“A tremendous economic impact on the U.S. economy” is how one study for the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) by Forest2Market.com characterizes the effect of private, working forests. The natural conclusion noted by Forest2Market.com is the importance for harvest and subsequent regeneration of trees for the U.S. forest industry to keep forested lands forested.
“How the Forest Industry Utilizes Harvested Trees,” by John Greene published at Forest2Market.com references the NAFO study noting a total employment effect associated with private timberlands as around 2.5 million jobs, $109.4 billion in annual payroll and $288 billion in sales and manufacturing.
In addition to the utilization of harvested trees for sawlogs, veneer logs, pulpwood, fuelwood, etc. as noted in the report, continuing stories on new forest products are published regularly. One such product produced in Alexandria, Louisiana, reportedly enhances the soil by replenishing nutrients in the manner that plant decomposition in nature does, but it does in days what takes nature decades to do.
According to Jeff Zeringue in Louisiana Forestry Association’s “Forest & People” magazine, Cool Terra® is being produced at a pilot unit at the Louisiana facility using biochar (produced by heating “biomass”—in this case, wood chips—in the total or partial absence of oxygen). The biochar is shipped to the company’s facility in California for final processing of the soil-enhancement material. A new facility is under construction at the Carbon Technology Production Central at the Central Louisiana Regional Port. The parent company, Cool Planet, anticipates completion in late 2020.
With the continued growth of the economic impact of private U.S. forests on the U.S. economy, the need for setting and managing goals for your forestland assets will only become more important and valuable in the years to come.
