TIMBER TRENDS IN THE UNITED STATES 



Maintaining such a sizable proportion of the 

 total raw materials used will require continuing 

 improvements in productivity in the forest indus- 

 tries and effective marketing of wood products. 

 Much technological progress has been made in 

 recent years in the forest industries, as well as in 

 industries producing competitive products. But 

 current expenditures for research and develop- 

 ment, for example, are very much less in the forest 

 industries than in competing industries. 



To keep pace with producers of competitive 

 materials, and achieve potential markets for 

 timber products improvements in technology will 

 be needed to develop new or improved wood-based 

 products, increase efficiency in use of wood in 

 construction and in other markets, lower costs at 

 all stages of timber production and utilization, and 

 market wood products more effectively. 



4. Imports of timber products are likely to increase 

 somewhat, but most of the timber required to supphj 

 future U.S. markets is expected to come from 

 domestic forests. 



Imports of lumber, newsprint, and other forest 

 products represented about 13 percent of the total 

 roundwood consumed in supplying U.S. markets 

 for timber products in 1962. Imports made up 

 about 11 percent of the total lumber, 19 percent 

 of the pulp and paper products, and about half the 

 hardwood veneer and plywood used. 



Some further increases in net imports of lumber 

 and pulpwood products are expected, mainly from 

 Canada which has extensive undeveloped softwood 

 timber resources. Additional imports of hard- 

 wood veneer and plywood from tropical forests 

 also are considered likely. In view of the prospec- 

 tive availability of timber resources in the United 

 States, however, and other factors such as relative 

 costs of wood supplies from different sources, it 

 has been concluded that most timber products 

 consumed in the United States will continue to 

 come, as in the past, from domestic forests. 



5. Timber supphj-demand relationships in the 

 United States have generally improved over the 

 past decade. 



Growth of both softwood and hardwood timber 

 has been steadily rising in recent years as a result 

 of increasingly effective forestry programs. Fire 

 protection in particular has paved the way for 

 extensive natural restocking of lands and a wave 

 of young timber now reaching sufficient size to be 

 counted in timber inventories. Planting, thinning, 

 and other cultural work has contributed in a 

 smaller way to a continuing buildup in stocking 

 of forest lands and a rise in timber growth. In 

 contrast to these favorable trends in timber 

 volume, however, the quality of available timber 

 supplies has continued to diminish. 



Cutting of industrial timber products in U.S 

 forests has also increased in recent years but more 

 slowly than growth. The total cut, including 

 fuelwood, has declined slightly. 



As the result of these divergent trends, growth 

 of sawtimber in the East in 1962 exceeded the 

 cut by a substantial margin — by 90 percent in 

 the case of softwoods and 60 percent for hard- 

 woods. In the West where most of the timber is 

 still in old- growth stands, timber supplies available 

 for harvest continued to exceed the actual cut. 



6. Prospective timber growth and inventories in the 

 U.S. — with recent levels of forest management — 

 appear sufficient to meet projected demands for 

 the next two or three decades, but not in later 

 years of this century. 



Projections of future "supplies" of timber 

 include the total volume of growth in the East 

 plus the allowable cut on public lands in the West 

 and the prospective cut on private lands in the 

 West. These total "supplies" of growing stock 

 rise from about 17 billion cubic feet in 1962 to a 

 peak of roughly 19 billion cubic feet around 1980. 

 In terms of sawtimber, projected "supphes" rise 

 from about 67 billion board feet in 1962 to roughly 

 74 billion board feet in 1980. 



Beginning in the 1980's projected timber 

 "supplies" decline under the assumption of recent 

 levels of forest management, in contrast to a 

 continuing rise in the projected cut. By 1990 

 projected supplies of sawtimber approximately 

 equal the projected cut. By 2000 projected 

 supplies fall short of the projected cut by about 

 16 percent, or roughly 13 billion board feel. 



7. Declining quality of timber resources represents 

 a major problem for wood-using industries. 



The availability of different tree species, sizes, 

 and grades also is of large importance in appraising 

 the Nation's timber situation. Only part of the 

 total volume of timber growth and inventories 

 can be considered economically suitable raw 

 material for the wood- using industries. 



In most regions the major part of the timber cut 

 still comes from preferred species of larger diam- 

 eters, whereas most timber growth is on smaller 

 trees and less desirable species. Much of the 

 remaining higher quality timber in the East, 

 moreover, occurs in widely scattered trees and 

 much timber in the West is still economically 

 inaccessible. 



In eastern hardwood stands less than 10 percent 

 of the total inventory volume is made up of trees 

 more than 15 inches in diameter of species such 

 as select white oaks, yellow birch, hard maple, 

 ash, walnut, and yellow-poplar, for which there 

 are well-established markets. Moreover, even in 

 these larger trees the volume of upper grade 



