The forests in the United States are a rich natural resource, providing beauty and tranquility, varied recreational benefits, and wood for commercial use. Wood product manufacturing accounted for $39 billion of the GDP in 2006, equivalent to 0.3% of the GDP. Circa 581,000 persons were engaged in wood products manufacturing in 2006 in the United States. 

Forest area encompasses 749 million acres (ca. 303m hectares). About 33% of the 2.3B  acres (930m hectares) of land area in the U.S. is forest today. Fifty-seven percent of all forest land is privately owned. Public forest land is dominant in the western United States, with private forest land dominant in the East.

Timberland Area

About 504m acres (ca. 204m hectares) of forest land (two-thirds of all forest land) is classed as timberland for the production of timber; 94% of eastern forests are classed as timberland, 80% of the Pacific Northwest, about 50% of the interior west and southwest, and 10% of Alaska.

Seventy-one percent of timberland is privately owned (including forest industry), but these lands accounted for most (ca. 92%) of growing-stock removals. Non-industrial private ownerships make up 58% (291m acres / ca. 118m hectares) of U.S. timberland and account for ca. 63% of the volume of growing-stock removals.

Industrial private forests account for 13% of U.S. timberland (66m acres / 26.7m hectares). Although these forests contain only 12% of the growing-stock volume, they account for ca. 29% of the volume of growing stock harvested.

Public forests comprise 29% of U.S. timberland. National forests are the largest Federal ownership, making up 19% of U.S. timberland but accounting for only 2% of timber harvest. Other public forests make up 10% of U.S. timberland and account for 6% of growing-stock removals as harvesting on public forests continues to decline.

(Source: United States Forest Service, Forest Resource Reporting Regions and Subregions of the United States.)

Timber Inventories

Growing-stock volume on U.S. timberland increased 30% to 856B cubic feet (ca. 24.2B cubic meters) between 1953 and 2002.

Some 57% of the volume of growing stock is softwoods, with the remaining 43% in hardwoods. However, 90% of the hardwood timber is in the Eastern United States. About 68% of the softwood timber is in the Western United States, and 22% is in the South.

Data for the United States as a whole indicate that growth has exceeded removals for both softwoods and hardwoods. Because hardwood growth greatly exceeds harvest, the quantity of larger hardwood trees generally continues to increase. The slower increase in standing volume for softwoods versus hardwoods is the result of stronger historic demand for softwood species in wood product manufacture.

Link:  http://ncrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/gtr/gtr_nc241.pdf

Source: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service

Wood Product Manufacturing

Industries in the wood product manufacturing produce wood products, such as lumber, plywood, veneers, containers, flooring, trusses, manufactured homes (i.e., mobile home), and prefabricated wooden buildings. The production processes of wood product manufacturing subsector include sawing, planning, shaping, laminating, and assembling of lumber and wood products.
The wood product manufacturing subsector includes companies which make wood products from logs and bolts that are sawed and shaped, as well as firmsthat purchase sawed lumber and make wood products.

Wood Product Manufactoring 2006

Value Added to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)	$ 39 billion
Value Added as Percentage of GDP	0.3%
Employment (Full and Part-Time Employees	576,000
Persons Engaged in Production	581,000

Link: www.bea.gov

Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis

Wood Product Manufactoring, Employment 2006

Industry	Hourly mean wage	Annual mean wage
Other Wood Product Manufactoring	$ 10.51	$ 21,1850
Vaneer, Plywood and  Engineered Wood Manufactoring	$ 13.05	$ 27,150
Sawmills and Wood Preservation	$ 12.06	$ 25,080
Employment Services	$ 11.73	$ 24,390

Link: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes517099.htm

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics

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