— The U.S. share of forestry research expenditures is about 20 percent of the 

 world total. 



— U.S. management practices are generally sensitive to environmental concerns 

 and therefore may be more benign than those of other countries, especially 

 compared to practices used in tropical developing countries and Russia. 



— North America accounts for 7 percent of world consumption of tropical timber 

 products. 



— Tropical timber accounts for less than 1 percent of total U.S. consumption of 

 industrial forest products. 



— Industrial products from tropical forests are seldom used as substitutes for 

 commodities manufactured from temperate, coniferous forests. 



— The United States is a net exporter of forest products to tropical countries. 



The U.S. forests have proven to be resilient. They have recovered from a period in 

 the nineteenth century that can be characterized as an era of development with little 

 regard for renewable resource management. The forestry accomplishments of the 

 United States have been based on good fortune, temperate zone forest biology, the 

 strength of U.S. institutions, and investments over the years in fire control and other 

 management practices. Our increasing awareness of the global context in which our 

 forests, communities, and economy exist may change the ways we use and manage 

 our own resources. 



Timber Demand- 

 Supply— The Outlook 



Outlook Overview 



— Demands for all timber products are expected to increase over the next 4-1/2 

 decades. 



— Total demands for hardwoods from the domestic timber resource are 

 expected to increase 57 percent, and for softwoods, 28 percent. 



— Changes in technology that affect product recovery from roundwood and 

 increased recycling of paper and paperboard are reflected in projections (fig. 18). 



— For national forests, allowable sale quantities are projected to be 0.9 



billion cubic feet in 2000 and 1.1 billion cubic feet in 2040. These volumes are 

 much lower than those used in the 1989 RPA Assessment, which assumed 2.7 

 billion cubic feet in 2040. The changes were made to reflect shifts in forest 

 management emphases. 



— Harvest from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands, mainly in western 

 Oregon, is assumed to be constant at 40 million cubic feet. Volume from State 



28 



