| The forest land of Virginia has sustained a thriving industry since Captain John Smith landed from England in the early 1600's. In fact, one of the New World's first manufactured products exported back to England was lumber and other wood items.
|
The forest products industry in Virginia is a significant part of the economy of the Commonwealth. It produces over $11.5 billion worth of goods and services on an annual basis, making it one of the largest contributors to the GROSS STATE PRODUCT. In fact, over 6% of Virginia's total GSP is directly attributable to this industry.
|
- Of Virginia's total land area of 25.4 million acres, 61%
(15.4 million acres) are classified as commercially
productive woodland. To this is added approximately
500,000 acres devoted to parks, wilderness, or scenic
and historic areas. The predominance of this land
(66%) is owned by private individual landowners. The
balance is split between the Federal and State government (21%), and the forest products industry (13%).
The timberland consists of both softwood and
hardwood forest types. Approximately 66% is
comprised of hardwoods, 22% of pine, with the
remaining 12% of the oak-pine type. Virginia has one
of the largest hardwood forest inventories in the nation,
and still grows twice the amount of hardwood that is
harvested for lumber.
- Virginia has an active reforestation program. The state
blazed new ground in the early 1970's when the
industry promoted to the state legislature the
Reforestation of Timberlands Program. The program
is funded by a pine severance tax paid by industry and
matched by an appropriation from the state. The
monies are then used as cost share payments for private
landowners in reforestation practices. The program has
been extremely successful, accounting for over
250,000,000 trees planted, and has served as the model
for other states in the country.
- The forest products industry utilizes annually more than 1.4 billion board feet of saw timber and 3.3 million cords of pulpwood.
|
- One of every six manufacturing employees within the
Commonwealth is employed by the forest products industry. Estimated employment exceeds 220,000
people, and includes timber harvesters, primary and
secondary manufacturing, transportation and
marketing.
- The forest products industry is unique in that it utilizes
its own manufacturing "by-products" for many other
uses. When a log is converted to lumber, other
products including sawdust, bark, chips and slabs are
produced and nearly 100% utilized. Bark and sawdust
are generally used as bedding materials or nursery use,
while chips primarily go into paper making. Most
wood by-products that aren't used for these purposes
are often converted to energy by burning them. In
many instances forest product manufacturing facilities produce enough electricity to run their entire
operations, and still have enough left to sell back to the power companies! The industry as a whole consumes
enough of its own "by-products" each year to save over
2 million barrels of oil.
- The products produced by the industry are diverse, and
include lumber, poles & piling, oriented strand board,
particle board, plywood & veneer, flooring, pallets,
excelsior, furniture and fixtures, pulp & paper
products, and pressure treated lumber. The total value
of forest products to Virginia's economy exceeds $ 11.5
billion annually.
|
