Solid Wood Products 27 1 3 



Subject Text Reference 



Pulpwood prices Figure 29-41AB 



Pulpchip prices Figures 25-2 and 29-42 



Pulp mill locations Figure 25-1 



Pulpwood consumption and production Figure 29-5ABC 



22-15 ENERGY WOOD 



19 



Fuelwood consumption in 1976 was about 18 million cords or 1.4 billion 

 cubic feet; this total included approximately 330 million cubic feet of round- 

 wood from growing-stock trees and 270 million cubic feet of primary plant 

 byproducts. Total volume was equivalent to about 21 million tons of dry wood. 

 Additionally, some 10 million tons (dry basis) of bark was consumed for fuel in 

 1976. 



RESIDENTIAL USE OF FIREWOOD 



Roundwood was the major source of energy in the United States until the 

 1880's. Fuelwood use dropped sharply in the first half of the present century, 

 replaced by fossil fuels and electricity. Difficulties in fossil fuel supply during 

 World War I, The Great Depression, and World War II brought renewed interest 

 in wood, but these episodes had little effect on the rapid decline of fuelwood 

 consumption. By 1970, less than 2 percent of all households in the United States 

 used wood as their primary fuel for heating and less than 1 percent as their 

 primary cooking fuel. 



With the unprecedented, and continuing, rise in the price of fossil fuels and 

 electricity (figs. 29-49 and 29-50), an increasing number of households (estimat- 

 ed at 912,000 in 1976) is using wood as a primary source of heat. Much greater 

 numbers are using wood for supplementary heat or for esthetic purposes. In 

 1976, 58 percent of all new single-family homes built had one or more fire- 

 places, as compared to 44 percent in 1969. The number of wood stoves, not 

 included in the figure for fire places, has also risen substantially. Thus, it is 

 projected that residential use of wood fuels, especially from roundwood, will 

 increase steadily from 6 million cords in 1976 to some 26 million cords in 2030. 

 Demands may rise much beyond this projected level, unless major new fossil- 

 fuel discoveries are made, or alternative sources of oil and gas, such as tar sands, 

 oil shale, and geopressurized salt domes, become sufficiently developed before 

 then to reverse this trend. 



INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL USE OF FUELWOOD 



Of the nearly 800 million cubic feet (11 million tons, dry basis) of wood 

 byproducts used as fuel in 1976, about 90 percent went to produce steam heat 



'^Text under this heading is condensed from U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service 



(1980). 



