TIMBER DEMAND-SUPPLY RELATIONSHIPS 



221 



Among other aspects of the question of substi- 

 tution is the increasingly serious problem of waste 

 disposal. Wood products that are not recycled 

 for paper and board, for example, are highly 

 biodegradable in contrast to most competitive 

 materials. 



Another important consideration in a shift to 

 greater use of nontimber materials is the long-run 

 effect of accelerated use of nonrenewable stocks of 

 ores and energy materials. Coal, petroleum, and 

 natural gas once used are gone forever, and 

 minerals can be extracted only at rising real 

 costs. Forests, on the other hand, constitute a 

 renewable resource that can continue to produce 

 timber indefinitely. 



Substantial portions of the aluminum and 

 steel consumed in the United States, moreover, 

 are derived from foreign sources, and projections 

 indicate the necessity of more and more U.S. 

 dependence on foreign supplies of metals, petro- 

 leum, and other materials. Increased use of 

 wood substitutes consequently could have adverse 

 impacts on the U.S. balance of payments. 



For these various reasons, efforts to produce 

 increased crops of timber, in lieu of increasing 

 dependence on substitute materials, may have 

 much more justification than indicated by con- 

 ventional cost-benefit analyses. 



OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTENSIFIED TIMBER 

 MANAGEMENT AND UTILIZATION 



Additional supplies of timber beyond amounts 

 available with 1970 levels of management and 

 utilization could be obtained from domestic 

 forests, particularly under the stimulus of higher 

 prices and adoption of improved technology. As 

 indicated in Chapter III, many opportunities for 

 increasing supplies exist on both public and 

 private lands, including measures such as the 

 following : 



• Commercial thinning and salvage. — Intermedi- 

 ate harvesting of timber stands could increase 

 log supplies, especially on the Pacific Coast, 

 and particularly with increased price levels 

 and advance road construction to improve 

 forest access. More salvage of the 11 billion 

 board feet of annual mortality of softwood 

 sawtimber scattered throughout the various 

 regions also could help stretch available log 

 supplies. 



• Closer utilization of logging and plant resi- 

 dues. — About 3 billion cubic feet of sound 

 wood was left unused on logging operations 

 and in primary processing plants in 1970. 

 Much more progress in utilizing such material 

 is possible, especially with rising prices and 

 continued expansion of the pulp and paper 

 industry. 



• Improved technology in wood processing and 

 construction. — Many improvements in equip- 

 ment and processing methods have been 

 adopted by the forest industries in recent 

 decades, and it has been assumed in this 

 analysis that recovery of products from 

 available log supplies will continue to increase. 

 There are additional opportunities to further 

 extend available log supplies, however, by 

 use of new equipment such as high strain 

 thin saws, for example, and modified pulping 

 methods to produce higher pulp yields. 

 Better design in construction of housing and 

 other structures, including stress grading 

 in some applications, also could save signifi- 

 cant amounts of lumber and plywood. 



• Increased recycling of wood fiber. — About 19 

 percent of the fibrous materials used for 

 paper and board in the United States in 

 1970, or 10.5 million tons, was recycled 

 wastepaper and board. Such use of recycled 

 fiber has been assumed to rise to 34 percent 

 of the total mix of fibers used in pulping by 

 2000, or somewhat below experience in some 

 other countries. Increases in recycling of 

 paper and board of at least the magnitude 

 assumed in this study appears likely to be 

 both environmentally essential and economi- 

 cally desirable in meeting potential demands 

 for fiber products. 



• Tree planting. — On many areas conversion 

 of the existing cover to plantations will be 

 necessary to capture the timber growth 

 potential. Use of genetically improved trees 

 also will require planting rather than natural 

 regenerating. Tree planting, together with 

 other measures such as site preparation and 

 prescribed burning where necessary, could 

 increase timber yields on many millions of 

 acres in the South and in other regions. 

 Prompt restocking to shorten regeneration 

 periods after harvesting also could permit 

 an almost immediate increase in allowable 

 cuts on National Forests and certain other 

 lands. 



• Timber stand improvement. — Precommercial 

 thinning and removal of cull trees offer many 

 practical opportunities for enhancing future 

 yields, especially with rising timber prices 

 and particularly in hardwood stands and 

 Rocky Mountain forests. 



• Improved forest protection. — Better control of 

 destructive insects and diseases such as bark 

 beetles, dwarf mistletoe, and major de- 

 foliators, improved forest fire control, and 

 prevention of animal damage could add 

 to available timber supples by reducing 

 the substantial continuing mortality and 

 growth losses to those destructive agents. 



