports around the nation. The ports with the highest percentage
of the county’s shipments are in Washington, New York and Oregon. North
Carolina is ranked first in the nation for forest industry employment,
followed by California and Oregon. Traditionally, North Carolina’s main
forest products manufacturing activity was furniture
manufacture.
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
Imagine a railroad boxcar loaded with
recovered paper. Now imagine nearly 15 miles of boxcars filled with paper.
That represents the amount of paper recycled every day including used
corrugated boxes, old newspapers, stationary and other office papers are
recovered every year. More than 200 mills in the U.S. rely solely on
recovered paper as a raw material and most domestic mills use some recovered
paper.
American Forest and Paper Association
Working forests, owned by individuals
and families, provide most of the wood and paper used in the U. S. every
day. From houses to paper, these forests help meet the nation’s needs for
wood and paper products. Nearly 9.9 million individuals and families own
working forests in America. As a result of responsible management, working
forests offer food, shelter and nesting for a growing number of wildlife
species, such as songbirds, rabbits, deer, elk, moose and wild
turkeys.
The American Forest & Paper Assoc.
More than 94 % of all homes in the U.S.
are built with wood-framed walls and roofs. Home building, remodeling and
home improvements are collectively the largest single use of lumber and wood
products in the U.S., accounting for about two thirds of domestic
wood-product consumption.
Virginia Forest Products Assoc.
In the 18th Century, the
French scientist Rene de Reaumur got the idea to use wood fiber to make
paper. He came to this conclusion by watching a wasp building a nest form a
twig it mixed with its bodily fluids to create pulp. Rubber, a tropical
tree product, got its name from the 18th Century scientist Joseph
Priestly who observed it being used to rub out pencil marks.
Beller Logging and Excavating