How much timber is harvested annually

The total area harvested has ranged from a low of about , hectares ha in , to a high of about , ha harvested in The area harvested has decreased each year since , to about , ha harvested in You will not receive a reply. For enquiries, contact us. Why is this indicator important?

To learn more, visit www. How Much Timber Does the U. Harvest, and How is it Used? Where Does Harvested Timber Go? How are Harvested Trees Used? About Forest2Market, Inc. Since lumber can be most efficiently produced from trees with straight trunks, the tree on the right is not suitable for lumber production. As a result, many of the smaller curved and low-vigor trees on a stand of managed timber will be removed during a thinning and sold as pulpwood. Remaining trees—both large and small—that contain bends, twists, hollowed centers or other defects will be removed during a final harvest along with the sawtimber.

Over time, the forest industry has improved technology and expanded into new areas just to make sure that trees harvested on their behalf are highly utilized. In the s, for instance, it took the average sawmill 5. With the advent of a host of new technologies —including increased automation, continuous kilns and precision business information systems—the average today is 4 green tons of wood per 1 MBF, and some mills have even reduced their consumption to 3.

In addition, companies throughout the forest industry have found creative means of using their waste streams. Decades ago, mills began running their kilns and other processes with their own wood waste instead of fossil fuels—a trend that is still widely practiced today.

They installed wood boilers that use the bark, harvest slash, and other mill residues to generate the heat and electricity needed to dry lumber and wood chips or run paper machines.

Last year, wood energy production in the US was over 2. The forest products industry—including solid wood, pulp, paper and energy products manufacturers—takes the harvesting and regeneration of trees very seriously.

As noted above, the entire forest value chain has evolved over time to efficiently utilize every single part of a harvested tree. It is also a symbiotic relationship that, most importantly, ensures that forested lands remain working forests for future generations. What we can offer you. We provide detailed transactional data, cost benchmarks and in-depth analytics for participants in the wood raw materials supply chain.

SilvaStat Platform. Eventually, average annual volume growth decreases. Biological growth is not constant over the life of a tree and follows an S-shaped curve Figure 2. Looking at a tree's cross-section, it is apparent that the width of annual rings decreases; however, the volume increment represented by smaller rings may remain the same.

That is, the same volume of wood is spread around an increasingly larger circumference of the tree stem. Trees in a closed-canopy forest may grow slowly.

It is not uncommon to see growth of an inch in diameter per decade. When appropriate tree species for the site are grown on good soils in a managed forest, they may increase their diameter 3 to 4 inches in 10 years. While difficult to generalize, a tree in Pennsylvania's hardwood forests reaches biological maximum when diameter growth of dominant and codominant trees slows dramatically. Biological maximum refers to the age when a tree begins to decline in vigor and health in a forest.

Site conditions and species strongly influence this biological maximum. For example, red maples approach this maximum before years, while sugar maples can thrive beyond years of age. Black cherry, a high-value early successional species common in Pennsylvania, may begin to reach physical maturity at years and decline rapidly and die, affecting economic returns.

At maturity, a typical stand may have 80 to trees per acre and the volume of sawtimber can range from 5, to 15, board feet BF per acre. Poorer-quality sites may only have a few large trees. USDA Forest Service data shows the net growth in board feet per acre per year for different age classes and different site productivity classes averaged across all timberland in Pennsylvania Table 2.

Net growth generally increases with age and as site productivity class increases, but at more than years, growth clearly begins to decline. Based on this, many of Pennsylvania's forests may be close to their biological maximum. Foresters express biological growth in terms of volume produced per acre per year averaged across the stand or forested property and over the life of the stand.

This is known as mean annual increment MAI and is the average annual timber volume growth, which is found by dividing the total volume of a stand by the age of the stand. The rotation at which MAI is maximized is often called the biological rotation as opposed to the economic rotation financial maturity.

See Figure 2a. Biological rotations do not take into account costs and benefits. Financial maturity is different from its biological counterpart and generally occurs earlier in the life of a stand due to the concept of earning "interest" from the forest investment.

Think of the value of the tree or stand as equating to the principal in a bank account and the value increase from volume growth being the interest earned on that principal. This value increase can be expressed as an annual compound interest and compared with alternative investments or a desired rate of return. Usually, a tree or a stand of trees is considered financially mature when its rate of value increase falls below an acceptable or minimum rate of return that can be earned from alternative investments comparable in duration, risk, liquidity, and other factors.

Value growth may continue to increase but at a slower rate. Eventually, the rate of value increase is too slow to justify keeping it as an investment. Figure 2b schematically shows the financial maximum return when the timber-value growth percent equals the alternative rate of return. Under most conditions, financially optimal harvest ages are often considerably shorter than the MSY rotation.

Thinking of this from an individual tree perspective, if the tree's expected rate of value increase exceeds the desired rate, the tree is not financially mature and should be allowed to grow for the specified time period. If the tree's expected rate of value increase is less than the desired rate, the tree is financially mature and, based on that criterion alone, should be cut.

These include sustainability issues, such as ensuring adequate desirable regeneration, and financial and legal considerations, such as timber prices, taxes, boundaries, logging contracts, and liability.

It is important to time the harvest to obtain the most favorable financial gain. Fortunately, timber is not a crop that has to be harvested as annual crops do, such as corn or soybeans--it is often advisable to delay harvests to meet your management objectives. However, all tree species do eventually reach a biological maximum. If selling timber today, values can be estimated using timber market reports and site inventories for timber volumes.

You simply need to multiply the timber volume by today's timber market price for each species present in the sale. However, to calculate the expected future financial return from a harvest in today's dollars, you must include a discount rate and growing-period length in the calculation.

This process, known as "discounting," takes an expected future return in a given time period and discounts it using a given interest rate back to the present today's value. This process is essential for comparing forestry investments to other investments, especially given the long-term nature of growing timber.

If the time value of money and interest rates are not considered in calculating timber values, you would cut timber when the volume growth over time produces the maximum MAI. However, because of the ability to receive interest on investments, the optimal time to cut timber from a financial view is earlier than when the MAI is maximized as shown in Figure 2.

How much earlier depends on the timber-value growth rate and the acceptable or alternative rate of return that is set.

When these two rates are economically equal, it is time to cut. Postponing a harvest may come at a cost because timber is a long-term asset and has changing market value. By harvesting timber today, money received can be used elsewhere. Logically, if a harvest is postponed, the money remains invested in the trees.

If you decide to delay a harvest, you will need to determine whether the rate of return from continuing the investment in the trees is worth more than the rate of return received from investing that money in other opportunities also known as alternative rate of return or minimum acceptable rate of return.

Stated another way: Will the increased value of the trees not cut outweigh the alternative return if the money was invested elsewhere? Use the following rule to decide whether to cut today or wait and compare the expected financial rate of return received from delaying harvest to the rate of return received from an alternative investment i.

For example, to calculate the expected rate of return from postponing a harvest, compare the ratio of future value to the present value as shown in the hypothetical example Worksheet 1 on the next page. Instructions for filling out the worksheet and assumptions are given below; a blank worksheet is provided at the end of the publication.