as the prices of fossil fuels dropped from the peaks reached 
in the early 1980’s. The extent of any change has not been 
quantified; however, many studies have shown that the in- 
crease in fossil fuel prices was the most important incen- 
tive for households to turn to wood as a source of heat en- 
ergy in the 1970’s. It is doubtful that there have been large 
effects on industrial wood use for heat and energy because 
of the equipment changes necessary in many cases and the 
difficulty of changing established patterns of supply. 
In addition to the recent decline in fossil fuel prices, envi- 
ronmental considerations have had an impact on fuelwood 
use. Several areas have restricted residential woodburning 
because of air pollution problems. On the other hand, use 
of wood fuel already provides outlets for large quantities 
of mill byproducts and for some urban wood refuse, thus 
mitigating large waste-disposal problems. Moreover, produc- 
ing fuel from logging residues, cull trees, and portions of 
overstocked stands would, in many cases, reduce fire 
hazards and improve the economic feasibility of intensive 
silviculture. 
Projections based on an evaluation of the factors discussed 
above and on the assumptions about fossil fuel prices dis- 
cussed earlier show fuelwood from growing stock sources 
rising to 35 million cords (2.8 billion cubic feet) in 2010 and 
remaining at that level in 2020 but subsequently dropping 
rapidly to 27.5 million cords (2.2 billion cubic feet) in 2030. 
This decline is expected as a result of increasing competi- 
tion for the available growing stock resource for industrial 
roundwood products and associated rising prices. 
Projected Demands for Timber—tThe projections of de- 
mand for timber products shown above have been presented, 
for the most part, in standard units of measure (board feet 
of lumber, square feet of panel products, cords of pulpwood 
and fuelwood, and cubic feet of miscellaneous industrial 
roundwood products). In order to compare demand for these 
products with projections of timber supplies, these projec- 
tions must be converted to common units of measure—cubic 
feet of roundwood. 
Improvements in Utilization—In recent decades, in 
response to rising stumpage costs, there have been substan- 
tial improvements in utilizing harvested timber. Improve- 
ments have involved increasing use of slabs, edgings, 
sawdust, veneer cores, shavings, and other similar material 
for pulp and particleboard. Various technological develop- 
ments such as use of thinner saws and automatic patching 
and stitching in veneer mills have led to increased prod- 
uct yield per unit of wood input, although in the lumber 
industry this apparently has been offset by the use of 
smaller and lower quality material and the use of low-yield 
(lumber) equipment such as chipping head rigs. Yields in 
the pulp industry have been held down by a large rise in the 
production of bleached and semibleached pulps, which re- 
quire more wood per ton of production. Countering this to 
some extent has been the increasing use of higher yield hard- 
woods and the development of improved pulping processes. 
With respect to the future, it has been assumed that there 
will be continued significant improvements in roundwood 
product yields, amounting to 2 percent per decade over the 
projection period. 
Demands for Roundwood—In 1984, total U.S. consump- 
tion of timber products in terms of roundwood volume was 
16.7 billion cubic feet, excluding round fuelwood obtained 
from nongrowing-stock sources (table 3.8). This was more 
than 50 percent above average consumption in the early 
1950’s and materially larger than the levels attained in the 
early 1900’s, when lumber use was at the previous high 
and record volumes of fuelwood were consumed. 
A little less than half (47 percent) of the total volume con- 
sumed in 1984 consisted of sawlogs, almost a third (32 
percent) was pulpwood, and about 9 percent each, fuelwood 
and veneer logs. The remainder consisted of other indus- 
trial roundwood products, including the roundwood used for 
oriented strand board, waferboard, and particleboard. 
From the early 1950’s to 1984, there was an almost 30- 
percent rise in the volume of sawlogs consumed, while 
round pulpwood nearly doubled, and veneer logs increased 
3.8 times (fig. 3.7). Use of round fuelwood from growing 
stock rose 60 percent over the period, despite the drops in 
the 1950’s and 1960’s described earlier, and other indus- 
trial products stabilized in the 1970’s after declining earlier. 
Total demand for roundwood products increases substantially 
over the projection period, rising more than 26 percent to 
21.1 billion cubic feet in 2000 and continuing up to 22.3 bil- 
lion in 2030. Although demand for each of the products is 
higher in 2030 than in 1984, pulpwood shows the largest 
rise. As described earlier, fuelwood use rises fairly rapidly 
to 2010, stabilizes, and subsequently declines. 
Demand by Species Group—For most of the period between 
the early 1950’s and 1984, consumption of softwood round- 
wood grew more rapidly than hardwoods. However, in the 
1970’s and early 1980’s, in response to rising use of fuel- 
wood (about four-fifths hardwoods), hardwood pulping, and 
increases in furniture and pallet manufacture (both major 
